BARNSTABLE – We hiked the beach, interior dune paths and marsh side paths of Sandy Neck the day after the new year’s first major snow storm. A passerby said he had created the “first tracks” the previous day. Well, he and a coyote whose tracks he also saw.
We were okay about not creating the first tracks. We enjoyed our tracks just fine, stepping on top of many tracks that had come before in the 24 hours or so after the storm ended.
Our first impression of Sandy Neck this trip as we hiked along the beach was, it needs a new name. Like Stoney Beach (though that is in Woods Hole) or Pebble Beach, though that is in California. There were lots of stones and not much sand.
Once we set out on the interior trail, Trail 1, though, there was lots of sand and lots of snow leftover from the storm, forming smooth patterns on the sand and ice crystals on bare tree limbs.
Rounding the corner onto the trail alongside Great Marsh, we admired ice patterns on the water framed by stalks of upright reeds.
We weren’t the first or the only hikers on Sandy Neck yesterday but we enjoyed it immensely just the same.
– Please like us on Facebook.
Cape Cod Wave’s Barnstable stories.
For more photos from across Cape Cod, please see Scenic Cape
Cape Cod Wave Magazine covers the character & culture of Cape Cod. Please see our Longform stories.
