Cape Cod Activites, Events & Things to Do: Golf, Fishing, Whale Watches, Beaches, Shopping: Bike Touring: Bagpipes and Bogs

Sometimes the journey is the destination.  Bicycling strikes me that way. If I have to get somewhere on Cape Cod, I drive the car.  If I need to go to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket, I take the ferry or a plane.  If I want to see and feel and breathe this area I am lucky to call home, I hop on my bike and go.  I’m not alone.

 

Many visitors bring their bikes to the Cape and Islands, and many others rent them once here.  For over six years now, Dan Needel’s Cape Cod Bicycle Adventures has been helping cyclists cruise the byways, customizing his assistance to the adventurers’ needs.  Those who have benefited from his service characterize him as highly organized and very professional. 

 

 

Susan Greer-Williams takes a break from her 150-acre working cattle ranch in Virginia to cycle with Seattle friends.  They’ve done some challenging rides – Spain, Colorado’s Courage Classic, Banff.  They were looking for a laid back trip on the Cape, and that’s what they got.  What you want is what you can get with Needel.

 

He picks bikers up at T.F. Green or Logan airport, transfers luggage, and makes lodging and dining reservations.  He provides bikes, water, picnic lunches, and the answers to almost any question a rider might have.  There’s a pick-up vehicle if you’re biking just one way, and technical support if you encounter mechanical difficulties. There are corporate tours, all-inclusive ones, day trips, and the increasingly popular self-guided tour.  There’s enough pampering that even an inexperienced biker will feel comfortable. Then there are his maps.

 

The maps are kept in handlebar bags. They’re waterproof and ultra-specific. In a cue-card format, they give precise directions as well as mileage.  Needel keeps his cell phone at the ready be it a broken spoke call or a squall.  However, Needel says, “In six years I’ve only had to cancel three days of riding.  The weather moves through here.” His personal favorite month to ride is September, which he dubs “amazing.”

 

It’s amazing to be out on the Cape’s roads, to coast past a bog or dune, or to stop for a while at either.  Details come into sharp focus: swans so fiercely white against a backdrop of black cedar; the gray cat napping under a tumble of ice-pink roses; the fragrance of honeysuckle or of a cottage’s wood stove. Of course there’s the ride itself, the sense of a silky-smooth road giving way to a textured one, the awareness of the wind’s direction and heft, sun slant and shadow speckle, your rhythmic breathing and steady pedaling.

 

Linda and Robert Luciano, married 26 years, gave each other bikes for their wedding anniversary a decade ago.  As they gained experience, they attended more to training and to gear.  They’ve toured Vermont, California’s wine country. One May Sunday, they cycled New York City with 30,000 other riders. They’ve come from Cedar Grove, New Jersey to see the Cape from their bikes. 

 

They’ve opted for Needel’s self-guided tour package, and their week of assorted rides from Yarmouthport to Provincetown is coming to a close.  They found a little beach where they had their sandwiches. They found the peace they always find from being outside.  And Robert found a place to play his bagpipes.

 

“I look for places which are bagpipe worthy,” Robert explained.  One such place was the nave of Washington’s National Cathedral. Another was Coast Guard Beach…