Why this ride
A one-way ride of 34 km, Bourne to Barnstable - roughly 37 min in the saddle. The stops in between: Sagamore and Sandwich. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cape Cod Canal and Sandwich
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 34 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 37 min
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Old King's Highway
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 8 km this is Old King's Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 8 km
- Named road
- Old King's Highway
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Bourne
Planning note
Bourne is where the day begins. Next is Sagamore.
2. Sagamore
Sagamore sits at the western end of the Cape Cod Canal, right where the mainland ends and the Cape begins, and it is a place that exists mostly because of a ditch. The canal, dug between 1909 and 1914 and later taken over by the federal government, cuts through the neck of land to give ships a shortcut and spare them the long, dangerous trip around the Cape's outer shore. Today it is a deep tidal channel about seventeen miles long, and the two big arched bridges, the Sagamore and the Bourne, are its landmarks. Sagamore Bridge, which carries Route 6 over to the Cape, is the one most travellers know, mostly from sitting in traffic on it.
Read the complete Sagamore write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sagamore comes up about 8 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sandwich.
3. Sandwich
Sandwich is the oldest town on Cape Cod, founded in 1637 by settlers from the Plymouth Colony, and it has the air of a place that has been looking at the same view for a very long time. Houses with weathered grey shingles stand around a village green, a mill pond and a small, historic grist mill, and the old Dexter Grist Mill still grinds corn on certain days. The town was home to the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, founded in the 1820s, whose colourful pressed glass was once sold across America, and a museum on the main street displays the best pieces.
Read the complete Sandwich write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 12 km into the recorded legs you reach Sandwich. Next is Barnstable.
4. Barnstable
Barnstable is the biggest town on Cape Cod, though you would hardly guess it. It is really a string of villages along Cape Cod Bay, with Barnstable Village, Cotuit and Hyannis among them, and it takes in marsh, beach and farmland over a wide stretch of the Cape's arm. The town has almost forty-eight thousand people, and its long coast looks across to the curling tip of the Cape on one side and out to the Atlantic on the other.
Read the complete Barnstable write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Barnstable closes the day.
Leg by leg
Bourne to Sagamore
Bourne → Sagamore, 8 km. Part of Cape Cod Canal and Sandwich.
Sagamore to Sandwich
Sagamore → Sandwich, 4 km. Part of Cape Cod Canal and Sandwich.
Sandwich to Barnstable
Sandwich → Barnstable, 22 km. Part of Cape Cod Canal and Sandwich.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Old King's Highway Upper Cape · 45 km
- Old King's Highway starting at Sandwich · 53 km
- Old King's Highway · 56 km
- Cape Cod Bay to Atlantic Loop · 135 km