Still chilly so I stayed away from the beach and headed to another trail I hadn’t tried yet. Since I had a good hike the day before in Barnstable off of Rte 6A, I headed that way again. This time a little closer - Old Jail Lane Conservation Area - just past Barnstable Village on 6A. Once you find the road of the same name, which is a little hard to find because it looks like a driveway, the small parking lot on the west side of the street is easy to find.
The trail starts as a dirt road heading past a row of houses into the woods. Once you get there a kiosk with a map shows that there is a blue trail, Old Jail Lane, and a red trail that connects to Cape Cod Community College to the west and Barnstable Village to the east. I was there for Old Jail Lane so I followed the blue arrows on the trees, going straight up rolling hills. Another kiosk with a map and a ‘you are here’ arrow. There were two more of these - how great is that !! They probably haven’t done that in Yarmouth off the Horse Pond trail because they couldn't figure out where they were to do it. The trail becomes narrow with some steep hills and tops off at Lookout Rock. From there you can see Sandy Neck Beach. The trail then leads down to a pasture that also has hills, but not as steep. I saw a street and some houses. When I got to the street I found out it was 6A and another parking area named Seabury Farms Conservation Area. Turning around and heading back thru the pasture I stayed following the blue triangles. The map on the kiosk showed that the blue trail went into the red trail and would bring me back to the parking lot where my car was.
It was about 5.5 miles total up and down some steep hills and I thought I might go the next day and do the red trail. Bridge Creek on Rte 149 has a trail that connects to 4 C’s from the east. Old Jail Lane connects to 4 C’s from the west. I haven’t made it back yet - the next day was real nice and I wanted to walk a beach so I went back to Crow’s Pasture, this time the tide was going out so I had more beach to walk.
The next day was even better but I was helping my friend off Cape. I got up early and walked the cranberry bog that is at the end of The Horse Pond Trail on West Yarmouth Road. The bog is decent size about a mile and a half around the outside path with many connecting paths and a few trails at the back. I only had time for a couple of laps. We were helping her son finish moving in Salem, the last time we were up that way I saw a Sonic. A Sonic !!! I had seen a million commercials but never one in person. The only way I knew it really did exist was a couple of friends had said they had seen one. One even ate at one. My reward for helping was getting to eat at Sonic. You pull up to park, order when you are ready like you would if you were driving thru and it gets delivered to you by a server on roller skates. AWESOME !!!
Ratings 1- the cellar 2- shoddy 3- tolerable 4- worthy 5- wicked good
Accessibility - 4 From 6A it’s tough because Old Jail Lane looks like a driveway. Easier to find from Phinneys Lane off Rte
Parking - 4- Decent size one on Old Jail Lane and another on 6A (Seabury Farms Conservation Area)
Length- 5 - Blue trail can be 5 miles with red trail leading west to Cape Cod Community College (4 C’s) and east toward Barnstable Village.
Degree of Difficulty- 3 - Easy when the paths are wide and tough hills on the narrow paths
Dog Friendly- 4 - some narrow paths
Trail Markings- 5- red trail and blue trail markers on some trees - Maps with you are here markers are great !!
Trail Maintenance- 5
Variation - 5 with outer loops, woods and pasture, connecting trail or main trail
Scenic - 2 - can see the skyline and water from -Lookout Rock
Worth Returning - 5 - want to do the red trail
Beach - no
Facilities - no
What I like - hills, pasture and woods a nice mixture. The maps, the changing path width
What I don’t like- not too scenic
Overall Rating- 42 out of 50
Sonic Rating 50 out of 50
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