South Eastham & Upper Boat Meadow Conservation Areas

                                   
       Cape Cod has been  in a rainy, cloudy, chilly weather pattern for a while. It was quite a surprise when I woke up the other day and saw the sun. Perfect - hopefully I could get a new trail in before the weather returns to “normal”. I not only went for a new trail but a new town - Eastham. Rte 6A and 28 meet with Rte 6 at a rotary that leads through Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and ends in Provincetown. South Eastham Street is a ½ mile on the left. Take that to Arrowhead drive then another left at Peach Orchard Lane. Take this dead end until you reach South Eastham Conservation Area.
      There are two trails one to the left of the parking area and the other by the trail sign. I went for the sign trail first. The path was wide and right away there was another trail on the right. The side trail is short and just loops back to the main trail, almost up and back. You will see red markers on some trees when walking through the thick forest that is also home of Jeremiah’s Gutter. The trail splits not too far in  and I went to the right which turned out to be short, leads over a small wooded bridge and ends at The Cape Cod Rail Trail. I turned around and went back to the split. I followed the red signs and went close to a house and a pond. I saw an SUV up ahead and thought the trail was bringing me to a driveway. Stupid me - It was mine - LOL !! The trail had looped and I came out on the opening I had seen on the left when I had first parked.

       I had read it was a 1.5 hour walk. That usually means 5 - 6 miles, I had just done 1 mile. Either these people were very slow or I missed something. I went back in the woods and looked for another trail. This time where the red trail had started to loop back to the left, I decided to bear to the right.  This trail also stopped at the Rail Trail. I turned around and kept walking to the right and saw pavement ahead. I also saw another sign Upper Boat Meadow Conservation Area. I had no idea where I was so I walked down the road and I realized I was at the rotary. On the way back I noticed there were blue markers on some of the trees. Two trails that lead into each other, but still didn’t add up to the length that I anticipated. It was cool finding out for myself, but I kept thinking how crazy that the sight I looked at didn’t mention it. I found this map with more research after the hike.
     By the time I got back to my car it had clouded up, but I wanted to check out Skaket Beach in Orleans. It was low tide, but there were a lot of deep tide pools. I went out as far as I could go over sea grass. I am so happy I was still wearing my hiking boots. I saw the grass moving as I walked through it and saw all these crabs scurrying for their holes in the sand. All I could think of is if I were barefoot they would be going after my toes instead of trying to hide in the sand.

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Ratings 1- the cellar  2- shoddy  3- tolerable  4- worthy  5- wicked good

Accessibility - 5 - Not far off highway
Parking -  3 - 5-8 cars
Length-  4 - Not bad once you figure it out
Degree of Difficulty- 5 - easy
Extras-  3 - Bike Trail
Trail Markings-  3 - It would be perfect if they would just tell you what the markings mean at the beginning
Trail Maintenance-   5
Variation - 3- Yes but you have to experiment
Scenic  - 2- Not really
Worth Returning - 2  probably not
Surface - Dirt, pine needles, roots
Beach -   no
Facilities - no

Rating 37 out of 50