Bicycle Tour: Cape Cod 2025, Day Seven

Tuesday, September 9, 2025, was the seventh day of my tour of Cape Cod. (For the sixth day of this tour, see Cape Cod 2025, Day Six).

I slept in until 7:15 a.m. after reading for three hours in the middle of the night.

After breakfast, I hiked north on the state park trails near Route 6. The eastern-most trail follows the fence between the park and the highway. Farther north, the trails exit into a neighborhood with large, expensive houses. The traffic noise from Route 6 there was unpleasantly loud; I would not live here.

The beach at Higgin’s Pond

A park trail near Area 7 of Nickerson State Park

In the neighborhood I found several metal sculptures by Howard Stein.

A Howard Stein metal sculpture

Another Howard Stein metal sculpture

I saw a yard sign encouraging people in the neighborhood to support clean water infrastructure. Cape Cod has many neighborhoods with septic systems, and this has caused widespread pollution of ponds and bays.

The Orleans pond pledge

On the return trail, I encountered a DCR employee who turned out to be a forester. He told me he was identifying trees that were encroaching on the ten-foot width of the trail for removal; the trail needs to be maintained for emergency vehicles, especially fire trucks.

In all, I walked for four miles.

After returning to my campsite, I rode the ten miles from my campsite north to the Little Capistrano Bike Shop, leaving at 10:05 and arriving at 11:00.

Mark, the owner, wrote up the work order and told me the bike would be ready in an hour or two.

I left to go to the nearby Salt Pond Visitor Center. I walked through the museum, and I watched a movie about shipwrecks and rescues, a movie about whaling, and a movie about the dynamically changing shoreline. Beach erosion is a constant, forcing the movement of many of the lighthouses to safer ground as the shoreline disappears.

The museum was excellent, with information about the First Nations as well as settlement by Europeans, fishing, farming, whaling, and shipwrecks. The museum contained the original Fresnel lens from Nauset Light.

The original Fresnel lens from Nauset Light

I walked west across Route 6 to have lunch at the Lobster Shanty, where I indulged in a lobster roll, a cup of clam chowder, and iced tea.

Clam chowder and a lobster roll for lunch

After lunch, I returned to the bike shop to pick up the bike. While working on the bike, Mark discovered that the leads to the headlight had pulled out of the connector, and he restored them. So that was two critical things repaired!

I crossed Route 6 going east and rode the bike trails the marine wetlands near Coast Guard Beach.

Marine wetlands near Coast Guard Beach

I rode north to Nauset Light and the Three Sisters Lighthouses.

Nauset Light

Two of the Three Sisters Lighthouses

The third of the Three Sisters Lighthouses

I rode west to the Cape Cod Rail Trail and went north to the Marconi Site on a bluff overlooking the ocean. At the point I was within a mile or two of Wellfleet and Wellfleet Hollow State Park, where I camped one night in 2023.

I returned to the Cape Cod Rail Trail and rode south back to my campsite, completing 35.27 bicycle miles for the day. During my riding, I brought a power bank’s charge from 36% to 67%. I charged my phone, which was at 27% to 72%, reducing the power bank’s charge to 6%. I finished charging my phone with a second power bank (I was carrying three).

I was in my sleeping bag by 7:00 p.m., when it was dark.   For the eighth and last day of this tour, see Cape Cod 2025, Day Eight.