Hike #851; Money Island to Glades Wildlife Refuge

Hike #851; Money Island to Glades Wildlife Refuge

5/24/15 Money Island to Glades Wildlife Refuge/Hollywood Beach with Gregg Hudis, Jen Berndt, Serious Sean Dougherty, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Elmer Glick, Michelle Flackalacka, Marina Font, Jason Itell, Megan Reid, and Dan Asnis

The group at Money Island Marina

Our next hike would be the next in the Jersey Perimeter series again, but this time not the entire hike was part of the series. This one was odd in that most of it was perimeter, but we had to revisit some other spots. There's not really an easy way to put these things together, and because I set the second Sunday in November as the completion of this series, I really had to move ahead with getting it all done. I re-hashed what I had planned as two different hikes and put them together as one, which would only mean repeating a short bit of stuff we'd done before, and still give us what I felt might be an alright route.

Jersey Perimeter as of this hike

Like so many of the hikes, and the perimeter ones in particular, I did not have very high hopes for this hike. It would have a little beach, sure, but  would mostly be backroads and such heading back to Newport a different way than we'd done on the previous hikes where we'd gone there. It was one of those obligatory sections I figured I'd post and get it out of the way, try to enjoy the time while we're out. Of course, the hike ended up being a far, far better experience than anticipated.

Right from the start, when Gregg and I pulled up I was very happy to see my old friend Jason Itell and his girlfriend Megan Reid. Jason had just moved back from out west and would be in Philadelphia for a good while. It was great to be out with them again, and it was like Jason had never left.

We will miss Captain Soup

The meeting was bittersweet, because while we gained Jason and Megan back, this would be Captain Soup's last trip with us before his move out west to Wyoming or Wisconsin or something I think it is. He managed to land a position with the US Postal Service, his regular place of employment, out there and jumped on the opportunity to move out to the area he's been passionate about for a long time. I teased him that he would be back, and we wish him luck. We'd thought he might join us for one more trip the following week, but this turned out to be the very last one for him. I am sure he'll come and visit and maybe make it out on one though at some point.

We shuttled in as few cars as possible to Money Island Marina along the Delaware Bay, at the outlet of the Nantuxent Creek. When we pulled up, a couple of guys inside greeted us warmly. One of the guys, Tony Novak, was involved in some of the tourism and the Delaware Bay area politics. They really need to promote some more tourism down there, so they were happy to chat for a while. We got a group shot at the Marina, which was a nice little spot, and I discussed with them the concept I thought of where we could take a boat from the Marina for a little cruise around the bay, then end up at Bay Point. The next hike in the immediate area I'd planned was from Bay Point inland, and rather than just shuttle to there, we could shuttle by boat and make the hike that much more interesting. They loved the idea, and so we started talking about plans. I was feeling great knowing we could so easily work out the promotion of these obscure places the way I'd intended with this series. These places are by no one's definition a destination in and of themselves, but the sum of the parks make them something extraordinary, which is what we strive for with the hikes.

We said our goodbyes and walked on from the marina out and back on Nantuxent Drive, a lovely little back road that went from being paved to dirt. There were of course nice estuary views along the way. We then turned back and passed the marina once more, and continued down Bayview Road heading south. A few of the houses were abandoned or a mess. There were signs in some of the windows to the state telling them they don't want to move. The state of NJ is purchasing all lands down there because of constant storm damage. There are not enough FEMA funds to repair them each time, and so the land is being purchased and the houses demolished. On a recent trip, we visited Sea Breeze, which is almost gone after Super Storm Sandy. The next town up, Bay Point, was all purchased by NJ and ready to be torn down too. That's why I have a trip planned there for July.

We could see Bay Point from Money Island, so our plan was for the next trip to get a ride on a boat to start there rather than just start the hike from there. Money Island is like a small barrier island, but not like the ones on the main shore. It got it's name because supposedly there was treasure buried there, but never found.

Near Money Island

At the end of the houses, we began walking the beach. This was a very nice beach, without a soul on it on such a perfect day. The guys at the marina told us it was lower tide and that we should be able to get on through to Gandy's Beach, which was our next destination. This was perfect. We were actually walking the perimeter very well here.

The sandy beach did not last the entire way. We had to switch over to walk on big tufts of grass along the shore line. There were tons of Horse Shoe Crabs pushed out of the water just about everywhere, many of them dead.

