Posted By auntie on June 7, 2015

8 miles; barnstable, ma

the mileage here is approximate. walking on sand is hard. walking on sand while carrying a 30-pound backpack is really hard. i went with some very much more experienced backpackers from the worcester county chapter of the amc, and i was going nuts trying not to embarrass myself. it was a fun trip. i only set one thing on fire accidentally—okay, two things, but it was the same incident, so i’m only counting it as one.

sandy neck beach is a town-owned park in barnstable, massachusetts, on cape cod. we reserved 2 “primitive” tent sites, which meant that, aside from 1 portapotty, there were no amenities. you got a flat spot for pitching your tents and an old picnic table. that was it. although the park rangers delivered 10 gallons of water and 2 bundles of firewood to us.

the trail

there were two main trails into the park, one of which went through the dunes, and the other along the beach. large parts of the area above the high tide line was cordoned off to protect nesting shore birds. we started off on the dune trail but quickly decided to cut over to the beach on the first of 6 crossover trails. it’s much easier to walk on wet sand than dry dunes!

beach heather

i saw lots of wildflowers i’ve never seen before, which makes sense, as i don’t usually hike at the beach. this low-growing yellow plant was everywhere, but i couldn’t get close too often, because the dunes were also covered with poison ivy.

bristly acacia

saw a lot of this, too, but believe it or not, i couldn’t find out what it was on the internet. i tried a zillion variations, no luck. i actually had to, are you sitting down? GO TO THE LIBRARY. yup. had to go old school and find a book and look through the photos. thank heavens for Wildflowers of Cape Cod and the Islands: Over 200 Wildflowers that Grow on Cape Cod’s Sand Dunes, Heathlands, Pond Shores, Woodlands, Bogs, and Meadows, by Kate Carter [Amazon link].

lambchop’s home for the night

until this trip, i hadn’t been backpacking since my july 2013 trip to the appalachian trail in connecticut, and i may have not set up my tent exactly correctly… it looks funny to me here. but it worked just fine to shelter me from the elements, so it couldn’t have been too far wrong. and yes, that’s a little stuffed lambchop doll on my pack. the hubs found it while walking in the pachaug state forest last winter and brought it home. i gave it a bath and decided it needed to come hiking with me, so i’ve been attaching it to any pack i happen to be carrying ever since.

private cabin

this is an odd park, in that there are maybe a dozen or so privately-owned cabins throughout. they also have zero amenities (we puzzled over this one for a while and couldn’t even find an outhouse), and apparently once the original owner’s family no longer wants them, they get bulldozed and the property rights get ceded to the town. but there are still a few holdouts.

kite flying on the beach

this is sue, one of my fellow adventurers. i was convinced that she had a tardis for a backpack—bigger on the inside.

hers was the lightest and smallest backpack, but she kept pulling things out, including, in this instance, a teeny little kite.

sunset

the day had started out cool, overcast, and a bit rainy, but by the time we all got out to the beach and started a fire and settled in to watch the sunset, it was lovely. no green flash this night, although we all watched carefully.

the next day was also cool, but bright and sunny. on our way out we all went to the beach “snack shack” and had lobster rolls for breakfast before heading home. it was a truly great experience.

you can find information about barnstable’s sandy neck beach park here. trailhead, trail map, courtesy of the town of barnstable.

Categories: Massachusetts, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 7–10 miles, Barnstable MA, MA