Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #102: Winter Storm Names, Stranger Things, New Year Intentions, etc.

1. I still don’t understand the point of naming winter storms. As of this writing, there is a Winter Storm Ezra coming toward New England. Like, who cares if it has a name? Did meteorologists feel sad that only hurricanes were getting names? Also, does anyone remember any winter storm in the last few years by its name? I sure don’t. What’s next, naming every day after someone? Oh man, look out, Partly Cloudy Pete is coming today. In 20 years, I’ll tell the younger generation ‘You should have been there for Foggy Drizzle Dan, it was so mildly inconvenient. Then again, every day is International (something pointless) Day, so I guess naming winter storms tracks.


2. Currently, I am on a holiday break from my day job. We do it each year from Christmas to New Year's, basically because the one year we didn’t, our schedule was maybe half-full, and my boss rightfully didn’t want to pay us full-time to be standing around half of the day. I’ve been using the free time to work a lot on content and also hit the gym more in advance of any New Year’s resolutions. That being said, I could tell my body was starting to wear down with how hard I was working out at the gym. It got to a point where my Fitbit had to basically order me to take it easy. Yes, Fitbit, whatever you say. I will gladly take a day to sit and relax. It didn’t hurt that the day it told me to chill, it was 25 degrees and windy out. Much easier to relax when the thought of going outside is too much.


3. This was a sure way to kill the mood of a day. I wanted to do some work on my script for my film that will shoot late this summer. Rather than sit at my desk as I always do, I decided to head to a local library. Typically, I get good creative vibes from writing at a spot different from home. Well, I should have just stayed home. I drove all the way to this library, and it was packed because it’s school vacation week. That was no big surprise. I went in and found a desk in the back corner and unpacked my laptop. I noticed they had new chairs. These were brightly colored and padded but also very low to the ground. As soon as I sat in the chair, I knew I’d never be able to work there. The desk was basically chest height. It was ridiculous. No more than 30 seconds after sitting, a big fat guy with headphones sits at the desk next to me. His being there was no big deal until I heard the music. This jerk had his music so loud in his headphones that I could clearly hear it, and it was distracting and obnoxious. I sat for maybe 2 minutes before being so aggravated that I packed up my stuff and left. It took me longer to drive to the library than the time I actually was inside. What an absolute waste of time. All it did was piss me off to the point that I no longer wanted to write.


4. One thing I have been doing for my Patreon subscribers is remastering and sharing these livestreams I used to do for my podcast. About 4 years ago, I was going live on Instagram weekly and doing something called Without A Map. I’d review the most recent podcast episode and invariably go wildly off-topic into fun and wacky stories. I fix the audio, edit any dragging parts, and enhance the video to make it a better experience for my subscribers. I had been downloading the original videos from YouTube to edit. This week I went to grab the next in line and noticed it went from #10 to #12, no #11. I also noticed my Without A Map playlist only went up to #28 when I knew I did way more. I wasn’t sure what to do since, after the streams would end, I’d have to save them to my phone and then upload them to YouTube. What happened to the other streams? Luckily, a little research showed me that all of those ‘lost’ streams had been bundled in with my reels on IG. I was able to go into my archives and find #11 and download it. Oh, and I ended up doing 49 streams in total, so there’s plenty more content to come for my Patreon subscribers.


5. I headed out after dark one night this week to grab a few quick things at the store. I had barely taken a few steps and was reaching for my keys when I noticed something a few feet beyond my car. Then I noticed another, and another. 3 big shadows sneaking across the neighbor’s yard. It took me a moment to figure out that they were deer. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough getting my phone out for a photo. Even if I did, it was dark, and it would have either been blurry or the flash would have lit up my car. It was shocking for sure to suddenly see 3 fully grown deer emerging from the shadows. They went across the street into a small conservation area. That conservation area is a haven for deer, coyotes, foxes, turkeys, and owls. I haven’t gone down in there to find out; it’s just that there are way too many of those animals lurking around the yard, especially in the warmer months. Now I’m going to have to be at the ready with my phone anytime I go out after dark in case the deer are hanging out again.


