February Hiking, Nickerson State Park, Brewster MA

This was our late Valentines Day celebration. a little time in the outdoors. We're in our third year living on Cape Cod, and there is still so much we haven't explored. This was our first time visiting Brewster's Nickerson State Park. We had a nice scenic ride up Route 6A to get there passing by dozens of artisans, antique shops, used book stores, and gift shops. It was a Sunday in the off season, so many were closed, but we did stop at one shop that made beautiful painted glass plates.

The park entrance is right on 6A, and we got information online about a 3-mile hike around Cliff Pond. We parked near one of the pond's beaches and set out on the trail, which hugged the shoreline for much of the walk.

The pond had been frozen over and the ice was now breaking up, and there were constant sounds coming from ice on the pond as it broke or knocked against the shore or against other ice.

There were also some beautiful formations of ice on some of the shoreline and aquatic plants.

Here's a closer shot of that second one:

We also saw lots of evidence of storm damage. There were huge deadfalls. This part of the Cape gets a LOT of wind. Some of this damage might have come from Tropical Storm Noel last Fall; some was from other storms and gusts.

Gynn took this picture of me so you can get a better idea of the size of some of the trees that have blown down.

Right behind that one was another, bent in half and pointed right at the pond.

We saw a good sized flock of mallard ducks and some crows, but they were all a bit to shy to get close enough for pictures.

As we circled the lake we encountered a few people fishing, although no one seemed to be catching anything.

The trail climbed uphill on the other side of the pond, giving us this view.

Somewhere in the woods we lost the pond train and ended up in an area of campgrounds. We made our way along roads and campground trails back to the road we'd driven in on and eventually to the parking lot, probably adding an extra mile and a half to our three mile hike.

Remember all that storm damage? Here's another example of what it can do:

In addition to the tent camping areas, there were also yurts!

We finally made it back to the car and drove up to Orleans where we ate at a barbeque place called Coast. I had an excellent BBQ beef brisket sandwich with a side of black beans. Gynn had a Mexican combo. It was a nice way to end the afternoon, especially after working up an apettite with all that walking.