A few weeks ago, in celebration of Columbus Day, S introduced me to the CCRT. There's a lot written about it on the web so I won't talk too much about the 22 mile, ex-train line, now bike trail that runs from South Dennis to Wellfleet Mass. I will however talk about the people on the trail.
Even on the cool fall day there we're lots of people, of all types. Not many regular road riders (the kinds you hammering out the miles on the side of your average road) but lots of more recreational types, on all types of bikes. Couples, families with kids on tryks, three-wheelers, and even a spider bike. And then there was the boy scout troop. What we thought at first was a pack of 8 dedicated, hard-riding, teeth-gritting male teens was followed by a larger group of 20 silent, somewhat sullen teens. A few minutes later a smaller group of obviously annoyed teens, followed by 3 scout leader types brought up the rear. All in all the group gave off the appearance of either being on a race at which the future on humanity was at stake, or their very existence depended upon surviving this near-death trek rather than that of the Boy Scout troop that they were. On the return trip we passed a very different group of 20 girls, all together with their leaders, all smiling, and SINGING. The Girl Scouts appear to have a much different view of bike riding, the trail and perhaps life? Couldn't help but note that the difference between the Boy and Girl Scout Troops reflects the differences in men and women's approach to life.
Oh and the title - for the first 10 miles or so the words ".5mile" appear at regular intervals. "Funny" I noted to S., "that someone is so intent on having us enjoy the trail that the feel its necessary to write smile on the pavement." S looked at me rather strangely. "You mean .5 miles?" And darn it all thats what it really said. I'd mistaken the .5 for an s. But hey, it was a nice day, so Smile, you're on the Cape Cod Rail Trail.
No comments:
Post a Comment