By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea

   We have been staying at Sue's family shore house in Stone Harbor, New Jersey for the past week. Over the years we have ridden most of the roads and trails in and around Cape May County, but we are constantly trying to find something new to throw into our regular routes down here.
   I have ridden along Ocean Drive north through Avalon, Sea Isle City and Ocean City countless times, and frankly, the road conditions have badly deteriorated. The pavement is a very porous asphalt, and it has become very rough, not only due to the traffic levels but also because of the scouring from wind-driven sand and rain during winter storms.
   New home construction and the relocation of sewer and gas lines have also taken a toll on the pavement, as bulging or sunken patched sections, especially on this stretch of 7-mile Beach, have contributed to an intolerably bumpy ride. The the volume of distracted drivers, as well as clueless people riding bicycles (not to be confused with actual cyclists), often against the flow of traffic, add to our quest to find new pedaling territory.
   Probably because my few experiences with Wildwood have always involved the boardwalk and the busy roads nearby, I have avoided riding my bicycle anywhere near the barrier islands that extend toward Cape May. During a recent stay in Stone Harbor by herself, right after school ended, Sue decided to take a chance and head south through Anglesea and "The Wildwoods".
   She was pleasantly surprised, especially by the smooth pavement and the frequent presence of a marked bike lane. I knew there were a good number of traffic lights through the center of the island, where the bulk of the boardwalk traffic filters in, but she recommended a parallel street that wasn't too bad and explained that there were miles of fairly uninterrupted cycling as you head out south through Wildwood Crest.
   I took her suggestion to check out that route and enjoyed it immensely. I was glad to find the route didn't cross into Cape May proper, and I could avoid the bridge that sits right at the end of the Garden State Parkway, making it very difficult for cyclists to navigate that high-traffic area.
   Though I did have to wait for the LONG traffic light to change at the Parkway, after that intersection, it was a fairly easy route back across the peninsula to one of my favorite stretches of cycling down here, up Shore Drive along Delaware Bay. I eventually ended up on Bayshore Road, then weaved through some small roads in the community of Burleigh to connect with the Middle Township Bike Path. Once I was back into Cape May Courthouse, it was the all-too-familiar drag back the causeway into Stone Harbor. Luckily I was "treated" to just a crosswind that day.
   I actually enjoyed that Wildwood section of the ride so much that I repeated it a couple days later at the end of a longer, counter-clockwise route I pieced together. I received a gift of a tailwind and was flying through Wildwood Crest and Anglesea, across the bridges near Hereford Inlet back to Stone Harbor.

   Perhaps she was inspired by a series of videos on the history of the Jersey shore which we were watching on YouTube, but Sue suggested a ride from Ocean City, through Atlantic City to the tip of Brigatine Beach. A little over a week ago, she had ridden up that way to catch the NJ Transit train from A.C. into Philadelphia. She had done this mainly to avoid having to drive another car back and forth from home to the shore, so she had most of the route mapped out already!

   I found it a bit funny that we were starting at my regular turnaround spot at 34th Street in Ocean City. I would usually be heading out over the Upland Thoroughfare Bridge and taking an inland track through Petersburg, Dennisville and Middle Township, back to Cape May Courthouse.

   This time we pedalled north on some roads which had light car and foot traffic, as well as smoothly-paved (at least compared to 7-mile Island) bike lanes. Note that our first crossing of the steep Ocean City-Longport Bridge over Great Egg Harbor was aided by a tailwind and fresh legs, but I went at it pretty hard, since all this flatland riding was not going to help me when I would return to the hilly Schuylkill Valley!

   With wind still at our backs, we sailed into Longport, and took a sweeping turn onto Ventnor Avenue. A few blocks later we turned right and pedaled over to Atlantic Avenue so that we could view Lucy the Elephant in Margate City. Lucy had recently undergone a $2.4 million restoration to her wooden and metal-plated "skin" and had been unveiled with fresh paint just after Christmas 2022.

   Cycling through Margate was a treat, with a super-wide bike lane that was extra-smooth! The lane tapered a bit, but was still of high-quality paving when we reached Ventnor, where the avenue also became four lanes of traffic.

