To the Great Marsh and the Sea

Map

Today was the ride to the sea. I was really excited the first time I made this ride - I can bike to the sea! On this ride, I made up my mind that my biking family just had to come out and see this.

The Ipswich River is one of several rivers that flow through the Great Marsh into the sea. In the summer it's full of motor boats but they are always dwarfed by the largeness of the Marsh.
They start out from the public dock in Ipswich.


The road is lightly traveled but for along time you see clumps of trees and gatherings of old small summer homes.

Suddenly you pedal around a bend and through the limbs of an old crabapple tree is your first glimpse.







The road straightens and the Marsh spreads out to the horizon. It's wild, almost untouched, green in summer and brown in winter. It's a living ecosystem and you are aware that the trees and houses don't really belong there at all.










The road twists and turns, first showing you the sea then hiding it. But the Marsh is always on your right, sometimes on its own, sometimes revealing the river that winds its way through it to the sea.

Great Neck is the larger of the two knobs at the end of the pennisula. Residents on one side live on the Marsh, the other side are seacoast dwellers. They have brought their own whimsy to the place.




The river comes close to the shore as you ride around Great Neck and the boats reappear.











Little Neck is the smaller knob - it is private and controlled through an centuries old arrangement. Today the residents were having an island party.











On the tiny strip that connects the two knobs is a little beach - I've never seen anyone swimming there - it seems to be a place to sit and think.










I took a panoramic video - starting with my back to the sea, sweeping from Great Neck across the Marsh to Little Neck across the sea and back to Great Neck.