The Shining Sea Bikeway follows the route of a former railroad line run by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, which ran service to New York and Boston from 1872 to 1965. After the railroad company discontinued service along the line, local residents Joan Kanwisher, Barbara Burwell (mother of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s cofounder David Burwell), and several other supporters organized in a nine-year-long effort to have the village of Woods Hole acquire the land and build a trail, which officially opened in June 1974.
The trail begins at the Steamship Authority ticket office by Railroad Ave in the town of Woods Hole and continues along a well maintained paved bike rout for roughly 10.7 miles where it ends in another parking lot. There are plenty of parking spots along the way that have drinking fountains and portable bathrooms year round. It is very flat and makes for some nice scenic running or biking. The millage is marked roughly every 0.2 miles along the trail and is very popular with walkers, bikers and runners in the warm summer months. The start of the trail is only down the street from the famous New Balance Falmouth Road Race starting line, so this trail often attracts some very fast elite runners.
