park to park to park to...

I hear it was Jack H who asked Tom H about Cheesequake Park. Jack had never been, and wondered about it, so Tom set up a ride there today.

We started at the Monmouth Battlefield park: in addition to Tom, Jack, and your humble reporter, Chris C, Ricky G, and Peter G came... along with Laura OLPH, who's finally finished blowing glass until fall. We had expected another, and held the start a few minutes, but finally we seven left.

Tom had picked maybe the only reasonable bicycle route (when you see the ride page, you'll see that much of the out-and-back retraced the same roads). It was a great day, and, while we weren't fast, we did move right along.

We stopped at a Wawa about halfway through the route.

Ricky and Laura both had pretty, lugged-tube bikes, and set 'em up near one another so they could get beauty photos.

I can't blame 'em.

From there we proceeded to Cheesequake, first to the euphoniously-named Crabbing Bridge (there was a certain amount of speculation about what might go on at the Crabbing Bridge; the idea that it was for catching crabs was simply too obvious):

...and then to the Lake at Cheesequake, which was underwhelming.

So now I feel like I've done Cheesequake Park.

On the way back, we took the Henry Hudson trail. Where we went to get on, the police had the road blocked, and we had to get permission to go through. Tom has a reputation for riding on closed roads, but this set a new standard.

The Henry Hudson Trail is paved, but in places the paving is so buckled that you wish it were not. Ricky G pointed out, in an excellent reframe, that it was probably better than dangerous traffic. (Someday I'm going to inherit a small piece of Ricky's equanimity, and nobody will recognize me ever again).

The trail goes through yet another park, Big Brook.

Then, to avoid the downtown Freehold traffic, we went around behind the courthouse and came back to Monmouth Battlefield Park.

(I just wanted credit for bein' there.)

Ride page. We were slow!

There were, of course, the obligatory references to Cheese Steak and Cheesecake. The Insane Bike Posse enjoys the worst puns. Few who come out with us leave because of the pace or destination, but many never return after they hear the tenor of the conversation.