Trail of Tears

After a quick group ride with the family and a 3 hour easy road ride on Tuesday (even rode on the bike path, yeah that's an easy ride!), I hit the dirt again yesterday. I had often heard about the Trail of Tears in Barnstable, but have been so enamored with Otis, I never checked it out. Thanks to the fam's flexibility, I decided to make a quick drive to the closest trail head.
I was immediately impressed with the large map and information board and then giddy once on the trail which was a twisty hard pack that was mostly flat, fast and fun! I soon started seeing trail intersections and since I had no experience there, I decided to always keep left, figuring I would establish the border, then dabble in the good shit in the middle, kind of like eating a Hostess Cupcake, the fun is inside.

I hit a couple of finger trails that led to the perimeter or houses, but they were fun and worth the effort too. I did some service road riding as well, but it served as a break from the singletrack. At one end, I popped out onto the end of a small plane airport then was treated to a freshly cut fun trail made by actual Town of Barnstable DPW employees whom I happened upon as the were working. I would have snapped a pic, but they had heavy equipment and weedwackers with blades on them!

There actually is a trail in there, awesome!

I eventually made my way around and wound up back to the start. With about another 1/2 hour to kill, I started exploring the middle stuff and began to get a sense of what all the hubub was about. There was some seriously fun stuff up and down hillsides. At one intersection, I had 4 trails options plus 4 roads that converged there!
I summited one hill and found an observation deck built by the local NEMBA chapter who clearly do a kick-ass job maintaining the area.
It was here I discovered this dog guarding an empty plastic bag. I tried to give it a treat, but I'm not sure he could see it for the bloody tears in its eyes.

There is also this box off to the side where you can sign in and apparently take and leave something. I didn't want no bad juju spirit so I left it well enough alone!

So, Trail of Tears is definitely a good time and well worth exploring in greater detail next time down. For now, unfortunately, it's back to Maine where there's still a ton of snow on the ground. The Surly gets the fenders back on, and I hit the rollers again. Dangit!