What a morning we had at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary on Cape Cod! It was a gorgeous day for a hike so we headed out on the trail to the beach. You have to go over a little boardwalk when you get to the marsh and then onto a trail and then over a longer boardwalk to the beach on Cape Cod Bay. It is just spectacular!

Well, we got to the first little boardwalk and walked across and onto the trail to the next boardwalk. We couldn’t walk very far because a lot of it was underwater! We had not been there in a long time and thought maybe the coastline or marsh had changed and the water was higher. You can see it going under water on both ends.

So we turned around and started back down the trail. Oh no! When we got to the first boardwalk, it was under water! How would we get across? We could see the water rising pretty fast, so we quickly took off our shoes and socks, rolled up our jeans and waded across. Not what we expected to do in February!

We tried taking the loop trail back but the water was rising very quickly and we could see the trail being swallowed up. We could hear it gurgling in the marsh. It was a pretty eerie sound. Instead of getting stuck again, we opted to turn around and, hopefully, make it back to the original trail before the water did.

We made it to the trail and sat on the bench for a while and watched the water coming in. We couldn’t believe how fast it rose. You can see the first boardwalk in the center of the last photograph. It looks like a little white square surrounded by water. And that water was pretty deep!

So… some wet sneakers and dirty feet, but all in all, a very interesting and unnerving adventure! Lesson learned: Do not hike this trail an hour before or after high tide!