50 Shades of New Jersey

With great anticipation, Ryan and I left the urban comforts of New York behind and headed south towards Dixieland. Our first destination was Sandy Hook, and Ryan had a grand plan to take a ferry from Wall Street to NJ. What Ryan didn’t account for was the Memorial Day Holiday, which shut down the ferry system and caused us to reroute 80 miles across Manhattan, Newark, and some other notable New Jersey places. The bridge paths were narrow / non-existent, the landscape was post-apolocytpic, but between Ryan’s fresh legs and my fully inflated tires we were able to make Sandy Hook just in time for another monsoon.

Along the way, we stopped by a cafe in Highlands. Despite the town’s name, Highlands is at or below sea level. So, while Ryan sipped tea and I leaned against a flower box, we were informed by some locals that the exact place we were relaxing in was under 10 feet of water during Hurricane Sandy. And once the decision was made to rebuild highlands, everything was raised one level in anticipation of the next storm. Ryan and I suddenly didn’t feel so bad about the intermittent rain showers.

In Sandy Hook, Ryan parked me for a couple days and galavanted across the park with some “naturalist” friends that he made. You see, Sandy Hook is a perfect place for naturalists because of the generous policies on beach nudism. Ryan has decided to only post landscape photos from his time in Sandy Hook.

Moving down the Jersey Shore was refreshing. Beach goers were in appropriate swimwear, hoagies were on every menu, and the beach boardwalks went on for miles. Despite the deserved reputation of the Jersey Shore, it treated us quite well. It helped that the temperature was perfectly warm and the winds were slightly at our backs.

Not wanting to gamble away the bike tour budget, Ryan decided to route inland and avoid Atlantic City. This is where the riding got interesting. At first, the roads were windy and perfect through Pinelands. Then, on the way to Wharton State Forest, the service road that Google Maps recommend turned out to be a barely perceptible path through the woods. I had a blast ripping through the knee deep puddles and gravel. Ryan, however, was used to boardwalks and dedicated bike lanes, so he had some time adjusting to the off road riding. Just as he was starting to get the hang of it, the “Service Road” disappeared and we had to route onto the New Jersey Turnpike. Yep, that happened. But, before you all get too concerned, it was only for 1 mile before we found another section of the Service Road and crossed into the the state forest.

The last leg of New Jersey took us down to the Cape May – Lewis ferry. Coincidently, there was a triathlon at the ferry terminal. While Ryan went into the finish area to find some free bagels, I hung out and scoffed at the ultra-light and ultra-useless triathlon bikes. After breakfast, we boarded the ferry and bid New Jersey farewell. Onto Delmarva.