We had to wade across bits of Beach Creek, an estuarine waterway, but it was super shallow. We then reached the sea walls at the northwest end of Gandy's Beach and climbed up to the road. We would be able to walk the sea walls for a good while. There were a young girl and guy at the house at the end, and they started at us interestingly because I'm sure no one ever walks from where we came from, nor does anyone ever visit this place.

Money Island

There was a really nice view from the end of the road all the way down toward Bay Point and Money Island, and out across the river and bay to the state of Delaware. While we were waiting for everyone to catch up on the beach (not everyone was prepared to walk through the water with special sandals or anything, because I figured we wouldn't be able to walk the waterfront so closely), Serious Sean played his acoustic guitar he'd brought. He made up a funny song about Captain Soup, and there was another one that I can't quite remember what it was that was really good.

Serious Sean entertains

We continued through the town for a while until there was a good access point to the beach itself. We were then able to walk the narrow beach below the homes, which were high above the water on wooden beams.

We walked the beach and soon had to head back up to Cove Road because it got too narrow. There were signs that warned of sharp objects out there. As we reached the end of the road, we found Gandy's Beach Marina. We met the proprietor there and I mentioned we probably couldn't get through, but explained the perimeter series. "OH yeah, you can get through!" the guy said! He was nice enough to lead us through his marina, pointing out the damaged boats that people had left after the storm which he now had to scrap, and some of the mess he was still working to clean up.

He brought us to a creek outlet to the bay, where there was a short spot we'd have to wade, but could then walk along wood and blocks to the next section of beach. He told us we'd have to wade on the other side to in order to reach Dyers Cove, but that it wasn't hard. We thanked him for letting us pass through, and I waded over to the edge of the wood to climb on over.

At Gandy's Beach Marina

Some tried to cross at other points so they wouldn't get as wet, but that was not working too well, so everyone ended up going my way. We were then on the beach heading to the southeast.

The section of beach transitioned several times between grassy tufts right up against the breaking waves, and nice sections of sandy tidal beach. Along the way, we again came across countless Horseshoe Crabs. We noted earlier that all of these crabs were mostly upside town, many with their tails pointed straight up in the air. They would certainly all die, and many of them were already dead. I took several of them and got them back to the water.

The guy we met at Gandy's Beach Marina told us though that they weren't stuck, they'd ground themselves there after nesting. Apparently the Horseshoe Crabs commit suicide after reproducing. I'd never heard of such a thing. It sounds like an awful way to go, some of them getting eaten alive by predator birds.

The group with crabs

We continued along the beach to the south, continuing with the transitions between the beach and grass tufts. Jason chatted with Captain Soup about his move out west and what options he would have when he got there if he ran low on money.

Soon enough, we came to the inlet of the Dyers Creek. It was a much bigger creek than I had anticipated based on what the guy was telling us. We maybe had a good hundred feet to wade across. It wasn't all that deep, but the tide was coming in very very fast. We'd have to cross immediately or soon the water would indeed be over our heads. It came up to above all of our belts anyway. I brought my stuff over and helped the others across. Sean stayed in and played some guitar, thoroughly amused by the fun we were having.

Serious Sean in Dyers Creek. We should have sang "D'yer M'aker". Oh well!

We had a nice break on the other side, while people got their shoes back on. Serious Sean and I performed a version of "Reason To Believe" by Rod Steward, because my voice was still sort of a wreck from allergies. While here, a family came out to the beach from Dyers Creek Road to the left, out for a day. They were from Phoenixville PA, and were very interested in what we were doing. One of them even handed me a bottle of Rolling Rock. This was the point that I really realized that we were having great luck with meeting friendly fun people on this trip. This was already the third such positive encounter, following those at both marinas.

We chatted for a while, then were on our way. We walked out to the road because the beach got narrow and there was private land. We walked of the road along Dyers Cove, but most of it was private. We turned back, then headed inland on Dyers Creek Road to the north. It was newly paved but still quite narrow, with a beat looking old sign by the entrance to it. We turned right on Newport Neck Road and continued.

By this time, the Strawberry Flies were getting pretty bad. I'd not really dealt with them before, but they were getting really annoying. They're not as bad as the green flies I'd had bother us on Island Beach a few years back, but they were bad. I had no bug spray.