6. The finale of Stranger Things was an amazing and fitting ending. The show was 5 seasons of a trip back to my childhood. Granted, I would have been younger than the main cast when the events were happening in the 80s. In fact, for those who know the show, I was the same age as Holly and Derek and their crew. I won’t spoil things for those who will be watching, especially since it was literally New Year’s Eve when the finale premiered. It must have been watched by a lot of people since Netflix was glitched out for several minutes when the show went up at 8pm. Stranger Things had so many wonderful characters and actors playing them. We got to watch them literally grow up before our eyes. The thing is, for as beautiful as the ending of the show was, it was ever so slightly traumatic for my GenX mind. It was like reliving my childhood, yes, but then it was also like watching my childhood slip away all over again. I don’t think I was ready for that, and judging by social media, a lot of my GenX brethren weren’t ready for it either. So at least I am not alone. I will miss new episodes with the killer 80s music, product placement, and references that people of my generation understand. Rumor has it that there are at least a pair of spin-offs coming. One is an animated series based in 1985. That one’s confirmed. The other is top secret, but I have heard rumblings that it might be based around Nancy’s character. We’ll see. I posted it all over social media after the show aired, but once again, thank you to Stranger Things and the creators, The Duffer Brothers, for letting me, and so many other GenXers, relive our childhoods even for a little while. I even wrote a blog about how the show affected me. You can read it here: Stranger Things Have Happened: A GenX Fairytale

7. I have always had a wacky sense of humor. It comes out quite a bit in these blogs. When I was in high school, I spent my savings on a camcorder with dreams of being a film director. I loved using my creativity to make up the most random stuff to make skits. These were mainly to make my friends laugh. One thing I want to do more of in 2026 is crafting skits again, but this time for social media. They will probably be tougher to do now with all of my friends having jobs and families, or living far away. Still, I am looking for any and all creative outlets to explore since that’s the stuff that really makes me feel alive. Here is a little something I cooked up for New Year’s Day. I hope you like it.




8. In a strange but necessary twist, I actually turned down a couple of creative projects to kick off 2026. I’m not giving up my dreams of being a totally self-employed content creator. I am just being more selective with what I choose to spend my time on. This goes far beyond just content projects and goes into life in general. I have spent the last 5 years working nonstop on content. That means books, podcasts, YouTube videos, blogs, editing, producing, acting, and anything else that floated into my orbit. I don’t regret any of it. That being said, I have a goal in 2026 that involves having more free time for family, friends, and maybe even finding a relationship. In order to achieve that, I had to start finding places that I could cut back. The pair of projects I turned down would have been fun and would have added to my resume, but they also would have required who knows how many hours out of my life. I can’t say ‘I want more time with those I care about’ and then not do my part to make it happen. I think of it as going to a buffet. In the last few years, I would fill my plate with anything and everything, overflow it. In 2026, I am still going to have a full plate, just with fewer options. All steak and mac and cheese, no rolls or cole slaw.


9. It has already been a snowier and colder winter this year than last, and it’s only been 2 weeks. We got the storm this week that left us with 3-4” of heavy snow. That’s not a big deal except for the fact that the temperatures stayed below freezing for the next several days, meaning that the snow and slush stuck around and refroze. I only realized there was an issue when I was leaving the gym one morning this week. I saw the frozen slush/dirt combo stuck in my wheel wells and under my front doors. It was so bad that if I had gotten any more up in there, my tires wouldn’t have had any room to spin. I kicked a little away, but most of it was frozen solid. Not wanting any problems with my car, I looked for something to chisel the sludge away. I found the perfect utensil in the form of a tire iron from my trunk. So there I was, in my gym shorts, on a 30-degree morning in the gym parking lot, chipping frozen slush out of my wheel wells with a tire iron. Two thoughts were going through my mind. 1. How crazy do I look? 2. This is going in the blog (obviously).


