On day 3 we decided to run the coast south of our base camp at Salisburg Beach. Our initial thought was to go as far south as Plymouth MA where we could see Plymouth Rock and a replica of the Mayflower. As usual we adjusted on the fly and didn't get that far south (frankly the idea of having to go through Boston and back on a Fri. didn't seem to great anyway because of the crazy traffic).
We ran route 1 and 1-A with our initial destination being Salem. Salem was a bit of a disappointment, as it was a much bigger city than I had in my head and the historic area was very commercialized. We made a run through the city, passed by the witch museum and had some lunch at a pizza place we ran accross. We decided to cruise the coast as much as possible going back.
One of the places we found ourselves, was a town called Marblehead. When we stopped to look at the lighthouse out on the point across the bay we ran into a couple of ladies with a little girl who asked where we were from. We told them and the welcomed us to Marblehead. They were looking to sunbathe on the rocks but the tide was in and the steps leading down to the rocks (no sand beach there) were half covered with water. We talked with them a while and took pics of the boats and the light. Amazingly they climbed over the railing and down to the rocks where the little girl played in some of the pools in the rocks. They told us that if we went across the causeway we could get out to the lighthouse and some great views of the bay and the ocean. We of couse could not turn that down. The island where the lighthouse is is developed with houses that you could not beleive. I don't know why we didn't take any pictures, but we didn't. We did get some of the bay and the town and the ocean. One house (mansion) that we passed had Kardashian on the gates.
While at the Marblehead light we ran into a fellow biker who was much older and from the area. He advised us that going any further south would likely be a disappointment and that if we just tried to stay on the coast going north we would see some amazing coastline. He was right.
Another interesting place that we found by chance was a castle just outside Gloucester, which was constructed originally as the home of John Hays Hammond, Jr. It was on a bluff overlooking the ocean. He was an inventor and collector of medieval artifacts. He lived there and had his laboratory there as well. Mr. Hammond holds over 400 patents and was second only to Thomas Edison as one of the premeire inventors of his day. It was built from 1926 - 1929 and is now a museum of his collection. It was amazing and well worth the price of admission.
At some point we found ourselves riding in circles and coming back to the same small towns. The MA coast is very jagged with hundreds of little inlets and bays so at times it was difficult to maintain a good sense of direction. We eventually resorted to gps to get ourselves headed in the right direction. We stopped at a grocery store on the way back to camp to get food to cook. I had a great steak along with some potato salad. It was a great day of riding, seeing the MA coast. I think there is no way you can get the same feel in a car. The salt air and breezes along with the sounds are amazing. I must make one note here though. The roads are less than smooth in this area. There is construction everywhere and they are some of the roughest roads I have ever ridden. This was compounded by the fact that on the trip up on day one I broke my suspension while towing my trailer when I hit a huge bump in a construction zone and basically had no shock absorbers on the bike. Even with that being the case, it was worth every bump and ache that came with it.
I considered day 3 a rousing success because I was fortunate enough to see several lighthouses (a personal goal) and we just had a great day of riding.
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