Beyond Natick: We tour the Shining Sea Bikeway on Cape Cod

November 16, 2022 by Deborah Brown 1 Comment

We thought our jaunts down to Cape Cod were over until next year, but when weather forecasters predicted an early November weekend with temperatures climbing into the mid-70s, we made plans for one more day trip. A ride on the Katharine Lee Bates Shining Sea Bikeway, an 11-mile paved and level path, was just the thing.

My companions and I chose to start at the Depot Road trailhead in Falmouth, a little under 90-minute drive from Natick Center. There’s free parking area for about 80 vehicles, a bike pump area, and a couple of port-a-potties. You can’t miss the trailhead, right across the street. There are multiple entry points along the Bikeway with good parking and quick access to the path, which follows the route of a former railroad line operated by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company. The railway provided service from the Cape to New York and Boston from 1872 to 1968. In 1957, the railroad discontinued use of its Falmouth to Woods Hole line.

By 1976 the Shining Sea Bikeway was open for recreation, thanks to the efforts of Falmouth town officials and residents who made real a dream to pave over the abandoned tracks for the recreational use of all. We couldn’t be more grateful, and take advantage of the trail whenever we can. On this day, our goals were to enjoy the coastal views the Bikeway is famous for, have lunch in Woods Hole, and bike the 11 miles back, logging 22 miles of cycling in all.

Shining Sea Bikeway, Cape Cod — This young man opted to relax in the sun at Chapoquoit Beach (a short hop off the Bikeway at 158 Chapoquoit Rd.) while family members took a dip in the cold waters of Vineyard Sound. The coastal views along the Bikeway are what bring us back year after year.

Overall, we found the Shining Sea Bikeway to be a wonderful, family-friendly path. Cyclists must cross several streets, but we found drivers to be very courteous, allowing us to safely move through crosswalks as they waited (even though it is the drivers who have the right-of-way and the cyclists who have the stop signs at each crossing). There are places to stop off and get a bite to eat along the trail, or just to do a little exploring. Views of a cranberry bog, ponds, cedar swamps, Little Harbor, and more make this ride beautiful and visually varied.

After our long ride we were ready for lunch. Landfall Restaurant (open for now, but after they serve lunch on Nov. 27, they’re closing for the season) fit the bill. The place was humming. Diners were seated at every outdoor table, and most of the inside dining room, which overlooks Woods Hole Harbor, and bar seating was taken. But they found room for us. Sipping Arnold Palmers after our adventure was a sweet reward. When the lobster pie, seafood medley, and fish and chips arrived, we devoured every bite.

After lunch we set out on a quest for ice cream, but it was not to be. The ice cream shop had already closed until next summer. Across the drawbridge, the proprietor at the market told us he had made everybody happy by passing out free scoops yesterday, so no luck there. Woods Hole is slowly drawing inward as the cold weather approaches. We felt lucky to have this one last chance to visit this late in the year.

Something that does stay open year-round in Woods Hole—the area’s oceanographic science industry. NOAA’S Northeast Fisheries Science Center; the Marine Biological Laboratory; the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; the Woods Hole Research Center; the U.S. Geological Survey; the Sea Education Association; and the U.S. Coast Guard are major Cape Cod employers, and don’t let a little thing like winter shut them down.

The helmet may have been a lifesaver

Because it was a gorgeous Sunday in early November, there was a last-hurrah sort of feel to the day. We found Shining Sea Bikeway users to be not just a celebratory crowd, but a caring one. About halfway along our ride out to Woods Hole, we came upon an awful scene. A man was sprawled across the path, unconscious, with blood pooling on the pavement under his helmet-protected head. A cyclist who was riding behind the injured man said he seemed to suddenly lose control of his bike, and went down hard. Apparently he had suffered a medical event. Thankfully, no one else on the path was involved in the accident. So many people came to the injured party’s aid so quickly. A nurse happened to be on hand and rushed over to provide initial medical care. Someone else called 9-1-1. Others cleared the man’s bike off the path, looked for belongings that may have been scattered, and comforted his partner as EMTs were en route. Other helpers directed oncoming cyclists in either direction around the accident scene. When the injured man regained consciousness, everyone let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God he was wearing a helmet,” a bystander said. It appeared that injuries to his pavement-scraped face were responsible for the blood. As first responders secured the man onto a stretcher and wheeled him to the rescue vehicle, those who had witnessed the event and helped in the aftermath moved along, securing their own helmets with extra care as they remounted their bikes.

