Skip to content
CurveScout

CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Plymouth to Cape Cod Canal

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
31 km
Riding-time estimate
30 min
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis

The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

A practical coastal approach to the Cape with history and water on both sides. The road: MA-3A and local roads. Distance and riding time are estimates from the checkpoints until the road is measured on this page.

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. Plymouth

    Plymouth is a place where history is both obvious and slightly overstated, and it is better for knowing that in advance. In December 1620 the Mayflower's passengers settled here after a stop on Cape Cod, and the story of the Pilgrims has been told so many times that the real place can seem small beside it. Plymouth Rock, the granite boulder said to mark their landing, sits under a classical portico by the water, and visitors often say it is smaller than they expected, which is fair, since it has been chipped and moved over the centuries and its link to the landing is a tradition rather than a documented fact.

    Read the complete Plymouth write-up.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

More motorcycle rides nearby