Hiking Trip to Cape Cod

Monday was the first day of Maura’s April vacation and Jennifer had the day off because it was a state holiday here in Massachusetts. As the weather was expected to be nice we planned a hiking trip to Cape Cod to enjoy spring and some family togetherness. We decided we would visit two Massachusetts Audubon Society sanctuaries we had never before visited in the Upper Cape region, that part of Cape Cod closer to the mainland than the elbow where the peninsula bends to the north. Jennifer and I have been members of the Massachusetts Audubon Society for thirteen years. We joined shortly after we moved to Massachusetts and we’ve maintained our membership ever since. We strongly support their research and advocacy on environmental issues. Free admission to their wildlife sanctuaries is side benefit we do not take advantage of often enough.

Our first stop on Cape Cod was Skunkanett River, in the town of Osterville. Skunkanett River is inland, near the center of the peninsula and features a pond, upland forests and the river that gives the sanctuary its name. We didn’t see much wildlife but we didn’t see any people either. We could hear the birds in the trees and see the early green of spring, as the deciduous plants put forth their first leaves. A chipmunk watched us from the safety of an old pipe near the entrance. We saw a pair of mallards, a male and female, swimming on the pond. A scatter of blue feathers in the middle of the trail showed where something had caught a blue jay.

After a break for lunch we took a second hike, this one at Long Meadow, on the shore of Cape Cod Bay in Barnstable. This was a different environment. Here we hiked through meadows and old fields now filled with wind twisted scrub, brier choked second growth forest and a wood with holly trees. The trail led by vernal pools and a swamp where we may have seen a frog, though it jumped away too quickly for us to be sure. A boardwalk led down into the salt marsh that fringes the bay. From the end of the boardwalk we observed sandpipers running along the beach and brants swimming in the open water. A seagull was repeatedly dropping a clam hoping to break it open to get to the good parts inside.

The trip was a wonderful family outing. It cost little and got us away from the streets and lawns of the suburb where we live and into some wilder lands. It was a great learning experience because we got to see many environments in one day. Perhaps we will go back some summer day and see how the places change with the season.