What’s in a name?

The Shining Sea Bikeway is named after Bates, the New England teacher, writer, and poet best known for writing the song America the Beautiful, due to the circumstances of her birth. Bates was born in Falmouth town on Aug. 12, 1859 and lived there for the first 11 years of her life. Her father was the pastor of the Congregational Church in the Cape Cod town.

It wasn’t until she moved to the Natick area, however, that she really came into her own. Bates lived just over the border, in Wellesley, for most of her life, graduating from WHS in 1880. She taught at Dana Hall School (which continues to operate as a boarding and day school for girls) until 1886, and then at Wellesley College until 1925. Bates lived at 70 Curve St. in Wellesley until her death in 1929. And Bates Elementary School in the town is named for her.

Not that we’re biased or anything, but it seems possible that Falmouth has bestowed a bikeway on Bates in an attempt to claim the beloved historic figure as its own. But around here, we know who really nurtured Katharine’s intellectual gifts.

Goodbye until next time, Shining Sea Bikeway

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Beyond Natick: Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival

July 26, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

We’re always good for an adventure at a sculpture park, and that’s what Revere Beach becomes for a weekend each summer for the International Sand Sculpting Festival.

With temperatures soaring into the 90s, we weren’t sure we wanted to bake on a beach, but this fun event offers a good mix of impressive art, street food, people watching, and shady pavilions. There were even lots of freebees, from frozen yogurt to cheese and kiwi fruits.

Fearing the worst for parking and traffic around Revere Beach, we left about 8am and drove roughly 35 minutes in to Suffolk Downs in East Boston. We parked on the street, and took the blue line two stops to Revere Beach.

The crowds at the event were still small at that time and the beach was uncrowded (organizers were touting that 1 million people would attend over the weekend). We almost immediately came upon the first of 15 sculptures in the competition, which awards $15,000 in total prizes to its international participants. The sand sculptors hail from as nearby as Saugus and New Hampshire and as far away as Japan and the Netherlands.

This year’s theme was Wonders of the World,” a broad enough focus that artists were able to take plenty of liberties. There were obligatory mermaid and dinosaur sculptures, a joker offing a king on a playing card, a cat-and-news-themed scene, and others that I’m hard pressed to describe. Among my favorites was Bruce Peck’s “Anxiety’s Stranglehold” consisting of a giant head with a terrified face and prison bars for eyes.

For us, the art, a short & slightly chilly dip in the water, a food truck stop, and listening to a bit of music on the stage were plenty of entertainment for a few hours on the scene. For those making a full day or long weekend of the event, there were also Saturday night fireworks, a couple of carnival rides, and a reception on the beach.

revere beach sand sculpting — Maybe my favorite art of the day: This Larry Bird tattoo that an attendee let us take a photo of

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Beyond Natick: North Adams getaway to hike, eat, visit art museums & catch Car Seat Headrest live

April 9, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our plans to see one of those indie bands I like, Car Seat Headrest, perform at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Mass., began more than 2 years ago. I snapped up 2 tickets in January of 2020 in advance of the band’s new album dropping and plotted to rope Deborah into going outside her musical comfort zone to join me at the concert. We’d turn it into a weekend otherwise filled with dining, art, and hiking.

But the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the April 2020 show to September 2020, and after that got nixed, I kind of figured that was that. But I was surprised to see the show was back on for this March 25, so arranged for an Airbnb and loosely scheduled some art museum visits and hiking.

We started our weekend adventure, after the roughly 2-hour-30-minutes-to-3-hour drive, with a Friday night dinner at Public Eat+Drink. You might pass right by the restaurant’s nondescript exterior, but inside the place was buzzing with patrons, and many were being turned away with apologies. We sat at a high-top table near the entrance, adjacent to a waiting area couch where dates were getting frisky. The staff was friendly and helpful, and the drink and food selection was appealing. We both went for the scallops and risotto, served in an iron skillet. Each of our dishes featured 5 juicy scallops atop the risotto, flavored with onion and in Deborah’s case, roasted red pepper coulis. She also ordered a fried brussels sprouts appetizer (ordered extra well done), the uneaten portion of which combined with risotto leftovers to provide for a nice lunch the next day.