10. It was 10 years ago this week that my buddy Steve and I went on one of our best photo adventures. We were up early and drove out to Provincetown. Next up was a 2-mile hike through the darkness and the woods, over the dunes to get to Race Point Lighthouse. It was in the low 20s with the wind chill at, or below, zero. We sat with our backs against a brick building known as the Whistle House. You can rent it in the summer. It was freezing, and we would get up to take photos of the ever-increasing sunrise, and then quickly huddle back down. It was one of my favorite photo adventures ever. How did we celebrate the 10th anniversary of it? By going on another cold photo shoot. Only this one was sunset, and Nauset Lighthouse is only a few hundred feet from the parking lot. I guess we are getting older.



11. Earlier, I mentioned my hope/desire to actually start a relationship. Intentions without actions are useless, so I signed up on a dating app. A problem that I have living on Cape Cod is that the dating pool can be small, especially as you get into your 40s. In previous years, when I was on dating sites, it was nearly impossible to find someone because I kept my search radius low, like 25 miles. That works fine if you live in a city, but not in a relatively rural area like the Cape. An old friend of mine used to have her search radius so wide that she’d end up finding and dating people in Boston. I wasn’t willing to go that far until now. Well, not Boston far, but expanding my radius to 50 miles. That gives me places within an hour of me. It’s like I’m showing the universe I’m serious. How serious will I be when I find someone 50 miles away, and we have to plan a date that might involve an hour of driving? We’ll see. But maybe showing I’m willing to get out of my comfort zone will bring someone amazing into my orbit.


12. While at the gym one day this week, I finished with the actual workout and went to sign up for a session on one of the hydromassage beds. They are definitely worth the little bit extra I pay per month, for now at least. While signing up, there was an employee explaining the gym to two potential new members. Ironically, he began raving about the hydro bed. I mentioned that was why I was standing there. Before going into the room, I looked at the two potential members and told them that it was my favorite part of the workout. I also said I wasn’t a paid spokesman for the gym. I will say that if they did sign up for the more expensive package, I should get at least a little thank you, like a free drink or something.

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog: #42 - Daylight Savings, Hornet Ambush, Who Are You?, etc.

1. Why do we still have Daylight Savings Time? The first day of ‘falling back’ left us with a sunset time at 4:34pm. Combine that with the temperature in the low 40s and it’s like a highway to depression. I was doing some content work when I looked at the time. It was after 3:30pm and I realized I had an hour of sunlight left. I had to rush outside to enjoy some cold and windy sun just so I didn’t feel like I was missing out. I wish it was just 75 degrees all the time with a sunset of around 7pm. That would be my ideal setup. By the way, the next time the sun sets at 5pm is February 4, 2025. Only 4 months away.

2. Whatever happened to Quiznos? 15 years ago they were everywhere. I remember making it a point to visit the Hyannis location near me probably weekly. The Baja Chicken and the prime rib steak subs were legendary. Then again I was far less healthy when I visited them frequently. It was like in a flash both Cape Cod locations were gone. I went on a major road trip 5 years ago all around the eastern U.S. and one of my most important stops was at the nearest Quiznos to me located in Orange, CT. Out of curiosity I just checked and that location is now gone. In fact, the closest Quiznos to me currently is over 6 ½ hours away in Montreal. I’d love a Baja Chicken but not if I need a passport to get it.

My last visit to Quiznos in Orange, CT in 2019

3. Driving home from work one night this week, naturally it was after dark. This was a main road so I have rarely if ever seen animals crossing due to the higher volume of traffic. What I saw that night was scarier than coming upon a deer. At a pretty windy, blind curve there in the middle of the road was a woman standing there. She was barely visible, luckily I wasn’t going fast and had time to slow and swerve. It was crazy. She didn’t even flinch as I approached. I didn’t see anything about an accident in that area on the night so I’m hopeful that she wasn’t hit by someone else.

4. A strange phenomenon I found recently was in my Facebook Messenger app. I found that people I wasn’t friends with, that I might have had 1 conversation with many years ago, were popping up as ‘online’ and ahead of many actual friends. I had a few times looking at names and wondering who the hell they were. Only when I finally clicked on one did I see our chat history. There were a few from 2016/2017. Like why do they get priority over actual friends & family? I ended up restricting these accounts so I wouldn't see them anymore. Sorry to any of them but not really.

