5/12/13 North Long Beach Island Loop with Brandan Jermyn, Stephen Argentina, Oscar Alvaredo, Robert Blaine McDowell Jr (Gary), Carol Van Giezen, Joe Tag, Daniel Yu, Jack Lowry, Susie Duncan, ?, and Judith ?.
The group in Barnegat Light SP
Our next hike would be yet another to satisfy the perimeter of NJ series. This time, we'd return to Long Beach Island. In late 2012 we hiked across the Rt 72 bridge to LBI, then north through Surf City to the town of Harvey Cedars where we left off. I then spent the Winter trying to connect to the southern end in vicinity of Atlantic City, which we accomplished. Those winter hikes would not have swimming spots, so I wanted them out of the way. Now it was time to come back to loop on the north side of LBI.
From the Harvey Cedars Sunset park where we'd left off the last visit, we walked along the shore heading north, Barnegat Bay in view. We got on Long Beach Blvd northbound and followed it through the town of Loveladies, and turned left when we got to Bayview Ave. There was public land off to the left from here, and a ramshackle puncheon going out to a view of the water we checked out.
When we reached 20th Street, we turned left and headed out to High Bar Harbor. High Bar is the name of a peninsula of considerable height that goes out into the Barnegat Bay and remains mostly undeveloped. Our route would take us out and around that as well.
We turned right on Sunset Blvd, and at the end was a state park gate with a path leading to the right and left at a "Y". We went left first, which led to a beautiful narrow beach facing the south. We walked this beach, having to walk in the water from time to time northbound. There were lots of jellyfish in the water through this section.
We got as far as we could on this, and the two new girls didn't want to go up an around through water. We ended up having a mess because we had to turn back, and there was no way over because of impenetrable Poison Ivy. We at least made it as far as we could possibly walk, which was a beautiful spot of grasses.
We headed back down to where we started, then turned left out to the north facing beach with a great view of the Barnegat Lighthouse. Stephen, Oscar, and I walked almost to the end of the bar on this side, which was certainly more popular than the other one. We then turned back, and found Susie was there with the rest of the group, with her dog Flip Flop/Zip Line. Jack was nearby out on the road.
We all got together, and headed back along Sunset Blvd to 20th Street. We then turned left and headed toward the north end of the island.
We were able to get closer to the bay side on the next section of road, and passed marinas. We eventually got to the edge of Barnegat Light State Park property and followed their paths on to the lighthouse. I'd never been up the Barnegat Light, and it had been a long time since I'd been up a lighthouse at all, so most of us climbed to the top. Jack played his guitar and we sang with the great acoustics on the way up and down. There weren't a ton of people there which was nice.
We hung out around the top and took lots of pictures before moving on back down. There was only one way up and down so it got crowded at spots. Once at the bottom, we followed a paved path along the Barnegat Inlet on top of the rip rap rock and jetty. Susie argued with the guy in charge that her dog wasn't allowed out there but several other people had gotten out there with theirs. She had to meet us on the beach a little further down.
It was cool looking north at the other side of the inlet, Island Beach State Park. I had hiked to the bottom of that in August 2010 right before the fire. I knew I would eventually make it to the light on the other side, but it meant a lot of hiking to reach that point.
We continued out the LBI Jetty, then headed south along the sand. We could see the Harvey Cedars water tower far in the distance, but it was obscured from view soon after. We wouldn't see it again until we were very close to it.
The beach was really nice to walk along, sometimes with wide shallow areas that were nice to walk through. There was also a time when there was a two to three foot ridge of sand along the water, which was uncommon from what I'd seen. I love how every leg of Jersey Shore walking is slightly different. Each area has subtle differences that I quite enjoy. I'm not good at noticing obvious things at all, but when I notice stuff like that I enjoy it immensely, and probably miss tons of other cool stuff in the process.
The beach time went by very quickly. We stopped at one point and layed down for a break while others caught up. Oscar found a dead shark and picked it up. It was really just a nice relaxing hike after a long week of often difficult backpacking. My shins were hurting once again, even with the light load on my back.
After reaching Harvey Cedars, we all stopped at a pretty good nearby pizza place to close out the day. Everyone had me laughing hysterically on this day. I'm really glad I have this diverse group of friends.
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