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CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Newburyport and Plum Island

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
36 km
Riding-time estimate
47 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.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

36 km from Newburyport to Rowley, about 47 min of riding. On the way it passes Plum Island and Ipswich. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.

Scenic road chapters

Newburyport and Plum Island

Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 7 km this is Newburyport and Plum Island, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.

Chapter facts
Length
7 km
Named road
Newburyport and Plum Island

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. Newburyport

    Planning note

    Newburyport is where the day begins. Next is Plum Island.

  2. 2. Plum Island

    Plum Island is a barrier island, nine miles of sand and dune lying parallel to the coast of northeastern Massachusetts, with the Atlantic on one side and a vast expanse of salt marsh on the other. Most of it is the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, one of the best places on the East Coast to watch birds, and the road that crosses the narrow causeway from Newburyport feels like a transition from town to wilderness. On a clear day the smell of salt and marsh grass hits you before the first dune.

    Read the complete Plum Island write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Plum Island comes up about 7 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ipswich.

  3. 3. Ipswich

    Ipswich can claim, and does, to have more first-period houses than any other town in America. The term covers buildings put up before 1725, in the cramped, steep-roofed, small-windowed style of the first English settlers, and a walk along the streets near the river brings you past dozens of them, dark with age and leaning a little with the centuries. The town was settled in 1633 and has been rebuilt, chewed up and left alone in about equal measure ever since, which is why so much of it survives.

    Read the complete Ipswich write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    about 30 km into the recorded legs you reach Ipswich. Next is Rowley.

  4. 4. Rowley

    Planning note

    Rowley closes the day.

Leg by leg

Newburyport to Plum Island

Newburyport → Plum Island, 7 km. Part of Newburyport and Plum Island.

Plum Island to Ipswich

Plum Island → Ipswich, 23 km. Part of Newburyport and Plum Island.

Ipswich to Rowley

Ipswich → Rowley, 6 km. Part of Newburyport and Plum Island.

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