Views from my bicycle: Brendan Byrne State Forest

In my last post, I mentioned Brendan Byrne State Forest as a place for a possible weekend getaway in NJ.  Yesterday, the air was crisp in the morning , fall weather.  Fall is nearly here.  Pumpkins and mums were plentiful at the road stands I passed on my way to Brendan Byrne.  Spiced wafers and apple cider were prominently displayed in the grocery store when I did some shopping earlier in the day.  The only things missing to create the total fall experience were colorful leaves and CAMPING!

I couldn’t go camping.  But, I love being outdoors in this type of weather.  Autumn is my favorite season.  So, I did the next best thing:  a ride in the woods. 

Brendan Byrne State Forest is only 40 minutes from my home,  so I put my bike in the back of our pickup and took off.  The sky had gone from nearly all blue to thickly overcast with moisture in the air and I considered not going.  I’m glad I went.  Brendan Byrne has lots of trails.  Some are paved.  Lengths vary from 1.5 miles to 10.8 miles.  I rode a 3+  mile,  undulating portion of the 10.8 mile Bike Trail for a total of nearly 7 miles through the pine and oak forest.  I went late in the day, so there were only a few riders in the park.  A few vehicles passed me on the road as they went back to the campground.  The ride was pleasant.  I can’t wait to ride once the leaves turn. 

I share this post because bike riding is something that I do when I go camping.  Johnnie and I nearly always take our bikes with us wherever we go.  We have ridden on bikes on Cannon Beach, Oregon; on the roads in Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming; Badlands National Park in South Dakota; Assateague National Park in Maryland; Pine Island and Sugarloaf Key in Florida; Brattleboro, Vermont; and Kouchiboguac National Park in New Brunswick, Canada.  The bike rides let us get intimate with the landscape, to see it at a leisurely pace, and gives lots of time to stop and get some photos as well as stop for a snack or lunch that we’ve packed. (I neglected to mention that we have ridden at Belleplain and Cape May Point State Park, but I think I take those rides for granted or as much a part of me as breathing!)

For my friends new to RVing, towing a dinghy (vehicle) is great because you can take side trips while leaving your RV parked.  But consider taking / buying bicycles for another experience in the outdoors.

Here are a few photos from the day.  I know I will take many more when I return next month.

Brendan Byrne State ForestA view of the trail, open to hiking or bikingInfo board on the Pine Barrens

Hello, New Friends!

Hello, new friends!  I know there are a few people from Johnnie’s job who are reading my blog.  Thanks!  I hope you are enjoying it just half as much as I enjoyed the actual experiences.  When you read a post and you like it or have questions, please leave me a comment.  It lets me know people are reading! 

Johnnie has shared some of your questions and comments with me.  Since you folks are here in NJ, I thought I would give you some of my favorite places for a weekend getaway.  My requirements for a weekend are that the destination must be reached during the first day, usually no more than four hours away.  This lets you get to the campground early enough that you can enjoy that day and it makes it feel like you have an extra day of stay.  Also, my requirement is that I can do something nature related, whether it’s getting in a great bike ride, taking great pics, or being close to a botanical garden, wildlife preserve or something like that.  And, of course, all of the places will comfortably fit a 40 foot Class A motorhome.

Mountain Laurel in bloom at Belleplain

My favorite place, as my multiple posts attest, is Belleplain State Forest in Woodbine, NJ (Cumberland and Cape May counties).  It is dry camping which means no hookups.  So we usually don’t visit during the summer.  But you can run your generator until 10 pm.  Belleplain is open year-round which is a novelty for campgrounds in NJ.  My favorite time is through the week during the fall when the campground is nearly empty.  You can ride the paved roads or on the trails. My favorite ride is the paved road through the group camping area then to the road outside of the park.  It is a quiet, little traveled road that is used by locals.  If you go to the right, it will connect with a road that leads out to 550 and makes a nice loop back to the park.  If you ride the trails, you might be joined by horseback riders.  That’s neat, too.  I love the nature trail and identifying all of the trees common to the area, plus walking through the swamp area and our beloved cedar water.  I usually have my camera with me.  In the fall, I take pictures of red.  Red leaves on the trees, red mushrooms, anything.  The red is synonymous to fall for me.  In the spring, it’s the mountain laurel in bloom.  Bursts of pink and white all throughout the park.  Beautiful.  Stop in the office and get to know the rangers; they are wonderful, helpful people.  Cape May is about 40 minutes away.  Cape May Point State Park and the Lighthouse are a nice day trip, as well as the city of Cape May.  Leaming’s Run Garden in North Cape May Court House is a nice trip.  The next time we visit, I’m going to Tuckerton Seaport. Tuckerton is about an hour away.  Wheaton Village and museums with all of its glass-blowing is another nice trip, only 45 minutes away.  On the other hand, sitting at the camp site, around a camp fire is nice, too.  During the summer, Lake Nummy has a life guard and is open to the public.  Boats can be rented, too.  Can you tell I’ve spent a lot of time in this park?  It is my second home in NJ.

There are other state parks and forests that I tent-camped in my youth that you might want to explore.  Johnnie and I have checked out these parks but our motorhome will not fit.  One said it had sites that would fit us, but the roads getting to the sites were either too narrow, had low-hanging trees, or not enough room to maneuver a 40-foot Class A into the site.  Those of you that have smaller units or trailers or 5th wheels might want to look at these parks.  Our rule is that we visit the park first without the RV to get the lay of the land before bringing our baby into the park.

