Cape Cod/Plymouth, MA - RI East Bay Bike Path (9/8 - 9/15/25)

Moving further south into MA, we explored the Cape Cod area and ventured over to Providence, RI to ride another Hof Rail Trail. While here we stayed at the centrally located Boston / Cape Cod KOA Holiday. In addition to the HoF Rail Trail, we also rode some other rail trails that we really liked as well.

When we visited Plymouth we saw they had created a close replica of the Mayflower.

In Providence, we rode the East Bay Bike Path which is another one of our HoF Rail Trails we have wanted to ride. The trail is just over 14 miles and makes for an easy one day ride.

At the end of the trail is the very scenic Beach House restaurant where we did some views and brews.

As you can see, the trail had many water views and the trail was in good condition. This trail was also quite busy for an early weekday afternoon.

While here we also discovered another rail trail that starts in North Falmouth and ends in Woods Hole on the west side of Cape Cod. The Shining Sea Bikeway is another fully paved rail trail that traverses almost 11 miles with more spectacular water views.

Of course they had restored depots and places to rest.

We also discovered another great rail trail on Cape Cod. The Cape Cod Rail Trail runs through the middle and east side of Cape Cod. This trail is 28 miles long.

This trail also has nice water views.

This rural trail was in great condition and not as crowded as some of the others we have enjoyed recently.

We even saw some wildlife as some pretty calm turkeys joined us.

If you want to ride three great trails from one location, we highly recommend Cape Cod as a biker's destination.

While here we also drove around the Cape to see why this is such a great vacation destination. This sign reminded me of the Pina Colada song (IYKYK).

This photo was taken from a viewpoint on the very most north end of the Cape.

Also on the north end is the town of Provincetown. The Pilgrim Monument sits at the top of a hill above the town. If you park here, you can visit the monument and museum and then take a hill tram down to the town and back.

From the tower you have a spectacular view of the town and harbor below.

Another great view of Provincetown from the tower. We also learned that Provincetown was the actual place the Pilgrims first landed and stayed back in 1620. They moved to Plymouth when they found fresh water and good farming across the bay. Provincetown was just too sandy to farm and fresh water was scarce.

Provincetown is very progressive with the occasional drag queen show. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from.

On our visit of Plymouth we of course had to see the famous Plymouth Rock.

I have been told by my elders that I am a descendent of the original and prominent Mayflower passenger William Brewster. I need to find my genealogy book to see how many generations are between us. This area had many references to the Brewster family.

While eating dinner, we watched as a small cruise ship came to port in Plymouth. We looked up this cruise line (American Cruise Lines) and found it interesting as an upscale cruise line that caters to American ports. This may be a fun way to visit US ports without having to do any driving.

I remembered learning about the Mayflower Compact at some point in school.

At the Plimoth Patuxet Museums, they had a replica of the home of my ancestor William Brewster.

The colony had a fort above the town for protection.

This is a view of the colony from the fort.

Since the Cape Cod Rail Trail was longer and it was also linked to the Old Colony Rail Trail, we rode this trail over a couple of days. In total, we took 5 rides and over 110 miles on these trails.

There is so much to do here and is why this post was longer than usual. This might be a place we will want to revisit in the future. Next time, we will also look into taking the ferry to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket just to the south.

After leaving the Cape, we will move west to NY to ride another HoF Rail Trail. Check my next blog post to see how we liked it...