Trail Hound

Take a walk on the Y'Port side; and World Wide Flash Mob III

Yarmouth, for many visitors, conjures up visions of large plastic skull- or giant whale-adorned miniature golf courses, a frenetic mélange of discount T-shirt and fried seafood emporia tucked in between rows of motels, and strip mall upon strip mall.  They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. 

With honky-tonk Route 28 dominating a disproportionate share of Yarmouth's image (and in full disclosure, I'll admit to dipping my toes once or twice into its guilty pleasures), it's hard to imagine that some of the Cape's most bucolic conservation trails lie within its borders.  Many of these are in historic Yarmouth Port along the King's Road, Route 6A. 

Sunday was Mother's Day and my turn to be She Who Must Be Obeyed, so I kindly ordered my husband and children to join me on a geocache in the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth's trail, behind the post office.  The trailhead is framed by an immense rhododendron, which was in full bloom.  The path is well marked and passes a range of vegetation including hollies and mountain laurel sprinkled among the pitch pine and oak.  You can add on a half-mile to encircle Millers Pond or take the direct Nature Trail route, which is 1.2 miles. 

 We spent more time than we probably should have looking for a new micro-cache near the trail, Lincoln Log.  There's also Under the Pine, a traditional cache.

 The Callery-Darling Conservation Area, stretching from behind Gray's Beach and Homers Dock Road to the salt marshes west of Central Street, offers prime bird-watching opportunities.  Great blue heron, marsh hawk, herring gull, Canada goose and ducks feed in the marsh and bogs, while ring-necked pheasant, ruffed grouse and quail inhabit the woodlands, according to the town's conservation guide.  There are at least a couple of geocaches here:  Callery-Darling, Tree Man, Gray's Anatomy and Hidden View, and at least one letterbox, which we may have mistaken for the Callery-Darling cache, since there were letterbox stamps and geocache trades in the container.

 Towns are getting better about putting their conservation trail maps on the Internet.  Here's "Explore Yarmouth's Nature Trails," published by Yarmouth Conservation Trust and the town Natural Resource and Conservation Departments.  You might be surprised at what lurks off of the strip.

Photos

Above, right:  Historical Society of Old Yarmouth

Left:  Callery-Darling Conservation Area

WWFM Cape Cod 2008

 At precisely 1:00 p.m. on May 10, in 167 locations around the world, groups of people suddenly gathered, participated in an unusual activity, and by 1:15, dispersed.  This was geocaching's World Wide Flash Mob III.  So it was at Aselton Park in Hyannis, where some 43 or so geocachers convened. 

 The stakes were raised on this Flash Mob event by a challenge from the self-described Western Mass. geocachers, who were holding what they termed THE Massachusetts Flash Mob event in Sturbridge (Geographic note:  Sturbridge is in Worcester County and therefore it's in Central Mass.  Western Mass. belongs to the Connecticut River Valley and the Berkshires; but, whatever.)   The Western Mass. contingent claimed Cape Cod's event would be "lame." 

Cape Codders are nothing if not feisty, so the organizers pulled together a classy event with lace tablecloth, crudités, key lime tartlets with a raspberry reduction, sparkling cider in champagne glasses, candles, fine headwear, a smattering of evening gowns and feather boas, and classical music on the battery-crank radio.  At 1:11 the Cape Codders placed a call to Western Mass. to send greetings.  A group picture was snapped, and at 1:15 everyone packed up and left.  S'fun.