From there we headed to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA). The vast, 25K square-foot building on the Hoosic River was built in the 1860s and served for decades as Arnold Print Works factory. With the decline of manufacturing, in the 1940s the Sprague Electric Company took over the site. But it wasn’t until 1999 that MassMoCA became the place for large-scale art installations as well as a great spot to attend a concert and party like it’s, well, 1999.

Masks were required at the spacious, indoor venue, and proof of vaccination needed to be shown. The sound in the venue was crisp, starting with opener Bartees Strange, and a well-synced light show propelled Car Seat Headrest through its set, with every few songs eliciting crowd singalongs, fist pumps, or cellphone flashlights. Lead singer Will Toledo sported a gas mask with animal ears and lit-up eyes throughout the show (we wished he’d ditched the headwear partway through), but his voice still sounded clear. I enjoyed the show, as did my wife, though her favorite song was actually when compelling guitarist Ethan Ives rocked on with a tune that comes from a side project of his. Somehow rock n’ roll stardust follows Deborah wherever she goes.

While our legs got a workout at the sold-out, standing-only show, we forced them back into action Saturday morning for a hike on Mt. Greylock. We originally planned to summit the highest peak in Massachusetts, starting from the trailhead on Hopper Road in Williamstown, but decided instead to take the Money Brook Trail and hiked along the fast-moving water. With the trees not yet in leaf, we had water views the entire way. We never made it to the top of the falls, as we found one part impassable (or at least 1 of us did…), but still enjoyed roughly 2 hours of moderately up and down hiking. As we learned later, there are other routes to the falls that might get you there more easily.

During the afternoon we returned to Mass MoCA ($20 per adult), this time to see the art. We devoted 2 hours to exploring the museum, but you could easily take more. Among the grabbiest installations we saw were Marc Swanson’s spooky Memorial to Ice at the Dead Dear Disco, Glenn Kaino’s walk-through In the Light of a Shadow, and Jenny Holzer’s endlessly readable Truisms (we’ve seen her stuff at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum, too).

For dinner, on the recommendation of friends who used to live in neighboring Williamstown, we hit the lively Trail House Kitchen & Bar, owned by a local resident and packed with a fun-loving crowd. My wife tried out the small caesar salad topped with salmon. The salad was small, as advertised, and the salmon plopped on top dwarfed the greens. She pronounced the meal visually unbalanced but tasty. The leftover salmon, plus leftover stuffed mushrooms made for a good dinner the next night as well.

Our final day included a short trek past lovely Williams College to the Clark Art Institute ($20 per adult). Like Mass MoCA, this is a spacious museum, though the art selection couldn’t be more different. The Clark features impressive collections of American and European paintings from Renoir, Cassatt, Inness, and others. It’s been on our list of places to go for a long time, and it was excellent.

A special exhibit on Artists Witnessing War included fascinating Civil War illustrations from Winslow Homer, who was embedded with the military as an artist (the museum is free to veterans and active military members through May, by the way). We spent about 90 minutes at the Clark and easily took in everything, though we had to hit the road, so didn’t take advantage of the scenic hiking trails surrounding the museum that could stretch an outing there through much of a day.

On the way home, GPS routed us briefly through New York, and then we hit the Pike only to be treated to what we hope will be the last hail of the season. A great way to kiss winter goodbye and say hello to what we hope will be a spring full of new adventures.

Clark Art Institute — Alfred Stevens’ Spring painting from the Clark’s Four Seasons room

Beyond Natick—Worcester Art Museum is a nearby gem

Beyond Natick—a 2-mile walk around Weston Reservoir

Beyond Natick—visiting Block Island

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Beyond Natick: Great Brook Ski Touring Center in Carlisle, Mass.

