Hull is a thin finger of land curling into Massachusetts Bay, and it is one of the most unusual places to start a ride within reach of Boston. The town lies at the end of a long, narrow peninsula, with Nantasket Beach on the ocean side and calm Hingham Bay on the other, so you can see water on both sides of the road for most of the way in. The sense of being at the end of something is real here.
Out on the headland stand the earthworks of Fort Revere, on a hill with a view that takes in the whole harbour, and from the shoreline you can pick out Boston Light, the lighthouse on Little Brewster Island, which has marked the harbour entrance since the eighteenth century. The old Paragon Park amusement park that once crowded the beach has gone, but the carousel survives in the beachfront, a nice link to the days when trolley cars carried families down here for the summer.
Riding in and out follows Nantasket Avenue, Route 228, which runs along the seawall with the Atlantic on your right when heading south. It is flat and straight, not a technical road, but on a clear morning with a little swell breaking on the sand it is easy to forgive it. Wind can be strong, and on hot weekends the beach traffic crawls, so an early start is the answer. Salt and sand work their way onto the asphalt, so be gentle on the first corners.
Hull is a real town of more than ten thousand, so fuel and breakfast are not a worry. Hingham, about seven kilometres away, is the next place of any size and a much calmer harbour town. This is the place to roll the bike to a stop, look out at the horizon, and start the day properly.