State Park Closures AND Reopenings!

TimBay said:
I do think this is the initial flood burst, but it's still gonna be busy as long as social distancing is around. What I'm wondering is, with states going bankrupt,will they find a way to start charging entry or parking fees?
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Take a deep breath, man. It's a GLOBAL pandemic, everyone is getting some degree of "y'all can't do [x]", and NOBODY is saying "let's keep it like this forever!"
 
Karate Monkey said:
Take a deep breath, man. It's a GLOBAL pandemic, everyone is getting some degree of "y'all can't do [x]", and NOBODY is saying "let's keep it like this forever!"
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I hear ya. But, NJ is one of the few states that have paid beaches. It's not that far fetched to see some counties turn a profit from this.
 
Interesting to see they said Wawayanda was at capacity (50%) on Saturday and shut the gates. I was there around 10:00 a.m., lake lot had maybe 40-45 cars, most at least one parking space away from each other (cars keeping 6-foot distancing too). Boat lot seemed about the same. Came back from ride around 12:30 p.m. The number of cars maybe doubled? It did not seem like 50% capacity, but if that's what they need to do to keep the parks open, I'm for it. Of course, 12:30 is still relatively early, so I guess many more people showed up. Once on the trails, only ran across a handful of bikers.
 
I was out on my road bike taking it really slow so I rolled through Cross Farm (Holmdel) and Thompson Parks (Monmouth County) at about 7:30AM yesterday with rain threatening. Close to empty. Obviously not MTB destinations...

Went by Allaire on my road bike around 7AM on Saturday and the lot was filling up. Lots of walkers at the Manasquan Reservoir at 6:30.
 
ChrisG said:
I’m curious to hear any first-hand reports of what the scene was like at Allaire and/or Hartshorne/Huber yesterday and today.
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On Sunday evening, Rocky Point actually had about half the spots roped off, and as reported by others, "no parking" outside the park along the road was being enforced. There didn't seem to be any enforcement going on at the Buttermilk Valley lot. When I rode at Huber on Saturday evening, there seemed to be more cars at the Huber activity center lot to account for the number of people I passed on the trails, so maybe some folks who would usually have parked at Hartshorne parked there instead. I'm also one of the folks that ride to those parks anyway, so it didn't affect me :)

Ronnie B said:
I stayed in Huber for the whole ride, while it was closed they [...] even created some new trails.
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I doubt that was the parks staff. Rogue trails have popped up at both Hartshorne and Huber. At least one of them in Huber was created by equestians to give easier access to the adjacent farms.
 
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AndyJ said:
On Sunday evening, Rocky Point actually had about half the spots roped off, and as reported by others, "no parking" outside the park along the road was being enforced. There didn't seem to be any enforcement going on at the Buttermilk Valley lot. When I rode at Huber on Saturday evening, there seemed to be more cars at the Huber activity center lot to account for the number of people I passed on the trails, so maybe some folks who would usually have parked at Hartshorne parked there instead. I'm also one of the folks that ride to those parks anyway, so it didn't affect me :)


I doubt that was the parks staff. Rogue trails have popped up at both Hartshorne and Huber. At least one of them in Huber was created by equestians to give easier access to the adjacent farms.
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Hey man, we've crossed paths many times at Hartshorne.

I've noticed rogue trails there as well and along side Cuesta Ridge fire road looks like a makeshift BMX park.
 
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Tim said:
So are you guys all ok with this? We live in America, not a police state.

SMH
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I'm not happy that they closed the parks down, but I kind of understand why they did it. I wouldn't say that we're in "police state" territory any more than we already were. There are literally thousands of laws on the books that govern what we're allowed to do and where we can go and at what times. The human race has a terrible record of self-regulating. That's why we have rules against speeding, stealing and shooting each other. Pretty much every law on the books can be traced back to people complaining "This sucks - somebody should do something."

It's kind of interesting that most people are all for lazy Americans to get off our asses and exercise, but when people do just that, we complain "I didn't mean for you do do it in MY park!". This is kind of a "perfect storm" scenario right now. Everyone is unemployed or WFH, kids are out of school with normal activities shut down, gyms are closed, it's spring, and we're living in one of the most populous areas of the country. I don't have any answers for how to fix it. I think some amount of chaos is inevitable, and all the arguing, blaming, grumbling and adjusting that goes with that.
 
Split rock parking lot was a mad house yesterday. The game wardens were directing the parking. I told them about a guy on an ATV who was clearly extremely lost. He came down the four birds trail, no helmet, wearing loafers. The wardens could not believe me when I said loafers. We all had a chuckle and they sped off to find him.
 
I rode Hartshorne & Huber yesterday. Got to the claypit lot just after 9:30, I figured the early morning rain would keep the crowds away until the afternoon.
No rangers when I got there but one was there when I left.
The lot was half taped off, Rocky Point lot was the same when I rode through there. Park rangers & county sheriff were at the entrance there.

Traffic on the trails wasn’t too bad.
When I left to get a sammich at quick check I went by the buttermilk lot, the dirt parking & the grass area after the wooden fence were blocked off so whoever couldn’t get into the paved lot was parked on the side of the street.
 
Though not a cycling destination, my local park was surprisingly half full when I pulled up with the dog. Only ran into 4 groups of people in the woods, 2 of which were both overweight families. Only 1 group was nice enough to mask up when approaching. I had my baklava on and did so. Here's my bad bad daughter with no mask! But....she's still stranded in remote Australia with no one around for miles. Good to see her happy and healthy. Miss her so.

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68nova200 said:
Split rock parking lot was a mad house yesterday. The game wardens were directing the parking. I told them about a guy on an ATV who was clearly extremely lost. He came down the four birds trail, no helmet, wearing loafers. The wardens could not believe me when I said loafers. We all had a chuckle and they sped off to find him.
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Glad I got stuck doing yard work all day and didn't wind up at that mad house then. ATV activity has been way up since the lockdown.
 
BPaze said:
ATV activity has been way up since the lockdown.
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Yeah noticed a big presence in Stephens, mind you I parked in a residential area main entrance for quads and 2 different houses were cleaning there quads. Passed a guy heading towards the park with a moto. If they really wanted to cut it down just follow off the powerline to the tracks that lead in the backyards.
 
I rode at Allamuchy North yesterday afternoon and it was desolate and I had the park to myself.

The only problem with parking was the fetid dead skunk nearby on the road.
 
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