5. A few weeks ago I mentioned how I end up with tons of yellow jackets on my car on some warm days at work. I think it’s the trees dumping pollen on it and the bees use my car as a buffet. Luckily they are no bother. Fast forward to this week and I was finishing a walk on a warm afternoon. When I got back to my car I did not see loads of yellow jackets, not even one. What I did see though was a massive Bald-Face Hornet. It is probably the size of 3 yellow jackets. But it was wandering around on the hood of my car and up along the driver’s side door. Again it was pretty chill so I didn’t worry about being stung. That was until a minute later. You see, I uploaded a video of the hornet to social media while standing on the other side of my car. By the time I got back to the driver’s side, the hornet was gone. Being a nice day I had my windows cracked open. My first thought was that it had crawled into my car. I didn’t see it despite looking for a few minutes. That being said I’d be lying if I wasn’t expecting it to ambush me while driving and I’d end up flipped over in a ditch.

Bald-Faced Hornet on my car

6. One morning driving to work I decided to stop off to shoot the sunrise at the beach. It was peaceful and beautiful and also came at about 6:20am. I took my time to enjoy it but this also left me behind when it came to getting to work. So I was flying down the road and making up time. When I got to a back road I was still going pretty fast. Up ahead a majestic scene was unfolding as a deer gracefully stepped out onto the road from some reeds. That is until it saw me coming and it basically dove back through the reeds like something out of a cartoon. I then finally slowed down wondering if I might see another deer but no such luck. I did get to work on time though so it was a half-win.

7. There’s nothing better than being in a nice deep sleep and your left calf deciding it’s time to explode. Yeah, getting a random calf cramp at 5am will end your dreams really fast. Does anyone else get those? I don’t get calf cramps at night often but any cramp I get is that same spot. Oh well, it beats when I was working in restaurants and I had bad Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Back then my right hand would ball into a fist and go numb while I slept. Then if I rolled over and opened my hand I’d get those terrible ‘pins & needles’ that would wake me up. It got so bad that I either had to sleep with my right arm hanging off of the side of the bed, or worse, I had to wear a winter glove to stop my hand from balling up. Good times.

Not the way to awaken from a dream.

8. Change what you can change. Control what you can control. That doesn’t mean don’t worry about those things you can’t change, or are out of your control. It just means to focus on the good things you have because those things you can’t control are going to happen regardless. Life is 10% what happens and 90% how you react to it.

9. I went to help take an aluminum dock out of a lake this week. It’s something my buddy Steve and I do in the spring and fall for a nice couple from New York. I’ve been helping for 3 years now. It’s relatively short work and good money. Sometimes the dock feels like it weighs 1,000 lbs. Other times it’s cold, or wet. This time the weather was decent and we did it toward sunset. It was a pretty smooth removal of the dock and we had a good time chatting with the couple before we left. Of course, as I age I realize that just because something was pain-free at the time doesn’t mean it truly was. I got up the next morning and both of my elbows were tight and sore. Steve and I joked that we might eventually need to recruit people to help us as our bodies are falling apart.

10. When I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom I typically try to leave the lights off. I know my surroundings so I can navigate my way without incident. Plus if the lights are turned on my brain immediately thinks it’s time to wake up. Just remember if you’re making your way to the bathroom at night with the lights off to check if the toilet seat is down. It’s way safer (and cleaner) to pee that way in the dark rather than hoping you find the bowl and instead make a mess on the floor. Anyway, the seat wasn’t down and well you know the rest. Luckily the rest of my overnight jaunt to and from the bathroom was without incident. 

Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog: #37 - Hidden Moth, Grocery Store Fight, Podcast Ads, etc.