Abandoned house

On the road, we came to an abandoned house on the right side, in very poor condition. Despite the flies and the fact that it was almost totally open and still exposed to them, I wanted to go in and have a look around. To my great surprise, the flies did not at all follow us into this structure, with holes in every wall as well as all busted out windows!

Elmer, newcomer from PA, handled the whole thing really well and was right there with us exploring the old house. We managed to get up to the second story which was still stable enough to hold us, but just barely. It had giant holes in it between the support beams.

Abandoned house

We probably spent more time exploring this place than we needed to, just so that we wouldn't have to go back out where the flies would be. We couldn't put it off for log, and we headed back onto the road through the estuarine wetlands.

Abandoned house

The road weaved around for a bit through the wetlands, which then gave way to farmlands over the land formation known as Newport Neck. The flies did not relent. We had to just keep moving rather fast to avoid them. We continued on Newport Neck Road north to Fortescue Road and followed that further north. This was where we connected with the previous hike we'd done to Fortescue. The flies were still pretty bad until just before we got into the town of Newport.

We'd already walked most of the town on the past two hikes, and covered the out and back to Newport Landing, so this time we turned right on Hall Street, another tiny piece of the perimeter I was missing, and followed it to Methodist Road near the corner of Rt 656. I noted earlier while going through that there was a store that appeared to be open in Newport this time, and so we made this our next rest stop.

Chance's General Store

It was called Chance's General Store. They were mostly just a fishing shop and didn't carry much in the lines of food. I didn't notice any right away, but then saw that they had M&M products and I think chips. I ended up buying quite a lot, and that was all I really wanted anyway. We just hung out in the store talking to the owners for a while, which was actually a really great time, and they enjoyed the company. I'm sure they never expected a group of hikers to come wandering through. Serious Sean kept playing the guitar inside, which was even cooler. We'll have to make a point of stopping in before our next trip down there.

We left the store and headed back onto Methodist Road. This part of the hike was a repeat of what we'd done on previous ones, but I wanted to get to Glades Wildlife Refuge just to explore one more spot at the end, rather than make it another trip.

It ended up working out quite well, because we continued with our positive interactions on this route by stopping at a farm stand. We had been talking earlier about how we bought fresh Asparagus on the Cape May hike the previous Summer, and how that would be nice to find. Well, we found a farm stand that had just that! We purchased some, and then munched on it as we walked further down the road on Rt 553, then over the Oranoaken Creek.

Just on the other side of the creek bridge, we cut into some woods and continued to Beaver Dam Road, which was the older main road, and followed it to the east to Turkey Point Road where we turned right.

There is a body of water to the right of Turkey Point Road which I believe is an old sand quarry. It's deeper and different than the other estuary water bodies in the area. While walking the road, we turned right and checked out a vacant house on the shore of the lake, then continued on a bit more to an old roadway I'd wanted to check out on the previous hike, but we didn't have the time.

The road went to "Hollywood Beach", a secluded spot that used to be accessible from Beaver Dam Road where the quarry lake is now. We wandered back the road, which went over a beat old wooden bridge, then on a higher berm of sand and soil heading out to the old paved road that would have gone to the house at the end. I know the house was abandoned not that long ago, and I wanted to see it. We followed the road for a bit, but it was obvious as we approached that work had recently been done on the house and there was a new grill and such. I didn't want to intrude on something that someone obviously cared for, so we turned back.

The trip was still worth it though, because we had the good fortune of witnessing a Diamondback Terrapin laying it's eggs.

Diamondback Terrapin

I explained to the group that Turtles are usually referred to as freshwater turtles. Land turtles are known as Tortoises, and sea turtles are known as Terrapins. We watched this specimen for a bit before heading back the way we came to Turkey Point Road. I took a quick dip in the quarry pond before we left, which was really refreshing. We then headed back out to Turkey Point Road, where just to the south were our cars.

Most of us went to get some dinner, and we chose "The Landing" at Newport Landing, where we'd eaten on a previous perimeter trip since it was the closest thing. We had tried someplace at Fortescue first, but most everything was closed.

Over dinner Serious Sean made a hilarious random comment about how he was thinking about a pet groundhog rolling around on his couch all happy. I'm still laughing about that now.

Despite the promise of being a death march of roads and heat, this hike was a very positive experience with fantastic friendly people. We had the salt water and the salt of the earth on the same hike. Who could ask for more?