Brendan Byre State Forest off of Rte. 70 and Rte. 72. (An article I just read in South Jersey Magazine recommends the bike trails in this park.  I am going to check them out in the next couple of weeks.)

Wharton State Forest off of Rte. 206 near Hammonton.

Bass River State Forest off of Rte. 9 in Tuckerton. (This was my favorite park in my youth.  Nice bike trails.)

Parvin State Park off of Rte. 55. (Known for its fishing.  I don’t fish.)

Worthington State Park off of I-80 at the Delaware Water Gap. (Roads are way too narrow but it’s beautiful!)

So, these are all NJ getaways.  Next time, I’ll write about weekend getaways outside of the state!

August Trip — Destination 2: Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick, Canada

Kouchibouguac National Park was great!  From an RV standpoint, it was phenomenal.  The sites in the South Kouchibouguac Campground were long enough to back in our 40-foot motorhome, have space to park our Jeep and plenty of room to spare.

Our campsite at Kouchibouguac National Park

We spent four days at the Park and barely scratched the surface of all there was to do and see.  Partly, because it rained.  Did I mention that during much of our time in Canada it rained?  One day during our stay it stormed so bad off and on all day that we stayed inside all day.  Luckily, the temperature was not too hot and we didn’t need to run the air conditioners all day.  Kouchibouguac has a few sites that have electric but most of the campground has no services — boondocking or dry camping.  Generators are allowed but only between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm.  Personally, I think that 6 pm is too early during the summer months because it is still light outside and animals and birds would not be disturbed.  But other campers might be.  Especially those without generators. 

We did get to see some wildlife while at Kouchibouguac.  One day as we were driving through the park, a black bear croseed the road in front of us.  Johnnie and I were stunned.  While stunned, we did not have a camera within reach.  So no picture is forthcoming.  One of the rangers told us that it was a mother bear and her cub.  He had seen them, too.  We didn’t see the cub, he must have crossed the road before we got there.

Another wildlife incident involved an osprey and a bald eagle.  We were at Kelly’s Beach, a waterfront area where people can go swimming.  We were walking on the boardwalk to the beach area.  We had just turned to go back to the car when I spotted the osprey flying with a fish in its claws.  A bald eagle came out of nowhere and knocked the fish out of the osprey’s claws.  Then the eagle caught the fish and flew back to its nest.  The eagle mugged the osprey!  It was an amazing thing to watch.  The two photos below are the best that we could do with our camera.  I am looking to see if there is a way to zoom into the picture so that the eagle can be cleary seen.

Eagle with the stolen fish

 

The eagle flying back to its nest.

 

There are over 30 miles of biking trails within the park and there are walking trails that do not allow bikes.  Sometimes they run parallel.  I was able to ride part of the biking trail and I walked an accompanying part.  There were boardwalks in sections and in other places there were lookouts or viewing platforms with picnic tables built in.  There were plenty of picnic tables throughout the park.  Kouchibouguac is really made for relaxing.

Johnnie on one of the observation platforms with built-in picnic tables

Bridge on the walking path

There are beautiful waterways throughout the part.  In some of the smaller waterways, the water looks like NJ cedar water.

Water at Kelly

Water that looks like cedar water

One thing really intrigued me.  There were pine trees that appeared to have Spanish moss or some other related moss hanging from their branches.  I thought Spanish moss needed heat and humidity like Louisiana and Florida.  But maybe the moss needs the humidity and not the heat.  I didn’t have time to find the answer to this question.

Moss hanging on the branches

I wish that we had spent more time at Kouchibouguac, especially if we had had sun.  It was one of the highlights of our trip.  We realized that it is closer that Key West, Florida where we have gone for two spring vacations.  The only trouble is that the window of visiting Kouchibouguac is from May to September when there is no snow.  I am sure that we will visit again.

An arctic tern on the boardwalk to Kelly

August Road Trip — Destination 1: Niagara Falls, Ontario Pt. 2 –Welland Locks

[I am actually back in New Jersey and back to work.  Our overall trip was great but most of our time in Canada was with heavily overcast skies and/or rain, so I could not get a steady Internet connection that would allow me to post while I was away.]

Our first destination in Niagara Falls was the Welland Locks to Lock 3 in St. Catherines to see ships go through the lock.  This may sound strange as our first destination, but we had seats on the tour of Niagara Falls for the next day.  When I am planning a trip I make a list of possible sites to visit in the area and we just make choices each day.  I also purposely make a list of more sites than we can possibly visit in one trip so that we have a variety of choices and can make decisions based on the weather, usually the heat, but this time the rain. 

It was fascinating to watch a ship entire the lock from the Lake Ontario end of the lock which is the lower end and to be raised by a combination of water and ropes to the higher level at the Lake Erie end.  Lake Onatario is 326 feet lower than Lake Erie and the ships travel through a series of 8 locks to be raised or lowered, depending on the direction. 

A ship entiring the lock

About halfway through the raising process

Fully raised and going through the lock

The ship traveling to the next lock

Just a note to anyone who goes to the Welland Locks Viewing Complex.  There is St. Catherines Museum and there is an admission fee.  The viewing complex is free.  Even though you enter the museum building to get to the viewing deck, you do not have to pay.  You just follow the signs.  Another piece of information is that there is a bike path that runs the entire length of the lock system.  You could watch the ships come through the locks from the path which is at water level.  If we had had more time, or better weather, we would have ridden at least part of the path.  Did I mention that it rained for at least part of the day for at least 13 of the 15 days that we were in Canada?  So, we have a list of things that we can do on a future trip.