Turkey Swamp Park

1. A nice ride

by Twitchy, Saturday, July 09, 2011 4:55 AM

Rode the first time in this park. I'm giving you a description from someone who's been severely out of shape for some time now and has just taken up cycling.

It's a nice park, well maintained and what would be a very easy ride for anyone in good shape. The trail is flat for the most part with a few nice long grades "uphill" after the mid way point back toward "base".

It's shared with hikers and equestrians.

We started out on the green loop (Lenape Trail) and then merged into the blue (Manasquan Trail) loop. But, we looped back again onto the green Link and Alder trails back to the base camp. Next time we'll add the back end toward the Nomoco activity area to do the full loop.

The only problem I had was the roots in the trail. They are not managed well and are a bit of a menace for riders of bikes and horses. You can turn a hoof in some of those roots and many equestrians have been skirting around them causing a bit of a mess in the trail.

I gave these difficulty ratings and overall review ratings thinking of how a person in much better shape would rate it. Once I gain more fitness, I think this ride would be a cake-walk for those who are very fit.