PLANET CHOCKO – art/music/movies/beyond » biking at the Jersey shore from Atlantic Highlands to Sandy Hook

biking at the Jersey shore from Atlantic Highlands to Sandy Hook

July 22nd, 2022 by Mr. C

Hello world! We hope our readers are doing well – all 3 of you! Sorry for our severe absence from this blog but honestly we or at least I didn’t have
much interesting going on plus I was feeling kinda blue bayou. We promise to try to pick things up again. This bike ride at the Jersey shore helped inject me with some of those much needed endorphins! Let’s see if we get lucky today and run into the Boss at Sandy Hook or Kevin Smith and Jay Mewes (Jay & Silent Bob) at Leonardo, NJ!

It was great being back in Monmouth County, NJ – an area where I spent about 12 years working. We used to have an annual beach day outing for our company which was held at Sandy Hook usually towards the end of September. New Jersey, for all you that do not know because our state is so different – most beaches in NJ charge an admission fee per person to get on the beach or in this case, Sandy Hook which is a national historic park and former military base charges a parking fee which to my amazement is $20 now! Another point to note that these entrance fees are usually in effect between Memorial Day to Labor day which is basically all summer long. Anytime outside of these dates, there are no entrance fees! I’m sure that is why my former company had their outing after labor day plus it’s usually much cooler in temperature in their defense!

Anyway, we took our bikes back to the former stomping grounds and rode from Atlantic Highlands to Sandy Hook beach! And we avoided the $20 entrance fee because we were on bicycle! Of course we rode on a day that would start this little heat wave in NJ/NY but it was worth it! The total distance we rode was about 20 miles round trip and boy I’m glad we were
somewhat prepared with the liquids because it was Buster pointdexter feeling hot,hot,hot! We stopped at Slater’s Deli on Rt 36 in Leonardo for their awesome subs and pork roll breakfast sandwiches!

Sandy Hook is an amazing destination of natural riches that has an extensive ocean and bay beaches for swimming, surfing, paddle boarding, fishing, picnicking, scuba diving, wind surfing, & bicycling. Of course we’re not forgetting about you, the professional sun bathers out there! For the nature explorers, the park has hiking trails, salt marshes, bike paths, and a forest with much wildlife. We saw a few deer roaming around even in this hot weather! God bless you bambi! The National Park Service took over Sandy Hook in 1975 after the U.S. Army decommissioned Fort Hancock which served as an active military base from 1874-1975.

It’s about a 1.5 – 2 hr drive to Sandy Hook from NYC but there is the Seastreak Ferry that departs from 35th st & East river or Pier 11 Wall Street that goes to Atlantic Highlands, Highlands, & Sandy Hook. From Atlantic Highlands or Highlands, it’s about a 10 min car ride to Sandy Hook or you can bike there in 25 minutes or so.

The Seastreak Ferry info can be found here .

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