From the Fall 2015 WCT Newsletter:
Ten thousand steps – that’s what one participant’s pedometer recorded on September 12 at the end of the Trust’s 9th Annual Guided Walk that began and ended at the LeCount’s Hollow Beach parking lot. The 4 mile walk included talks at the start and at five points along the route by South Wellfleet historian Pam Tice, and by Trustees Dennis O’Connell, Bill Iacuessa, Dwight Estey, Don Palladino, and Mary Rogers.
Around seventy-five enthusiastic walkers gathered at 9 a.m. on a perfect day in the parking lot where President Dennis O’Connell and Walk Director Bill Iacuessa welcomed everyone and introduced the speakers. Mary Rogers discussed the original Maguire co”ages which were located at the beach. Pam Tice gave history of the brief-lived German glider school and Cook’s Camp to the south of the area.
The group headed up Ocean View Drive and into the woods along a trail that comes out onto the old Buffum Road, the way into Wellfleet-by-the-Sea before Ocean View Drive was built. The first stop was at a Modernist house, designed by Olaf Hammerstrom around a preexisting dwelling. There the group learned about the old road, about the creation of Ocean View Drive, and about the Surf Side Colony which they had passed on the way into the woods.
From there, the walkers went deep into the wood on a trail known as the “Gauntlet,” which runs roughly parallel to Ocean View Drive. Dwight Estey expanded upon the various colorful names given to different sections of the Gauntlet according to their terrain. The group proceeded west to the outskirts of the WCT Clover Trail. The walkers followed the railroad bed to LeCount Hollow Road, passed through the Rail Trail parking area and crossed Blackfish Creek, walking along the bike trail. From a vantage point high above the east side of Blackfish Creek, Pam Tice gave background on the early South Wellfleet General Store and Post Office, and Don Palladino discussed Blackfish Creek.
The group followed an old section of the Old King’s Highway to Marconi Wireless Road. In front of the newly rebuilt home of Bill Carlson and Lonni Briggs on Marconi Wireless Road, Dennis O’Connell explained their conservation restriction (CR), and Bill Iacuessa discussed the Marconi Station, which was located on top of the dune at the end of the sand road. This was the last stop before returning to the starting point, LeCount’s Hollow Beach parking lot. The total walk took about two and a half hours at a leisurely pace.
Participants were delighted with the walk which opened up new territory to many from Wellfleet and from far away. Come back again next year. We’re already making plans for our 10th Annual Guided Walk in Wellfleet on the Saturday after Labor Day.
Starting from the Congregational Church, where Trust President Denny O’Connell noted the steeple clock strikes the hours in eight bells–the only church in the country that continues this early American coastal town tradition–we proceeded to Dr. Clarence J. Bell Square at the corner of Main street and Whit’s Lane. There Trustee Marcia Seeler spoke about the early century significance of the site, dedicated in 1982 to the memory of Dr. Bell, a family physician whose home and office were at that location.
Denny O’Connell then led the group along the shore of Duck Creek to the Trust’s most recent acquisition, a one acre former residential property behind the Mobil Station on Route 6. He spoke about how the Trust is dedicated to preserving land such as this for generations to come. There’s a story elsewhere in this newsletter about the property. We then circled back along the railroad dike to where the former bridge crossed Duck Creek. There local historian and author David Wright talked about the history of the town along Commercial Street and the role the early railroad played in tourism and the commercial shellfish industry of Wellfleet.
The walk took place with about 40 walkers – fortunately after the rain at 4 am this morning and before the rain at 2 pm this afternoon. A great day – in addition to the three mile walk, John Portnoy spoke on the geology of the Cape and the origin of the ponds, Jeff Hughes, Wellfleet Herring Warden spoke at Herring Pond on the life cycle of herring and Ginie Page read from
Thoreau’s book when he visited the Oysterman’s House on Williams Pond. A terrific day. Hope you’ll join us next year.
On an overcast, and sometimes drizzling Saturday morning, over fifty walkers gathered at the Atwood Higgins House on Bound Brook Island to participate in the second annual Wellfleet Conservation Trust “Walks in Wellfleet.”
On Sunday, September 16, 2007, seventy five individuals participated in the first annual “Walks in Wellfleet” sponsored by the Trust in cooperation with the Cape Cod National Seashore, Herring River Restoration Project and the Town Open Space Committee. There were four walk options available ranging from one mile to three and three quarter miles along different paths throughout Griffin Island, Wellfleet.
But this was more than just walks over the dunes and through the woods. Following a brief orientation by Denny O’Connell, Trust President, three highly professional and knowledgeable National Seashore ecologists, John Portnoy, Stephen Smith and Evan Gwilliam each led walkers through different areas of Griffin Island and gave presentations along the way on the Herring River Restoration Project, cultural landscape restoration, upland plant and marsh ecology, and the historical development of the land.
Wellfleet Conservation Trust 
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