Pillsbury Press: Biking along the Jersey Shore

A few weeks ago we were in Ocean Grove when we noticed the boardwalk connected to the town just south. Don and I swear there used to be a gap, but on that day we walked to the next town like it was meant to be. We decided it would be fun to bring the tandem bike and give it a roll after Labor Day once the crowds were done for the season.

The weather was lovely, as it tends to be right after school starts up for the new year, so we loaded the tandem in the back of Don's Honda Element and drove to the beach. We thought of our friend Kevin who makes an annual ride along the shoreline. Should have asked him how he makes the connections since they were not all obvious.

I should have made notes afterwards, because the details are a bit light now. Here is the map of our hour and a half-long trip.

We started in Ocean Grove next to a sign that said no bicycles allowed on the boardwalk between May 15 and September 15, and breathed a sigh of relief because it was September 16. Pure luck.

What we didn't factor was that each town sets its own ordinances. Some limit bicycles year-round, others between Memorial Day and Labor Day, probably still others don't have any rules -- or at least they don't mark them.

We were determined to see how far south we could ride the tandem before having to leave the road. The answer: less than two miles.

We crossed Fletcher Lake, which did not used to have a boardwalk over it, and rode into Bradley Beach. At the end of Bradley Beach, less than two miles into our epic ride, the boardwalk ended forcing us to go to the street and cross a bridge.

Back on the boardwalk, we rode through Avon-by-the-Sea. Entering each town, I'm always in awe of the little signs that make each town unique. It could be the materials used for the boardwalk, or the types of benches, the streetlights (or lack thereof), or the size of the homes, but the signs exist.

Avon-by-the-Sea effortlessly took us to Belmar. While in Belmar, or perhaps Lake Como Beach, we had our only bit of congestion when a high school sports team dropped in front of us to do push-ups at the halfway point of their training run. We narrowly missed a competitive teen as he stopped, dropped, and pushed up, and kept our eyes out for more. Perhaps we should have heeded the sign that said no bikes allowed on the boardwalk?

The next town is Spring Lake. I instantly recognized it from the gateway I've run through on their Memorial Day weekend 5 mile race. At the end of Spring Lake we seemed to hit a road block, or rather the end of the boardwalk. As we were clumsily turning the tandem around (turning a bicycle around is enough of a challenge, the tandem feels ten times as hard in the moment), a man said we should keep going. We asked how?, and he replied "Follow me." If you think it was hard turning the tandem around the first time, it was harder the second time since we had the added pressure of someone to follow.

He lead us up two blocks, across a bridge, down a street, and a left turn and down two more roads to the boardwalk in Sea Girt, which we rode for another couple of miles until we hit another end of the boardwalk. We were at the 6.5 mile route. Our tandem limit ride is somewhere between 10 and 15 miles, so a 13 mile ride was right in the sweet spot.

We retraced our steps. Once back in Ocean Grove we decided to go north a little bit and search for ice cream. Unfortunately Day's was closed, but we rode around tent city, which always looks a bit sad after the tents are put away for the off-season. We put the car back in the car and walked up to Asbury Park.

Never fear, the drive home took us to Hoffman's for some ice cream.

Seems I took most of my pictures on the ride back. I'm getting quite comfortable developing my "drive by shooting" skills.