Our local Conservation Trusts and Foundations, National Parks, and Wildlife Sanctuaries offer a wide variety of walks, talks, and activities for both young and old. Navigate to the adjacent links to register for any of the fun and informative programs
The following walks are offered by Harwich Conservation Trust together with ECF.
The Outermost House: Salt Pond Trail with Don Wilding
- Sat., September 23 (10 a.m. – noon)
- SORRY, CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER
Sponsored by Harwich Conservation Trust & Eastham Conservation Foundation, join a walk exploring “the earth and outer sea” of Henry Beston’s “The Outermost House.” Beston’s book, a Cape Cod literary classic published 95 years ago, captured the essence of Cape Cod’s “Great Beach” and served as an inspiration for the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Local historian Don Wilding, author of “Henry Beston’s Cape Cod: How ‘The Outermost House’ Inspired a National Seashore” and three other Cape history books, tells the story of how and why Beston, an ambulance driver in World War I, came here, what he experienced during his “year on the beach,” and how “The Outermost House” became a National Literary Landmark before it was swept away by the sea in the “Blizzard of ’78.”
Cape Cod & the Portland Gale of 1898: Nauset Light Beach to Coast Guard Beach with Don Wilding
- Sat., November 4 (10 a.m. – noon)
Cosponsored by Harwich Conservation Trust and Eastham Conservation Foundation. It was 125 years ago this month, on the night of November 26, 1898, with a killer storm of historic proportions approaching, that the steamer Portland set out from Boston. By the following night, the winter hurricane sent the vessel to the depths of Massachusetts Bay off Cape Cod, claiming nearly 200 lives. On the Cape, a few dozen victims of the Portland disaster washed ashore on the outer beaches, while ships piled up in harbors, high tides swept away railroad tracks in Truro and Sandwich, and the landscape and shorelines were changed forever. Several Cape Cod mariners went to sea and never returned, caught in the gale’s evil clutches. Don revisits this disaster and the heroic deeds of the U.S. Life-Saving Service and the Cape’s citizenry in what came to be known as “The Portland Gale.”
Harwich Conservation Trust +
Orleans Conservation Trust +
Wellfleet Conservation Trust +
Wellfleet Bay WIldlife Sanctuary +