Cherry Hill Adventure

It's a narrow window in time after weather warms up and before the summer season begins on the Jersey Shore. I've plotted a route for a fast, flat ride for May 16th instead of doing Montauk again. The route takes us along the shore through many of the beach communities and past the Sea Girt Lighthouse before it turns inland through Lakewood and the Lebanon / Brendan Byrne Forest, using several paved greenways along the way as shortcuts. It's a long day, but the route from the start at Newark PATH to dinner at Cherry Grill should prove quite nice after Elizabeth. It's 125 miles to dinner so we've got to keep moving at a 17 mph cruising speed to maintain a 14 mph moving average. Lunch in Lakewood is a definitely needed stop around mile 70 at Bagel Nosh.

Return transportation is on NJ Transit from Cherry Hill station on the Atlantic City line, only 2.7 miles down the Marlton Pike from dinner. Service to Trenton via Philadelphia is fairly quick: one gets back to NY Penn station about 3 hours 30 minutes after boarding in Cherry Hill. We have to ride fast and keep stops to a minimum such that we finish dinner to reach the station for the 6:59 PM; next train is 8:53 PM. We change trains for NJ Transit in Philadelphia. Amtrak doesn't allow bikes on board Northeast Corridor trains.