Cheesequake Run

Its unusual for me to get a request for a ride that I haven't done before in NJ. However when Jack asked if I could lead a ride to Cheesequake I said sure since I hadn't been there before. There aren't a lot quiet roads by Cheesequake so it was a little hard to find a good route. I ended up with this route from Monmouth Battlefield Park.

Because of an alternate ride suggestion there was a flurry of email before the ride that eventually degenerated into our normal insults. (🖕)  Jack, Jim, Ricky, Peter, Chris and Laura (back from her residency in glass blowing) ended up joining me for the ride.

The beginning of the ride was similar to our normal Sandy Hook ride which heads through Freehold then out Dutch Lane. Although I kept it on the back roads there was still some traffic that was annoying. The area east of Freehold continues to be built up so I usually only do rides in this area on Sundays when the roads are quieter.

When we got to Homdel I started heading towards Cheesequake. The meant going on some new roads and over a couple of hills. The new roads would have been nice except for the fact that the they were in pretty bad shape. This hills were a little steeper than expected but nothing extreme. The Beacon Hill downhill would have been fun if not for the pot holes, poor lighting and occasional wet spots. There were many ways we could have hurt ourselves on that down hill.

At the bottom of the hill we had a short stint on 79 before stopping at a Quick Check. From there is was up a few more back roads that were suppose to be the better roads in the area according to njbikemap but it was not a fun ride. The roads were extremely beat up to the point that there were some spot that were more hole than road. There also was moderate traffic in spots. It was nothing real dangerous but it was not a relaxing ride.

Once we made it to Cheesequake we headed towards Hook Lake. When we got there is was actually hard to see the lake as it not much more than a large puddle next to a sand beach.

Before the lake I actually headed along a wooden path to the crabbing bridge to get a view of the swamp land that is Cheesequake. We stopped for some pictures before heading back out of the park,

We had to retrace our way back on the roads we came in on. They weren't any smoother on the way back. To avoid riding some of the busier roads in the area I opted to take the Henry Hudson trail back to Freehold. This trail is a well maintained paved trail that is no problem riding on a road bike. There are some occasional cracks and bump but the only real problem with riding this trail is all the people walking along it. Today however there were only a few people on the trail so that wasn't a problem.

I did hit a couple of unseen bumps pretty hard and my camera flew out of my top tube bag on to the path and on to the grass. Jack picked it up. I bought the Nikon coolpix S33 specifically because it was water proof and shock resistant and I can report that a 4 foot drop at 15 miles an hour onto a hard surface will not hurt this camera. It still works fine and I can't even find a mark where it hit.

There was a small part of the Henry Hudson trail that is not finished so we had to ride on Rt 79 for a mile or so. To get back on the trail we had to make a left to Newman Springs Rd to get to Big Brook Park. At the intersection was a police car blocking the way. Apparently there was an accident on the road. I convinced the officer to let us by since we were only going to the park which was before the accident. We had to go through two more check points to get to the park. It must have been a pretty bad accident to have this many cars blocking off the road. Although we saw the flashing lights as we turned into the park we never saw the actual accident.

The trail through the Big Brook Park was the smoothest and nicest part of the trail. We jumped off the trail where it met Kozloski and made our way to Monmouth Battlefield Park. Although it was fun to go some place we haven't been before it's not a ride I would do again anytime soon.

I may go back to Cheesequake for some hiking or mountain biking as it looks like it has some interesting trails. And now that I know the name of the park comes from a sub-tribe of the Lenni Lenape called the Chichequaas (pronounced chink-a-qeek) I won't associate this part with foods or earthquakes anymore.