1. I don’t know what’s worse. Swatting a giant moth in your house, splattering it everywhere, and then having to clean it up? Or swatting a giant moth and thinking you’ve killed it without knowing where it went? Then it’s like a double surprise when you find a giant dead moth in your shoe or somewhere else a week later. That is the hell I am currently dealing with. UPDATE: I found it the day I published this blog in the corner of a window sill, it has since been flushed.

2. While walking to my car after leaving a store a woman heading in and said something out loud to me. I thought she said ‘you look like the coolest guy ever.’ Surprised I stopped and politely asked her to repeat that. She said ‘it looks like the coolest sky ever’ about the clouds. We talked for a moment and then she left. Thankfully I didn’t say something foolish like ‘yes I am the coolest guy ever.’

3. It never dawned on me just how many people have likely never been up close to a lighthouse. When visiting Nobska in Falmouth I watched as every other person who visited while I was there went over to the entrance to the light and tried to open it, as if lighthouses are left unlocked. Every, single, one. By the end, it was pretty funny.

4. A trip to the supermarket was insane from the jump. I hadn’t even made it all the way inside when a screaming match was all around me. From what I gathered a very large man had grabbed a container of danish and was eating them in the bakery section near the front entrance. A female customer saw this and called him out saying he needed to pay for his items before eating them, and that he appeared to be trying to leave first. The man screamed at her that he had diabetes and was going to pass out if he didn’t eat them. An employee came over to diffuse the situation. He thanked the woman who left and got the man a motorized cart to ride instead of pushing a regular cart. The rest of my time in the store was very mundane because it easily peaked with that craziness before I’d even made it all the way inside.

It might be AI but this is not far off from what happened.

5. A friend went this week on a fishing trip out around Minot’s Ledge Light off of South Shore Massachusetts. We’re both huge lighthouse fans and this was a photo trip that squared us as I had been lucky enough to visit Point Gammon Light on the highly secure Great Island on Cape Cod. To make up for the jealousy I felt over his awesome adventure I took my camera and headed out. I ended up in Falmouth at the Knob and also Nobska Lighthouse. In true ‘dedication to the craft’ fashion I managed to stand on railings that were so unsteady that if my weight had shifted a little I’d have gone down and broken something. In the end, the great photos, and risking life and limb for them, didn’t soothe my jealousy over my friend visiting Minot.

Risking life and limb for a good photo

6. As the sun starts to rise later in the morning I find myself driving in the dark to work a few times a week. That means more of a chance of running into wildlife. It’s typically rabbits, squirrels, maybe a coyote, and sometimes deer. Today it was a deer. In a fun moment, I spotted a young male deer on the right side of the road. He had some nice antlers. My thought was do I stop to try to get a photo. Then as he stared me down as I approached I feared he might dive in front of my car, or charge it, so I left him with no photos and the deer staring me down.

7. After nearly 4 years I’ve finally crossed the threshold where I can have paid advertisements on my podcast. Now, just because I can doesn’t mean I’ll immediately accept any ad that comes my way. In fact, I’ve already turned one down. It was a Bible and Constitution podcast. I figured that content doesn’t jive with my fun Gen-X nostalgia podcast. Am I wrong?

8. The perfect combination of fun and also feeling old is waking up the next morning after running and playing with my 5-year-old niece at my mother's the previous afternoon. The running was fine, it was more the carrying her on my shoulders for 20+ straight minutes while she controlled me like Ratatouille. But neck soreness aside those types of moments mean more than anything, especially knowing that someday I won’t be able to carry her around like that. That just means that maybe when I’m old she’ll push my wheelchair around, or use me as a bowling ball to knock things over. Who knows?

9. I am a creature of habit. I know this. However, I think it goes far deeper into my subconscious. This manifests a lot in the places I go to take photos. In a scenario that happens far too often, I choose a place, seemingly at random, to go get some photos. Then the next day in my social media memories photos of that same place from years past pop up. It just happened again this week with a sunset shoot at Stage Harbor Light in Chatham.

