The best traffic-free bike rides around Chatham

The short segment of the Cape Cod Rail Trail skirts Bells Neck Conservation Lands and overlooks the water. You can often see swans, geese, and other birds, as well as turtles and frogs from the bike trail.

The new Mitchell River Drawbridge was completed in 2016. The previous historic drawbridge was one of the wooden bridges that have spanned Mill Pond and its access to Stage Harbor and the bay to the sea for more than 150 years. The bridge is considered the last remaining wooden drawbridge in the United States and has been listed for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Chatham Light and Chatham Light Beach are on the "elbow" of Cape Cod and are an iconic part of the area. The lighthouse is still in operation by the U.S. Coast Guard station, where Search and Rescue, maritime law enforcement, and Homeland Security missions are carried out from here. From the road you can see both the lighthouse and the beach, where there are often seals (and occasionally sharks!) swimming in the water.

Samuel Hawes Park is a small nature preserve just southeast of the small Chatham Municipal Airport. There are nature trails around the property that take you to three small ponds where there are abundant wildlife viewing opportunities. It's a nice place to pause on your ride because it's right next to the Old Colony Rail Trail. Here is a nice PDF about the park: masstrails.com/cache/1269_0.pdf

Mitchell River is a brackish river that flows out of Little Mill Pond and Mill Pond into Stage Harbor in Chatham. This scenic spot on this wooden bridge gives you great views over the water to this unique, classic-looking Cape Cod waterfront.

Once an Algonquin agricultural site for growing crops like corn, squash, beans, pumpkins and sunflowers, the green space just north of the trail is now an uncultivated green space full of wetlands, meadows, woods and wildflowers. This is also the location of the famous "Warbler Alley," so if you're an avid birder it might be worth dismounting and taking a few minutes to walk, listen, and watch for those namesake birds.

Once an Algonquin agricultural site for growing crops like corn, squash, beans, pumpkins and sunflowers, this is now an uncultivated green space full of wetlands, meadows, woods and wildflowers. This is also the location of the famous "Warbler Alley" — you can probably guess what sort of birds you'll see there.

Once an Algonquin agricultural site for growing crops like corn, squash, beans, pumpkins and sunflowers, the open space just north of the trail is now full of wetlands, meadows, woods and wildflowers. This is also the location of the famous "Warbler Alley" — you can probably guess what sort of birds you'll see there.