Cape Ann Sunday Hikes

This is the welcome page for the mailing lists for the Cape Ann Sunday Morning hiking group, led for many years by Ted Tarr, and for the Cape Ann Dog-Friendly hiking group.

Before the pandemic, the Sunday morning hiking group met most Sundays at 9:45 am at the Whistle Stop Mall on Route 127 in Rockport, and carpooled to hiking destinations all over Cape Ann, departing when the commuter rail train left the adjacent MBTA station at 10 am.

As we emerge from the pandemic, we are scheduling Sunday morning hikes one Sunday a month -- generally the 4th Sunday of the month, with the following non-holiday Sunday as rain date if needed. We are limiting participation to 10 hikers per leader (usually 2 leaders, so 20 participants max). We're meeting at the starting point of each hike (rather than carpooling from Whistle Stop Mall), departing at 10 am sharp. Signup is via the Cape Ann Trail Stewards website, https://capeanntrailstewards.org/events, usually opening for registration 2 weeks prior to each hike. We do maintain a waitlist for each hike -- so if you’ve registered and can’t join us, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer the spot to the next person on the waitlist. Registrants will get an email with directions and parking info upon registration for each hike.

(In addition to our scheduled hikes, you can use the tracks and routes in the mailing list archives (see below) to try out some of our past hikes on your own. You'll need to install the free Gaia GPS app on your smartphone (which you can get from the Google Play Store for Android phones or the Apple App Store for iPhones), you'll need to create a free account at gaiagps.com, and then you can add any public route or track (including those in our archives) to your gaiagps.com account, sync it with your smartphone GaiaGPS app, and then your phone will show you where you are on the route as you hike.)

Our hikes are generally 2 to 3 hours in duration, 3 to 4 miles in length. We hike all over the island's extensive trail system -- Dogtown, the Lanesville and Pigeon Cove quarry lands, the Rockport South Woods -- and off-island destinations around Cape Ann as well.

Click here to view a gorgeous collection of photos taken on our Sunday morning hikes over the years by Beverly Bernhard, on the Town of Rockport's Rights of Way Committee's web page.

The mailing list is for announcement of upcoming hikes, archiving of each hike's route, and questions/discussion/planning of future hikes. Traffic is low, generally a couple of messages per week. Please subscribe if you're interested in joining us on the trails!

Click here to join the mailing list (if you're not already a member), or to view the list archives (if you are already a member).

(You'll be asked to sign into Google, if you're not already signed in. If you don't have a Google account, you can get one (for free) by clicking on "Sign in to view this group", then clicking on "Create Account" on the next page. That will take you to the Create Account page. Be sure to click the link that says "I prefer to use my current email address" on that page.)

The Sunday Morning group does not permit dogs on the hikes, but we have a second, Dog-Friendly group:

Starting in July 2022, the dog-friendly group has scheduled hikes, generally on the second Sunday afternoon of the month, starting at 1 pm, with the following non-holiday Sunday as rain date. The dog-friendly hikes will generally follow the same route as the preceding month's Sunday morning hike -- so this is a chance for people who can't join us on Sunday mornings, and people who were waitlisted from a Sunday morning hike, to hike the same route.

Please do NOT sign up for a dog-friendly hike if you participated in the preceding month's Sunday morning hike, so that others have a chance to hike the route.

We'll be meeting at the starting point of each hike, departing at 1 pm sharp. At present, participation is low enough that we are not limiting the number of participants. There is a limit of one dog per hiker, though, and dogs must be leashed, at least at the beginning of each hike, until we have a sense of how the dogs present are interacting with people and each other, and also when we pass through environmentally fragile areas such as areas recovering from a recent forest fire. (Remember to bring poop bags for your dog too!) Signup for each dog-friendly hike is simply via reply to the dog-friendly hiking group email announcing the hike. If you want to bring your dog, please indicate so in your reply.

(In addition, if you and your dog would like company on an ad-hoc walk or a hike, feel free to post to the dog-friendly mailing list to get a group of (human and canine) companions together to join you!)

Here's a photo of a group of us who got together for a dog-friendly hike from the Gee Ave. entrance to the Goose Cove Reservoir to Whale's Jaw -- there via the JerryMannder trail (blazed in the 20th century), and back via the Common Road (which dates to the 17th century).

Click here to join the mailing list for the dog-friendly hiking group.