September 8, 2021 - Wildwood State Park, NY, to Orient Point, NY, and Return

Start and end: Wildwood State Park, NY
Turnaround: Orient Point, NY
Miles: 83.9
Feet climbing per mile: 23
Record of the day's rides:
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/74874874 (Wildwood State Park to Orient Point and return)
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/74886975 (To and from dinner)

I woke at about 6:15 and headed to the beach on foot. I arrived at 6:30, just as the sun was coming up.

Long Island Sound at sunrise

The beach was rocky, including at the edge of the water, making it painful to enter.

I thought I might forgo swimming, but I walked east and eventually found a place where the rocks were smaller. I left all my clothes on the beach and went skinny dipping in the calm, cool water. What a pleasure that was!

I returned from the beach, closed up my tent, and just before 9:30 started my ride east to Orient Point.

After 11 miles I stopped at the Sound Avenue Deli to enjoy a Mountain Dew. How convenient to have a picnic table outside! While I was there I saw a woman with whom I had spoken the day before at McNulty's where I had stopped for ice cream. She had told me she was training for her first marathon. I regret I didn't refer her to Jae Gruenke's website The Balanced Runner.

Shortly after leaving the deli I came upon some cows. Have you ever seen cows being so cozy with each other?

The traffic on Sound Avenue was heavier and the shoulder often narrower than I would have liked. At mile 16.5 I was glad to leave Sound Avenue for Route 25 with lighter traffic and a wider shoulder.

Almost 52 miles into my ride I stopped at the Waypoint Restaurant, located on the Peconic River. What a beautiful location!

Waypoint Restaurant

I had thought they served ice cream but I was mistaken. Instead I enjoyed a salad of red and golden beets, a perfect snack during my ride.

After another 12 miles I came to the end of the paved road in Orient Point. My intention was to go to the eastern tip of the north fork, and I wasn't going to let the sign shown below stop me.

I walked a little more than half a mile on a road of rough gravel until I came to the beach, from where I could see the Orient Point Lighthouse.

Orient Point Lighthouse

If you look carefully at the picture below you can see the Orient Point Lighthouse behind me. The placement of the lighthouse in the picture is perfect, but it's pure luck that it was in the picture at all, because the sun was so bright I couldn't see the screen of my phone. (I take all the pictures with my iPhone SE 1st generation.)

On my way back from Orient Point I saw a flock of wild turkeys.

The roads were beautiful all day long, especially farther east. I had a thought that I would love to always ride roads like the one in the picture below, but immediately realized that that would be boring.

I had planned to stop for ice cream at Jennie's about 50 miles into my ride, but it was closed so I continued on to the Waypoint Restaurant. This time I had a piece of chocolate cake.

Based on my experience on the way out, I wanted to avoid as much of Sound Avenue as possible on the return. Almost 62 miles into my ride I continued on Route 25 rather than Sound Avenue, knowing this would add some distance and time to my day. I planned to have dinner at Ruggero's which would be a 2.5-mile ride from my campground. I had hoped to be able to arrive at my campsite early enough to be able to travel both to and from dinner before sunset, but that was looking impossible. I reconciled myself to riding in the dark, knowing I would be on lightly travelled roads with adequate shoulders.

Eventually I reconnected with Sound Avenue, but before I did a tanker truck caught my attention because on it was written the name of my grandson. In Turkish, "Kartal " means "eagle".

I arrived at my campsite at 6:30 to find the message below left for me. I wondered how strong the storm might be.

After a shave, shower, and change of clothes, I left my campsite at 7:30, a quarter hour after sunset, to ride to Ruggero's for dinner. As I had expected, riding was safe due to the minimal traffic and adequate shoulder.

During the afternoon, when I was hoping to be able to return from dinner before sunset, I had thought I could be on my way to dinner 30 minutes after returning from Orient Point. Instead it took me a full hour. If I had been staying at a motel 30 minutes would have been sufficient, but everything takes longer when camping.

What a pleasure it was to sit down to dinner in a restaurant! I enjoyed a salad followed a steak with roasted potatoes and broccoli rabe. I wisely forwent any dessert which I'm sure would have been delicious but would have overstuffed me. I left Ruggero's at 9:40 so it was quite dark, unlike on my ride the other direction. I arrived at my campsite just before 10:00.

In response to the storm warnings, most of the other campers had packed up and left. I looked forward to a quiet night in contrast to the previous one. The Dark Sky weather app did not forecast a storm as severe as that suggested by the Weather Alert, but it did predict rain throughout the next day. I hoped that I would be able to do at least most of my packing when it was not raining.

What a full day it had been, starting with skinning dipping in the Long Island Sound at sunrise, continuing with an almost 80-mile ride to and from the tip of the North Fork, and finishing with dinner at an elegant restaurant after sunset. Based on the day's experiences I've made two additions to Aphorisms and Exhortations:

          Every once in a while the day ought to begin with skinny dipping.
          Everything takes longer when camping.

Previous day: Douglaston, NY, to Wildwood State Park, NY
Next day: Wildwood State Park, NY, to Huntington, NY

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