Curling nearly 11 miles past woodlands, marshes, salt ponds and seascape, the Shining Sea Bikeway is the only bikeway on Cape Cod to skirt the shore. Also called the Shining Sea Bike Path, the paved trail extends from County Route 151 in Falmouth to the Woods Hole Steamship Authority's site in Woods Hole, a historical seaside fishing village and home to an internationally known scientific community.
Rich in history, the bikeway follows prehistoric Wampanoag Indian trails. Members of the Algonquin Nation, the peaceful Wampanoag were notable seafarers who thrived here on a plentiful diet of shellfish, fish, game, wildfowl, berries, roots and nuts. In 1620 Wampanoag Chief Massasoit greeted Pilgrims, the first substantial wave of European immigrants. By the 1850s, Falmouth had become a destination for summer tourists, and the Penn Central Railroad soon stretched from Monument Village to Woods Hole, tracing the ancient Wampanoag trails.
The railroad stopped service in 1957, and within 20 years, the bikeway was built and dedicated as part of Falmouth's bicentennial celebrations. Today it serves as an inter-modal transportation link, connecting automobile, bus, ferry and bicycle routes. Its name comes from "America the Beautiful," the famous poem by Katherine Lee Bates, a Falmouth native.
This cache is actually located along the trails located near the bike path, not actually along the bike path.