Stage Harbor Light in Chatham

10. Speaking of that sunset shoot at Stage Harbor. It was far more impactful than I could have thought. I walked the mile over soft sand out to what is a ‘headless’ lighthouse, meaning it has no lantern. With my trusty selfie stick in tow, I got some great photos. The impactful part comes two-fold. One, I had not been out to that lighthouse since July 2020, two months before I quit drinking. Two, on the way back in the twilight I walked slower until I finally stopped. I sat up in the dunes and played some Hawaiian music on Pandora, enjoying the scenery and thinking of my Uncle Eric who passed in January 2023. The 2^nd song that was played was a song titled Pele Kane by a band named Maunalua. It is a song that reminds me of him as he used to play it a lot at family gatherings. It was more emotional than I expected as it felt like he was letting me know he was there in the dunes with me at that point.

Pele Kane - Maunalua

Initial Impressions 2.0 #2: Life Chapters, Snowbows, Being A Morning Person, etc

#2 - Life Chapters

1. When you stop and really think, it’s amazing just how many chapters your life has. They’re based around certain people, relationships, places, and jobs. In the end, all of them end up shaping you into who you were, are, and will be. You never know when an old chapter will end, or when a new one will begin.

2. The internet went out at work and everything came to a stand-still. I find it funny that I grew up in the 80s and I had no internet access until I turned 18, but even I have no idea what to do with myself if it goes down. I’m not saying I want to go back to only a few channels on TV and the Dewey Decimal System for research though.

3. I was going to check on a person doing some treadmill work and was distracted by the amazing sunset outside. Suddenly I couldn’t care less about the person on the treadmill, they could have gone flying off of it. I needed to grab my phone and get a photo through the trees. Priorities.

The sunset photo in question.

4. I am a morning person, but not an early morning person. There is a huge difference between waking up between 7-7:30am slowly and gently and waking up at 5am hoping that any caffeine kicks in ASAP.

5. I hate when I’m wearing long sleeves and I roll up the sleeves to wash my hands and the sleeves slide back down and get soaked under the water. First World Problems.

6. The other day it was snowing while the sun was out. I was hoping to see a "snowbow." I was laughed at by people at work who thought I was making it up. You know, there are other ‘bows’ besides a rainbow. Snowbow. Fogbow. They thought I was talking about new Pokemon unless those aren’t ‘in’ anymore, then I mean that thought I was talking about (insert popular reference here).

7. One of my bucket list photos I want to take is one of deer on the beach at sunrise. On Cape Cod, this is actually a real possibility. I got so close this week as 4 deer were walking down the road toward the beach I was going to for sunrise. Then they decided to go off toward the woods, sabotaging my great moment. I felt like running after them and trying to chase them to the beach. Or at least buying a few stuffed animal deer and faking the photo.

I want a photo like this, just real and not AI.

8. From the ‘I Was Born Blond’ department. Where I live the washing machine is connected by a switch that you flip up or down to open the hose to let water in to wash the clothes. It is usually in the ‘off’ position. So I went to do laundry and flipped it to what I assumed was ‘on.’ Only when I went back down an hour later to put my clothes in the dryer and heard the washer beeping did I realize I had flipped the switch ‘off’ and the washer had basically been yelling at me to turn the water on but I hadn’t heard.

9. I watched the 1964 driver’s ed short film, Red Asphalt, to review for an upcoming podcast episode. It was definitely a bloody and at times gory scare film. However, I think the horror films I watched growing up conditioned me to not be easily startled so I only had a few moments of being caught off guard, but for kids of the 60s I could easily see this being a shocker.

Viewer Discretion Is Advised

10. It still amazes me after so many years of going to the gym how hard it is for some people to simply clean a machine they use. It amazes me more how angry they get when you ask them if they’re going to wipe their nasty sweat off a machine. I shudder to think about these people’s hygiene in other areas of their lives.

Listen to the In My Footsteps Podcast

Subscribe to the YouTube Channel

In My Footsteps: Trip 5: Sandy Neck Trails, Sandwich, Mass.

