Ken, November 2003: Bradley
Beach to Mantoloking and back
Sharon and I had a fun time at the
Jersey shore on Saturday -- me on skates, Sharon on her bike. (this
is along the Atlantic Ocean in the state of New Jersey, USA). My
trip report . . .
Lots of views of the ocean, mostly wide roads with traffic we
could deal with, mostly flat. We'll go back there again (but only in
the off-season). We started in Bradley Beach went south to
Mantoloking and then back -- lots more details on our route further
below.
I skated mostly on the roads -- the boardwalks thru there are far
from continuous, and some do not permit skating. I thought the
prettiest views were thru Manasquan and across the bridge to Point
Pleasant. Most pleasant skating on the quiet road south from Point
Pleasant along the inland-side bay, and on the off-road oceanside
pavement in Manasquan.
Many of obvious roads near the ocean were pretty wide, or had
wide shoulders. Often we found quieter roads to the side. Some
sections had problematic car parking -- notably angle parking where
cars can back out into you, or make unexpected U-turns.
Lots of bicyclists out on those roads, though saw only one other
skater. The car drivers seemed pretty tolerant of me skating. I use
a mirror so I can see each car coming up behind me, then I usually
wave back to them and move over some before they reach me -- seems
to help keep the traffic interaction friendly. (this was way off
season, might be very different in summer)
Pavement was mostly decent, but only one section was wonderfully
smooth. There were some other sections with coarse-stone pavement
that was vibrational on my skates -- but very few cracks or
potholes. Some of the wide shoulders had some loose stones or sand,
so I had to skate narrow or carefully on them -- but mostly the
shoulders were pretty decent.
Trains from New York City go all the way down to Bay Head
Junction, just south of the pretty views thru Manasquan and Point
Pleasant. Could also use the trains to set up a one-way tour.
Details
Route we tried: Start by Bradley Beach / Ocean Grove boundary,
south on obvious ocean-side road for like 6 miles to Sea Girt
(pavement starts coarse, gets better). West for a short stretch on
Rt 71, then east on Stockton Lake Blvd into Manasquan, then Potter
and Ocean to some exploring by the shore, including the off-road
paved "boardwalk". West on Brielle Ave across little bridge, left on
Green Ave, underneath Rt 35, then get on Rt 35 South across the big
bridge to Point Pleasant.
Rt 35 got narrower with parked cars here, so we shifted west and
used Bay Ave (next time I would get off Rt 35 sooner, like onto
River Av). East on Bridge Ave, some parked cars and traffic (next
time I would try Osborne Av instead). South on Lake Av and Clayton
and Barnegat and other streets just west of Rt 35, until Princeton
Av in Mantoloking. After this there's not much alternative to Rt 35
for a long ways, so we turned around.
North on Rt 35 (wide shoulder with some loose stones), Right on
Lyman St, then north on quieter roads just east of Rt 35 onto Ocean
Ave in Point Pleasant Beach. There tried the wooden boardwalk --
rather bumpy, but tolerable for the ocean views and just because it
was a different environment with the shops and walkers.
West on Broadway (great pavement, but good thing it was
off-season for the traffic). Rt 35 north across the big bridge. Rt
71 north thru Brielle (mostly wide or well-paved shoulder, a couple
of narrow spots). At Sea Girt go east to the obvious ocean-side road
and north on that back to our start.
Train: one-way train line (from NYC on North Jersey Coast line) :
www.njtransit.state.nj.us
Maps: Hagstrom Monmouth county and Hagstrom Ocean county road
maps were very helpful for finding quieter side roads.
Taxi services: We looked up some taxi phone numbers in advance on
www.superpages.com -- handy
in case of a major equipment failure.
Public toilets: Several.
