Bourne Rail Trail Blazers Spearhead Bike Path Efforts Through Fundraising, Cycling
For many cyclists on the morning of the Buzzards Bay Coalition’s Watershed Ride, the 40-plus-miles-per-hour winds were a mild concern at best and an outright deterrent at worst. Some riders opted out; some rescheduled their ride for a more fair-weathered day. But for Bourne Rail Trail Blazers co-captain Ken Cheitlin, the weather was just par for the course.
“Surprisingly, given the conditions, it went very well,” Mr. Cheitlin said of the ride, which took place one morning in early October. “The coalition did a great job of sort of adapting to unexpected, adverse conditions.”
One hundred sixty-six out of 400 registered cyclists biked that day, Mr. Cheitlin being one of them. He opted to ride a self-created route as opposed to one of the coalition’s planned 100-, 75-, and 35-mile ride routes, which took him from the mainland side of the Cape Cod Canal up to the finish line at Eastover Farm in Rochester.
“I didn’t even have a bib on because I hadn’t started from the official start,” Mr. Cheitlin said, “but then I stayed to watch everyone else come in and they were beat. These guys were shell-shocked when they rolled in. Some of them had to sort of just sit there and catch their breath after riding 65 miles straight into a northeast wind. It was dedication.”
Dedication is something to which Mr. Cheitlin is no stranger. A Bourne resident who has spent five decades visiting and living on the Cape, Mr. Cheitlin first rode the Watershed Ride in 2014.
“I’ve ridden every year except one year since then,” Mr. Cheitlin said. He initially learned about the coalition’s work from his brother-in-law, who was on the board at the time.
“I knew the work they were doing and I liked the work they were doing so I decided it would be fun to ride one year and I recruited my cousin to ride. Since then, we’ve had it on our calendar every year,” he said.
Now, Mr. Cheitlin rides with the Bourne Rail Trail Blazers, a team he helped to found in 2018. The team set an all-time record in 2019 with 63 riders and in 2021 was the top fundraising team, bringing in a total of $46,211 for the coalition through a dollar-for-dollar donation match. Mr. Cheitlin himself was the top fundraiser that year, having raised more than $12,000 for the cause.
This year, the Bourne Rail Trail Blazers came in second, having raised $28,250. The Sippican Sailors took first place, with a whopping $57,122 raised.
“They did a great job,” Mr. Cheitlin said of the Sailors team. “I have to give it to them. They took us to task.…It was good but I had to concede defeat. Easy to do in this context. Besides, we’ve given them fair warning that we’re coming after them again next year.”
The Bourne Rail Trail team is an offshoot of the Friends of the Bourne Rail Trail, an organization that formed in 2016 to support efforts to build a rail trail bike path that will connect Falmouth’s Shining Sea Bikeway to Bourne’s Cape Cod Canal Pathway. Having been drawn to the Watershed ride because of his passion to keep the Cape’s waters clean, Mr. Cheitlin, a board member of the Friends of the Bourne Rail Trail, thought it would be beneficial to both causes if they created a team that benefitted both interests.
“I care a lot about the quality of the bay and maintaining the quality of the bay and there are lots of people involved in that effort but the coalition has really stood out, I think, as being the organization that’s accomplished the most,” he said. “I just really like the cause and then I got involved in trying to create this rail trail and I just think it would be a tremendous amenity for the Upper Cape towns. It doesn’t make much sense right now that there’s a gap between the Canal Pathway and the Shining Sea Bikeway. The Shining Sea Bikeway is usually rated as the number one attraction in the Upper Cape; it’s been hugely important and this area of Bourne that the trail will go through is some of the most beautiful coastline. It’s high time we have a path that goes through it.”
The Bourne Rail Trail is a 6.2-mile stretch between Falmouth and Bourne’s current bike paths. Mr. Cheitlin said that currently, the town administrator’s advisory committee on pedestrian bicycle pathways, of which he is a member, meets once a week and is working with MassDOT to hopefully create a rail with trail pathway that will break ground in 2025.
“Our position is I think the public interest is better served by creating a bike path in place of the rail line,” Mr. Cheitlin said. “But in the meantime, we’re full speed ahead with designing rail with trail. It’s an exciting project, I think it’ll be a real game changer in the Upper Cape when it happens.”
And as for next year’s Watershed Ride? Well, it’s already on the Bourne Rail Trail Blazers calendar.
“Now, it sort of perpetuates itself,” Mr. Cheitlin said of the ride. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. It’s worth it to help support what the coalition is up to.…It’s always fun.”
Next week, the town administrator’s advisory committee on pedestrian bicycle pathways will be holding a public information session regarding phase 4 of the Bourne Rail Trail project. The meeting will take place on Monday, November 14, at 6 PM in the Bourne High School Library media center. The meeting is also accessible on Zoom using meeting ID 856 9738 4888 and password 700329.