   Majorly disappointed but certainly not surprised, we completely lost bike lanes when we reached O'Donnell Park, which sits on a wedge-shaped plot bordering Black Horse Pike (U.S. Route 40), and entered downtown Atlantic City. We benefitted from being there off-peak on a Thursday afternoon, but we still had to be more careful with the car traffic, and the road surface was noticeably poor around the casinos.

   We decided to duck over to Arctic Avenue, which ran parallel to the west, and found it to be in a bit better condition, then we turned left on North Carolina Avenue. We had a conversation about which streets were which property colors in Monopoly while we headed toward the cluster of high-rise hotel/casinos like the Borgata, Harrah's and the Golden Nugget.

   We were grateful that traffic was light while riding down what would have otherwise been a VERY bicycle-unfriendly Brigantine Boulevard and bridge over Absecon Inlet. Wide storm grates with large slots running the direction of our thin bicycle wheels (of course) forced us to take over the complete outside lane for safety. There was a sidewalk of sorts in the northerly direction, but no real way to get on or off of it safely - we certainly weren't looking forward to the return trip on this road!

   Once over the bridge, the four-lane, divided highway into Brigantine had a wide shoulder which provided some security, and again, it was a Thursday afternoon, so we returned to more relaxed riding conditions. The city seemed very laid-back, probably because it is isolated by the single bridge, out on this spit of land away from A.C.

   Before turning around, we quickly checked out the beach access point for vehicles. The North Brigantine Natural Area has a nearly three mile stretch of salt marsh, coastal dune and rare species habitat.

   The return trip pretty much traversed the same territory, though we did ocassionally use other streets, particularly when the northbound leg had included the one-way variety. We did encounter a couple of dangerous cyclists pedaling against traffic, incredibly, one of which was going across that hair-raising Absecon span! The other was riding straight at us on an e-bike, and when I told him he was putting us all in danger, he replied, "Shut up," and proceded to curse at me over his shoulder, as he nearly veered into a head-on collision with the oncoming traffic. That would have surely taught him a lesson!

   It didn't seem too long before we were back in Longport, and Sue mentioned that it had a reputation as a rather high-class community. I commented that wasn't too impressed during our initial pass through. but then I started seeing all these beautiful homes and wondered why I hadn't noticed them on our first shot through the borough. It wasn't until later that I realized, when we had made the sweeping turn onto Ventnor Avenue, we were actually only in Longport for a few blocks. Now, in the more affluent heart of Longport, we had missed the turn over to the boulevard that reached the bridge. We were headed toward "The Point", which dead-ended at Great Egg Harbor.

   The detour of an extra half mile or so definitely wasn't needed before the climb back over the Ocean City-Longport Bridge! I started it with enthusiam but was fairly gassed when I rolled over the top.

   There was a bit of a headwind through Ocean City, so I took the responsibility to pull our mini-peleton through the homestretch back to our car. A stop at the local ice cream shop was a proper reward for the 42-mile roundtrip.

   Later on that evening, I considered that within the couple months I had already pedaled nearly half of a potential course along the entire Atlantic coast of New Jersey from Cape May to Perth Amboy. With the intent of completing this 150-mile route by the end of the year, I have already covered 57 of the miles from Cape May Point to Brigantine, plus the 7 miles from Sea Bright to Sandy Hook and 12 more on the Henry Hudson Trail.

   There is an 18-mile segment on Long Beach Island that is completely isolated by Little Egg Inlet to the south and Barnegat Inlet to the north. The most logistically challenging section would be the 43 miles between Island Beach State Park and Sea Bright, which I visited during my Sandy Hook ride about a month ago. The park requires a 20-mile round trip to reach the turnaround, and there would also be a 10-miler on the Sea Bright end, so I'm considering the use of NJ Transit's North Jersey Coast Line train to keep the necessary riding total under 70 miles to cover that segment!

   Finally, there would be a fairly simple 12-mile route from Perth Amboy to reach the Henry Hudson Trail. I would then ride out to complete the only 2-mile segment of that path I hadn't ridden, between Belford and Atlantic Highlands.