Orleans sits at the elbow of Cape Cod, where the arm of the peninsula bends north into the open Atlantic, and the sense of being at the edge of something begins here. It is a small town of about fifteen hundred year-round residents, with a handful of shops, a pleasant harbour at Rock Harbor and a few miles of beach on either side. The Cape Cod National Seashore, created in 1961 under President Kennedy, begins to the north in Eastham and runs along the outer shore for forty miles, a long line of high dunes, marsh and ocean beach.
The town has an unlikely place in the history of communication. In 1891 a transatlantic telegraph cable from Brest, in France, came ashore here, and the French Cable Station remained in operation for decades. The Nauset Light, a small red-and-white lighthouse a short way north in Eastham, was moved back from an eroding cliff in 1996, a reminder of how quickly the sea is taking the outer coast, which retreats by about a metre or more a year.
On a motorcycle, the Outer Cape is a gentle, unhurried place. Route 6A and the smaller roads are narrow and shaded, with cranberry bogs, saltmarsh and low pine woods, and speeds are slow. The best views are of dunes, ponds and the ocean breaking on wide beaches. Summer traffic is the main issue, since the single road in and out of the Cape is jammed on Friday and Sunday afternoons, with cars crawling for hours at the bridges. An early start or a midweek trip makes all the difference. September and early October are the sweetest months, with warm water, clear light and fewer people.
Fuel is available in Orleans and Eastham, and prices are higher than on the mainland, so it makes sense to fill before crossing the bridges. Seafood is the local pleasure, with fried clams, lobster rolls, oysters from the bay and chowder, and a lobster shack by the water is a good place to rest. The ponds around Wellfleet are a pleasant place for a swim.
Watch for sand on the road near the beaches, and for cyclists, who are common. A walk on the beach at sunset, with the whole Atlantic ahead of you, is a good way to finish the day.