Summer 2007, Vol. 3, No. 3 | Index

Great EsCapes:

Kayaking on Cape Cod

Waquoit Bay, Falmouth & Mashpee
Launch from Great River Boat Landing, Great Oak Road, Mashpee. Paddle down Great River and west across Waquoit Bay to Washburn Island. Continue south along the island, across the channel to South Cape Beach State Park, then return across the bay. Highlights: walking the pristine 330-acre Washburn Island (primitive camping available), beachcombing on South Cape Beach, shorebirds.

Bells Neck/Herring River, Harwich
Launch from Bell’s Neck Road and cross the West Reservoir, a freshwater cedar swamp. Take out at the dike and put back in on the Herring River. Follow the winding river to Route 28 in West Harwich. Highlights: 245 acres of salt and freshwater marshes, woods, herring run, cranberry bogs, kettle ponds, hiking trails.

Nauset Marsh, Eastham
Launch from Salt Pond below the Salt Pond Visitor’s Center or Hemenway Road off Route 6. Nauset Marsh is a vast system of salt marsh, creeks, channels, islands, and barrier beach. Circumnavigate the marsh heading north through Salt Pond Bay and Nauset Bay, then south along Nauset Beach, and back through the Main Channel. Or head south through Skiff Hill Creek along Fort Hill, past Town Cove to Inlet Marsh and back. Highlights: former Coast Guard Station, thousands of nesting terns, migrating shorebirds, seals, striped bass, ospreys, beachcombing, National Seashore visitor center, hiking trails and bike paths nearby.

Wellfleet Ponds, Wellfleet
Launch from Gull Pond Landing off Schoolhouse Hill Road. This is a short and easy tour, especially good for beginners, of three kettle ponds – Gull, Higgins, and Williams – in the Cape Cod National Seashore. Williams Pond was the home of the “Wellfleet Oysterman” immortalized in Thoreau’s Cape Cod. Highlights: water lilies, red maples, turtles, frogs, sunfish, swimming.

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