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Shackline Dune Co.

Guided dune walks, set as plates from a field guide.

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Dune walks

Plant keyDune walksPrunus maritimawhite, spring

A ripe beach plum, dusty blue-purple with a pale bloom, hanging among serrated green leaves

A pressed herbarium sheet of beach plum twigs in white flower, with the collector's label

Plate 7. Beach plum, in fruit.

Beach plum

Beach plum

No signal, plenty of sky.

Dune walks

Where the dune walksStart · the lot → Shack Row2 hrs

The route (sample). 1 foredune · 2 beachgrass · 3 dune heath · 4 open waterstay off the grass
Sundown walkDeparts 5:30 pm90 min

Where + when. Bring layers. Leave no trace.meet at the lot · bring layers · wind is free
Plant key walkMornings2 hrs

Beach heather · Bearberry · Beach plum · Seaside goldenrodtiny, tough, everywhere
Who walked here?Low tide1 hr

Tracks, low tide. 1 old tracks · 2 blown sand · 3 wind rippleswind smooths them over

Routes and times are sample content.Blown sand, Aughacasla Beach, Co. Kerry, Ireland (not the Cape). Video: Maoileann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Out here the road is sand and the lights are stars.

Hand-tinted postcard: a tall dune crest with beachgrass, Cape Cod, about 1930 to 1945 — Fig. 101 foredune · 2 hollow · 3 back dunePostcard, Tichnor Bros. for The Mayflower Sales Co., Provincetown, c. 1930–45. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Hand-tinted postcard: a sand track running through the dunes under a big blue sky — Out past the pavement1 sky · 2 no signalPostcard, Tichnor Bros. for The Mayflower Sales Co., Provincetown, c. 1930–45. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Hand-tinted postcard: footprints climbing a steep orange dune face toward a grassy ridge — Fig. 3Who walked here?wind smooths them overPostcard, Tichnor Bros. for The Mayflower Sales Co., Provincetown, c. 1930–45. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Plant key

Beach heather Bearberry Beach plum Seaside goldenrod

Watercolour plate of woolly beach heather: a low, needle-leaved shrub covered in small yellow flowers

Beach heather

Hudsonia tomentosa

early summerout now

Plate 132-A, Wild Flowers of New York, 1918.

Watercolour of a trailing bearberry stem with small oval leaves and clusters of red berries

Bearberry

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. A low evergreen shrub of open dune heath. Red berries ripen late in the season.

red berriesout now

Mary Vaux Walcott, 1916.

Beach plum shrubs in white blossom on a Cape Cod dune under a grey sky

Beach plum

Prunus maritima

white, springout now

In blossom, Cape Cod.

Seaside goldenrod: a stem of bright yellow flower clusters above long, fleshy leaves

Seaside goldenrod

Solidago sempervirens

late summerout now

Photograph, Azores. Credits below.

1900 U.S. Geological Survey sheet of Provincetown: the curl of the Province Lands, Race Point and the Peaked Hill Bar life-saving station

Meet at the lot.

departs 5:30 pm · bring layers

wind is free

Sundown walk: 5:30 pm
Plant key walk: Mornings
Who walked here?: Low tide
Where the dune walks: 2 hrs

Sample details · not a real schedule

Provincetown Sheet, U.S. Geological Survey, 1889, reprinted 1900. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.