Sandy Hook Bike Ride

I originally had plans to go to a movie on Sunday afternoon, but it was an incredibly beautiful day, so instead I headed out for a bike ride that I've been wanting to do for a while now. I drove out to Sandy Hook, NJ and did about 10 miles with views of the ocean, the bay, old military buildings and Manhattan.

While I was riding, I saw a sign that said "Battery Tours Today". It reminded me of Eastern State Penitentiary, so I decided to go ahead and do it. The guy also said that it would be 10-20 minutes, but it ended up being about 45 mins. He was a little on the chatty side. It was fascinating to learn how the battery worked and see the amazingly thick (20-60 feet) walls of poured concrete.

This battery, and all of the ones on Sandy Hook, were created to defend New York Harbor, so the view from the top was pretty cool. This is a view of some old concrete military buildings and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge as seen from the top of the Battery:

There are a ton of old military buildings on Sandy Hook. The houses in the photo below served as housing for those stationed at Fort Hancock and now one is open for tours and another houses the Audubon Society, but the others are falling into disrepair. I guess there is little government funding for upkeep here. Apparently there was a plan to make them into B&B's, but that fell through.

This is the oldest lighthouse in the US, at Fort Hancock:

And this is a groundhog! Even though there are beaches on both sides of this very narrow peninsula, there is what's known as a "maritime forest" in the middle. So I rode past huge sand dunes and salt marshes, views of the ocean and the bay, and through dense forests. It was a pretty interesting ride.

After logging about 10 miles, I put my bike back on the rack on my car and took advantage of the ocean views. It was a beautiful day to sit on the beach - about 65 degrees and breezy. There was a sailboat off in the distance:

And a view of Manhattan to my left. It was a beautiful, clear day and it felt like you could see forever.

It was a little on the windy side, and the dune grasses were being blown around quite a bit. Here you can see that they leave little circles in the sand from being blown around.

A perfect way to end a little adventure: