After a fine breakfast at Kelly’s Kitchen in Point Pleasant proper, and after my bike’s rear tire was repaired, Kathy and I spent a delightful day at Island Beach State Park. We parked just outside the maIn gate and then biked the eight miles to the southern end of the island. It was a nice flat ride that we were assisted on by a nice tailwind.
After we got to the end we racked our bikes and began walking toward the end of the island, which is just opposite of Barnegat light; a sight we’d never seen from this point of view before.
We hung out at the end of the island for about an hour as we watched the surf fisherman fish, a Coast Guard crew run drills, and I slept briefly. Then we hiked around the southern tip of the island through an area where the original surf fisherman and other outdoor enthusiasts used to hold property leases before Island Beach State Park was purchased as a park by the state of New Jersey. This was a wonderful part of our hike. There was NO ONE hiking the same trail we were on and it lead between the dunes only occasionally revealing one of the seven remaining houses that are owned by the leaseholders.
These houses, by law, cannot be passed on to heirs, so those who live in them now get to live in them until they die and then the property and the lease revert back to the state. The properties were beautiful, hidden as they were in between the dunes and the ocean, but knowing that those who lived there now would be the last to enjoy the property made us feel sad.
After our bike and hike we returned to Point Pleasant for dinner and shortly now we’ll be off to bed.
