Looking for a good ride for this coming Monday

[drvsafe]

My RC is looking for a good ride route for this coming Monday. We typically start out in the Ocean Township area of Monmouth County, New Jersey; by the beach. We are looking for a relatively short run; by short I mean a day trip of 150-200 miles round trip, perhaps a bit more if the roads are worth it :tour. We have taken rides to Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant, Princeton, New Hope, PA and the Pine Barrens. Being that this is probably the last ride of the SUMMER I'd like it to be both a great ride and a worthy destination.

Any recommendations out there?

[kribit]

Maybe check out the Water Gap? Some beautiful roads / scenery around there.

[ghost_rader]

ride out to the hawks nest in ny def worth the trip

[drvsafe]

Hawk's Nest sounds cool but my RC has a bunch of wusses in it and once they hear "NY" they will balk, even if a trip to the Water Gap is further, they would choose it cuz it's still in NJ. I think I am going to suggest this route:

http://rideplanner.harley-davidson.com/rideplanner/share/259335 Lake Mohawk/Sparta, NJ area.

This is a pretty nice destination, it is easy riding and the scenery is really nice, lakeside roads along the mountainside a lot of twisties and a decent variety of places to grab a quick meal before heading back. Has anyone ever been up there? I used to go there for work a few years back and the area always impressed me for it's scenery.

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[ghost_rader]

i Live one town over from there, its a really nice area should be a very nice ride have a blast.

[drvsafe]

i Live one town over from there, its a really nice area should be a very nice ride have a blast.

Cool! I know the road that rides along the south shore of the lake is a nice ride, but I'm not sure if it meets up with the road that rides along the rest of the lake, are you familiar enough with the area to give a little input?

[ghost_rader]

i see your taking 80 there, heres a little different way to get back to 80 thats a blast to ride.

http://rideplanner.harley-davidson.com/rideplanner/road.jsp?roadId=259369&locale=en_US

[ghost_rader]

it does, take ease shore trail the way i sent you before(for the return trip,) and make a right on west shore trail should be just before andover mohawk rd.
west shore trail will bring you right around back to east shore and your final destination on your run.

[drvsafe]

Thanks a lot for the input Ghost!!! I'll PM ya if we decide to go and you'd be more than welcomed to join if you like!!

[ghost_rader]

thanks for the invite, but im not able to ride right now.

[drvsafe]

gotcha. Fair enough, thanks again for the info.

[Teehaml]

GSP on Labor Day?... :wonderlan

[drvsafe]

GSP on Labor Day?... :wonderlan

You're not wrong. the plus side is:
1. We would be going opposite the traffic; i.e., north in the morning and South in the afternoon.
2. We would be going early enough in the daytime to avoid the heavy traffic; we usually head out at around 8:30am.

But you are right, if we were heading south in the morning and north later on, we would be FUBAR. :doh But I think we won't get hit too bad. Mind you what the hell do we all know. :geek I'll post on Tuesday how much traffic we hit.

Also, I'm not even sure this is the ride we're going to take. I got a few thumbs ups from the guys, but not all have checked in yet.

Any other ideas folks?

[ParrotHead]

Would love to join you guys but I'd have to head west back to PA and the traffic could be a killer for me.

Also, I am planning a ride around the state of PA Saturday and Sunday, so I may not be riding much on Monday.

[Teehaml]

It's always nice down south in the Pine Barrens area...

[drvsafe]

It's always nice down south in the Pine Barrens area...

Hell yeah, we did that ride 2 weeks ago. The only thing I didn't like was that it was just straight roads. The aroma was unbelievable, all them trees, it was beautiful, until we headed home. Brutha we hit that rain storm, remember it from 2 Sundays ago?? We ended up taking the GSP home to make it home fast, got stuck in miserable traffic which we proceeded (11 bikes mind you) to do some lane splitting to avoid the rains, and then once the TRAFFIC opened up, the SKIES opened up, right around New Gretna Toll plaza; exit 69. Holy shamolies, from there straight thru to exit 100A, to Rt 66 then to Hwy 35S it was pouring no on and off rain straight RAIN!!!

We must have stopped 3 or 4 times under overpasses to get out of the heavy stuff but it was white knuckled riding for over an hour. The Road Kings and Ultra Glides went on without us, I was left with the few assorted BTs in the bunch. It only stopped when I got into Long Branch and was 5 minutes from my house. But by then my boots were literally filled ankle high with water.

[acenorm]

Hell yeah, we did that ride 2 weeks ago. The only thing I didn't like was that it was just straight roads.

You were on the wrong roads.

[drvsafe]

You were on the wrong roads.


OOO, Ace, when you have a chance if you can give me a sense of where we should have been it would be appreciated. I would do it another time, not Labor day. Going in that direction is a 3 hour "traffic sentence" during summer holidays.

[acenorm]

Where do you live, and where did you ride when you were down here? Do you have a map plan of the ride you did?

Norm

[drvsafe]

Acenorm Most of the riders in my RC live in the Long Branch area. We took 195 down to 70 and took that all the way down the went across I think 206 to the parkway then took the parkway north home. We did it off a paper map I didn't do it on HD's site, though I wish I did. It's a great feature they have on their website, very useful to generate the map and then to disseminate it to the RC.

[acenorm]

Acenorm we took 195 down to 70 and took that all the way down the went across I think 206 to the parkway then took the parkway north home. We did it off a paper map I didn't do it on HD's site, though I wish I did. It's a great feature they have on their website, very useful to generate the map and then to disseminate it to the RC.

I can't picture which way you went, but if the only roads you were on were 195, 70 and 206, than yes, they are all straight. You need to get off the beaten path a little more. Next time you guys come down this way, I can meet you and show you a bunch of roads right off the Parkway in Bass River, Batsto, Chatsworth, Green Bank, Lower Bank area. Plenty of good roads and places to eat.
Even if you came down 70, I can show you a nice little route with some turns and a little bit more scenic than what you saw, plus less traffic and barely any signals or stop signs and get you back on the Parkway to head home.

[drvsafe]

Shweet!!! We will take you up on it. after next week most of the wusses in the RC go back to NY for the rest of the year and we will be left with a smaller group that will definitely be into it. So we will hit you up if a few weeks.

Thanks...

Nate

[acenorm]

October is a bit busy for me, but let me know and I'll see if I'm free.