Lawrence Island in Bourne’s village of Cataumet doesn’t require you to have a boat to explore it. You can easily walk to the island via a path at the end of Grasslands Lane. In total, the hike is an easy 2 miles.
Important note: check the tidal chart before you visit. More on this later.
Benny was so excited that his new shirt came in, and he was wearing it around the house.
“I have an island shirt! I need to go to an island!” he said.
With that in mind, we looked for a nearby island to visit and chose Lawrence Island on the Cape Cod side of Bourne to be our adventure du jour (du jour makes it sound fancy).
The path leading to the island is found at the end of Grasslands Lane. Parking is available on the street. The trail passes through locals’ backyards. Benny was tempted to run through their yards, but I reminded him that we had to respect others’ privacy. With a huff, he agreed, or at least pretended to.
After a short jaunt (again, I think jaunt sounds fancier than walk…) we came across a tidal pool right near the ocean. What a cool sight!
Special note:
Right before we got to this tidal pool, there’s a short, wooden bridge that goes over a tidal stream. We didn’t think anything of it, but when we returned a week after to show my wife what we had discovered on the island, we found the bridge completely submerged by water.
Before heading to Lawrence Island, check out the tidal charts to make sure you’re not going during high tide.
Turning around, we saw a great view of Squeteague Harbor.
After taking in the sights of the harbor on one side of a land bridge causeway and admiring the expanse of Buzzards Bay on the other, we continued on to the official beginning of Lawrence Island.
The path travels around the island. Benny was in his glory; here he was, getting his paws full of sand, feeling the ocean breeze, and wearing his island shirt.
Not far from where we took this picture you can see The Baxendale Mausoleum on Amrita Island. There’s a cool story behind it. We’d love to write about this place too someday, but it’s on private property. If anyone knows how we could be allowed in, please let us know.
Benny Makes Friends
Right after we turned the corner, Benny said he thought he saw something popping out of the sand. I thought he was crazy or getting delusional.
“No, Bob, I’m not crazy! There’s something in the sand! Right near the water,” he exclaimed.
Placating him, I went up to the sand, and, lo and behold, the little bear was right. There were hundreds of tiny crabs poking their heads out of the sand!
I was able to get a few of them on video. Benny said I could have done a better job keeping the camera steady, but if you can put up with the shakiness up to the end of the clip, you’ll see that I did manage to get a halfway decent shot of the crabs waving their claws in the air.
Benny thought that he could try to make friends with the crabs. Before I could stop him, he fell onto the sand, turned around, and starting lying on his back. He hoped that the crabs would see that he’s nothing to be afraid of.
As you can see, the crabs were scared and went back into their homes. My disgruntled bear friend thought that they didn’t like him, and it brought back memories of the animals at the Museum of Natural History Museum in Providence. Poor Benny.
Realizing that the crabs were running away, he got up, brushed the sand off of his island shirt, and decided it was time to continue our journey.
The Rest of the Beach
You’ll really feel the ocean wind when you get to the side of the island that faces Buzzards Bay. A nice, cool zephyr* was blowing off of the water.
*Honestly, I’ve been waiting since freshman year of high school to correctly use that word in a sentence.
The beach on this side is rocky. And no, for those of you wondering, it’s not a swimming zone.
Benny thought that he could wear this as a hat, but he got spooked when it started moving. He couldn’t understand why everything was running away from him.
Benny Finally Really DOES Make Friends
On the way back, Benny was noticeably sullen.
“Everything runs away from me!”
I did feel bad. I had tried explaining that their running away was part of instinct, but Benny wasn’t buying it.
Then, he looked down and saw another crab. “Are you going to run away too?” he asked.
This crab didn’t. It just stayed on the sand and waved his claw at Benny. Benny bent down excitedly. He took the crab in his paw.
“OOOWWWWWWWWW!” he screamed. The crab had bitten him. Benny threw the crab to the ground.
I thought that this was it – that Benny would be incredibly sad that not only had every creature run away from him, but also that he had just gotten bit.
I couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Benny was smiling!
“You’re not mad?” I asked cautiously.
“No, of course not! That’s just how crabs say hi!” he responded.
I wasn’t about to argue.
Lawrence Island is managed by the Bourne Conservation Trust.
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The trail head for Lawrence Island can be found at the end of Grasslands Lane in Bourne, Massachusetts.
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[…] felt like going on a seaside walk. But we knew that visiting The Knob or Lawrence Island was out of the question; it was too late in the day to try to cross the canal, and tourists would […]