February 11, 2022 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

I don’t want to become one of those New Englanders who, by mid-February, complains about the inconvenience of snow. I want to get excited when I see flakes fluffing downward, turning the massive white pines outside my window into temporary snow-art installations. I want to be the type of New Englander who helps out kids by adding one more voice to their prayers for a snow day. Because I am determined to love snow, I continually search out ways to positively engage it while ignoring snow’s negative points. That’s how all successful relationships work, right?

Great Brook Ski Touring Center, Carlisle

Cross-country skiing is the answer. Anytime the snow cooperates, I reward it by throwing my equipment into the hatchback of my snow-worthy station wagon and heading out for a good spot. Since the recent blizzard brought over 20″ of snow to Massachusetts, I knew the time was perfect for my first visit to Great Brook Ski Touring Center in Carlisle. The Department of Conservation & Recreation maintains over 10 miles of machine-groomed trails for cross country skiing on the property of the 1,000-acre Great Brook Farm State Park, which is less than 45 minutes from Natick Center. From Dec. 1 to March 20, snow conditions permitting, those 10 miles of trails are set aside for skiing only. There is no snow-making equipment at the popular spot, so make sure you check Great Brook’s Facebook page ahead of time for the latest report on trails conditions.

My mid-week visit meant a laid-back, crowd-free experience, but not one that felt isolating. “You should see it on a weekend,” one regular Great Brook skier said. So warned. A quick look at the trail map convinced me to warm up on the Lantern Loop, an easy one-mile glide that starts and ends at the touring center. Just use the lanterns as your guides, and you won’t get lost. Beautiful during the day, on Tuesday and Thursday from sunset until 9pm the trail sparkles as the lanterns are lit for night skiing around the loop. Only the Lantern Loop is open during evening hours; other trails close at dusk.

After conquering the Lantern Loop, I set off to see what else was out there. Trails are well marked, so as long as you familiarize yourself with the map symbols it’s unlikely you’ll find yourself in a situation that’s beyond your abilities. Most trails are fairly easy and the majority of them offer a wide, packed surface consisting of a smooth skating lane between two sets of ski tracks.

For experienced skiers, there’s the more difficult Woodchuck Trail or the Maple Ridge Trail. There’s even a short stretch of black diamond trail that goes by the name of Chicken. Yes, I was too chicken to try it out, but I did venture onto Maple Ridge. Yes, I fell more than once on Maple Ridge. That’s what happens when I get controlling and fight the snow instead of keeping a good thing nice and easy.

The easy drive to Carlisle was well worth it. The longer I stayed out there on the trail, the more relaxed and loose I became, gliding past a working dairy farm, across fields, alongside streams and ponds, and through the quiet woods. On skis, I felt my connection with snow, nay the entire season of winter, deepening.

Winter and me, we’re in a good place right now.

Details, details

When natural snow is available, Great Brook is a welcoming place for both classical and skate skiers who want to get outside and enjoy beautifully groomed trails. A full roster of rental equipment is available including skis, boots, poles, and sleds for towing children (no dogs allowed, sorry). Snow shoes are also available for rental, but cannot be used on the machine-groomed trails. The staff can point you to the expansive area where snow shoeing (and hiking) is permitted.

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Beyond Natick—we take a 2-mile walk around Weston Reservoir

January 16, 2022 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

I’ve walked the Weston Reservoir loop in the past and wasn’t a fan. Too many people, too many unleashed dogs loping about, too much fencing, which parsed the water view into metal diamond shapes of chain-link. I’m always good for a nice 2-mile hike on a wide path that cuts through a towering pine forest, but the drama of this trail! After two dogs came up behind me in the full snarl of a real fight, their frantic owners trying to call them off each other, I concluded this particular walk wasn’t the kind of quiet, nature-based experience I sought. I swore off the Weston Reservoir loop.

That was a few years ago, on a perfect summer day. What would happen, I wondered, if I went right now, when packed snow and ice would likely deter a good number of walkers? If I could sneak in when those who need hip replacements (both human and canine) didn’t dare set out, a better experience might result, I reasoned. Since I’m just one fall away from needing my own hip replacement, but am still (over) confident in my balance and reflexes, I strapped on my Yaktraxs and headed to the trail. My plan proved sound.