Tour de Cape with the Young Men

Last week I went with the young men from the church on their annual High Adventure. I had been the advisor in the organization to head up and plan most of it, so I was very excited to see the many months of planning and preparing come to fruition.

I skipped out on the first day to give another leader from church a chance to take my place and join the entourage. Other side benefits to missing the first day? 1. I skipped out on lots of whining and moaning from the boys who were less-prepared. 2. I wasn't there to witness the boys scrambling around figuring out how to fulfill their roles. 3. I didn't get the grand tour around Martha's Vineyard... while not knowing that they were going the long way around Martha's Vineyard.

So anyway, here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what our Tour de Cape looked like.

First off, keep in mind that the boys left a day before me, so I had to make some clever rendezvous with them mid-day on day two. I left home at 7am so I could meet them off their ferry. Well, come to find out, they had taken the wrong ferry, which left me to have some great exploration on my own. I really enjoyed taking the coastal roads at my own pace with just the sound of the surf and the wind at my back on my way to Woods Hole, where the boys were NOT going to disembark from the ferry.


When I did finally meet up with them, they were a good looking bunch. I had talked to one of the other leaders the night before, and it sounded like one of the boys was feeling pooped and ready to call it quits already. But you should have seen how proudly they stepped off that ferry! I could tell that they were there to impress me with their skill and physical acuity. After all, they had already carted their gear around an island for 30 miles, so they surely had it in them to do another trek covering more of the cape!
So with day 2 came an opportunity to dump alot of unnecessary gear. You should have seen the way some of those boys said, "clothes? I don't need spare clothes!" or "coat? who needs a coat?" or "Twenty pounds of Dungeons and Dragons books? dead weight!"and dump them back in the cars. I was very proud of the way they slimmed down their gear. It sure made for a more pleasant rest of the week to have the boys riding a bit lighter.
I was pretty excited to try out some of my own ultralight camping skills. I had read about making tarp tents, and a friend at church had some spare Tyvek HouseWrap... it was so lightweight, I could hardly get over it. It was waterproof... only it didn't breathe very well (DUH!) so I left my "door" open a bit more on subsequent days. It worked like a charm, and I was very pleased to have made some of my own gear for the trip. I also made a summer sleeping bag, for those of you dying to know.
This was my view for much of the trip. I would take turns with one of the leaders either in position three or position five/six. With four boys and two leaders, we had chances to change it up. Sometimes we would put the slowest boy in front, other times we'd put someone just a little faster who could motivate just a bit quicker pace. Though you don't want to get going too quick, or you'll burn out the troops and they'll want to just sit around and take breaks! Delicate balance, this cross-country riding can be.
That being said, we made sure to build in recreation time, like this stop at Mayflower Beach in Dennis. I had been from the Wood's Hole corner (southwest) of the Cape to the Sagamore end of the Cape Cod Canal (northwest), and now we were making our way across the north coast along the Cape Cod Bay. The water was pretty cold, but it was really neat to push the bikes down onto the beach, set up a shelter, eat lunch, and swim with a bazillion sand dollars. I really spooked one of the boys when a sand dollar lurched out of my hand toward him. Reminded me of when Jen spooked me with a most placid starfish up in Maine when we were engaged.
Since noone was really using my camera to get my picture through the trip, I thought I would stretch out and get a profile shot en route. Do you see the focus, the stamina, the desire for the win? It wasn't a race, but as a leader, I was dedicated to show no pain and pretend like I could still feel my legs and my hiney at the end of the day.
Once we reached the Cape Cod Rail Trail, it was smooth sailing. Nothing like being able to ride along a smooth path without traffic or potholes threatening to throw you to the curb.
Here we were, evening of day 3 (day 2 for me) and we had visitors! Look at Ian, he brought root beer floats for all the scouts! It sure didn't take long for the six of us to put down two bottles of soda and two cartons of vanilla ice cream. You'd think we had already covered 120 miles by then or something.
The good news of the tarp tent is that it packs super light and is very quick to set up. The bad thing is that without a sewn-in bottom, it's prone to have just about any critter with legs come by for a visit in the night. I had a home-made bug net of tulle that kept me protected from the likes of this critter, don't worry.
So here we are getting ready for our big 65 mile day. Brewster to Provincetown and back. The good news is that we were taking just supplies for the day. The bad news was that it was going to start raining before we reached our campsite in the late afternoon. Some folks ended up with a bit of wet gear. It didn't really matter that much, because by the end of the day, everyone was too tired to care.
Our turn-around point was way down on the other side of P-town where the Pilgrims first landed. You though it was at Plymouth rock, didn't you? Well, apparently we've been misled, and they stepped off the boat first on Cape Cod on the West end of P-town before deciding that's not quite where they needed to be. Fine by me. It must have been the rainbow flags that indicated that it would have been a tough place to establish a religious colony. (Cheeky, aren't I?)
I did appreciate how many artists and studios were to be found in that part of the Cape. It was beautiful to look at, astounding to see people's re-creations, and a nice time to reflect on the beautiful things God has given us.


Even a tidal marsh has quite a bit to offer. We passed cranberry bogs, swampy wetlands, old sand dunes, and such, as well as mansions, beach houses, and bed&breakfasts galore. The cape has quite alot of charm, and it's very easy to see why people take a couple of weeks every summer to "go to camp" down there. (Camp meaning, beach house or cottage, in many cases.)
On our last day, we stopped at Hyannis to honor President Kennedy and see what I would call a stereotypical Cape Cod. There was sun and sailboats and swimmers and picnics and memorial gardens and golf courses and beaches and sunbathers and.... well everything you could expect of the home of one of America's royal families.
In the end, we made it through the week pretty much without mishap. The only two flat tires we experienced as a group came on the very last day. Both were patched successfully without incident. The only catastrophic bike malfunction came when a bike's spokes chewed up and spat out a derailleur just two miles from the cars. Honestly, the teen's bike was threatening to quit all along the trip, but it held up until the last pair of hills. Honestly, I believe God played a hand in keeping this fine young man safe, as he descended a steep hill in Provincetown with complete brake failure behind (and then in front of) a moving truck while hopping onto a crowded sidewalk then back off again, wiped out dozens of times due to bike and pilot imbalances, and finally had a wheel cannibalize other bike parts.
People developed a variety of sun exposure through the week. I wore a combination of SPF 50 spray, SPF 30 spray, and SPF 15 cream, and I just have a fresh crop of freckles to show for it. This young man was slightly less covered, and he has a nice helmet tan to gloat of his week.
In the end, the 210 miles of Cape Cod that our entourage covered was a fabulous experience. Had we woken up a little earlier and ridden a little faster, we would have been able to relax a bit more along the way. On the other hand, the 8-9 mile an hour pace the boys led provided me plenty of time to look around and appreciate the landscapes, architecture, and just think about things for a while. I am so glad to have been able to play a part in providing this type of experience for these fine young men. It was great to see them pitch in and help one another when they were in a bind, and great to see how proud the parents were of their boys once we returned home.
Next summer: Canoeing the Altantic with the Sunbeams. Maybe.