In My Footsteps

Christopher Setterlund

Trip 5: Sandy Neck Trails, Sandwich, Massachusetts

January 11, 2010

            Sandy Neck Beach in Sandwich is very well known to anyone who lives on, or has visited Cape Cod.  It has miles of golden sand and acres of majestic dunes that stretch out seemingly to the horizon.  Most people who visit Sandy Neck drive into the parking lot and walk to the beach, the normal routine for any local or vacationer.  What they may not know is that nearby are some amazing trails that will lead you right out into those majestic dunes.  It gives you a view unlike almost anything Cape Cod has to offer.

            Located directly across from the ranger station on Sandy Neck Road is a sign for these trails(right).  It tells you the distances to each trail; the furthest distance for a trail listed is five and a half miles.  Not listed is the sixth trail.  To reach it simply take Trail 1 which is a short walk out to the beach, then follow the beach all the way out.  This walk is more than six miles in length one way and leads you to a strip of seaside homes and a lighthouse which face Barnstable Harbor.  This entrance is for walking, but be aware that there is also an entrance for driving out on these trails.  In winter the trails were virtually deserted, but in summer they will probably be a little busier.  Also if preparing to hike the trail out to the lighthouse remember that it is over six miles one way and that walking through the dunes and soft sand will take considerably longer than walking normal ground or pavement.

            Hopefully that does not deter you as the hike through the Sandy Neck Trails sports some amazing natural beauty and a few pieces of history as well.  The first few miles of the trails are bordered on the right by a marsh complete with several small birdhouses near the beginning of the trails and an osprey nest situated on top of a pole out in the marsh. 

            Once you get past the exit of Trail 1 you will get into the smaller dunes that lie along the side of the marsh.  On the left you will start to see the larger dunes that Sandy Neck is known for but stick with the main marsh trail longer and you will get a better view of them.  Keep walking along the marsh trail and you will notice the first of many small cottages, most of them a hundred years old, dotting the land(left).  These are great reminders of what Sandy Neck was like in the early 20^th Century as part of the fishing and whaling industry.  They are usually occupied in the summer so be courteous of their property.  

            For the most part, up to Trail 2 the land is uniform, mainly beach sand.  The majestic dunes are in plain sight the entire time.  However once you pass Trail 2 and a small guard shack located just off of the trail, the land begins to change a bit.  There are still mountainous dunes but trees become more abundant as do the fishing cottages.  Trail 3 has been closed so if you are looking for access to the beach take Trail 2 or continue on to Trail 4.  

            Trail 4 will lead you through the dunes and spotty trees and vegetation to the beach and sports a tremendous view.  Also in this area are trails designated for horseback riding, but they are obviously fine for human use as well.  This trail takes you winding through the trees, if not for the constant hum of the ocean waves you might forget that a beach lay close by.  There are many tiny ponds scattered throughout this area, swimming in them is probably not possible or recommended. 

            Also out in this area of the Sandy Neck land is where you will find a large number of animals.  Many species of birds such as hawks and osprey will glide by.  On the ground the most common animals spotted are squirrels but raccoons and skunks roam the area as well.  On my trip here I spotted a large white tailed buck(left), not saying that you will see one, but they are out there.  

            The marsh trail weaves its way through the trees as Trail 5 and will take you out to the beach.  It is here that you may go left and head back to the parking lot, or continue onto Trail 6 and the tip of Sandy Neck.  It is a long walk but the views are incredible.  The cottages, the marsh, the dunes(right), the trees, ponds, trails, and lighthouse all make for an amazing hike. 

I will admit that this hike would probably be more appreciated in the warmer months.  I walked twelve miles in a little over four hours and enjoyed every moment.  If you have the capabilities I would recommend driving the trails if the thought of walking more than twelve miles does not thrill you.  Otherwise, pack some snacks, water, and some comfortable shoes and enjoy the natural beauty as only Cape Cod can provide.  Have fun and happy traveling!

Directions:  On the Mid-Cape highway take Exit 5 to Route 149.  Follow it to Route 6A and turn left.  Sandy Neck Road is the first right after the sign welcoming you to Sandwich.  The parking area for the trails is on the left across from the ranger station.

References: 4 Wheeling Sandy Neck

Sandwich on Dwellable