A few months ago Stu and I visited Manasquan reservoir and have wanted to return with the kids. We attempted to visit the first day that it reopened after the Corona Virus lock-down but despite arriving at 9.30am it was full and we were not allowed in.

We thought as the weather wasn’t great on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend we’d try again. We left super early but yet again we could not get in as it was full. We had loaded all the bikes onto the car and didn’t really want to return home straight away so did a quick google search of cycle trails near the reservoir and Allaire State Park to Manasquan Beach came up and we decided to try it out.

Allaire State Park was probably only 10 minutes from the reservoir so we drove and parked up…… this car park was not full. We unloaded the bikes and headed off on the trail

We had no expectations for the trail but were very happy that it was completely flat. It passed by lots of fields and the odd lake. About 5km in there was a sign saying the path ahead was closed and we needed to take a detour. We looked at the path and decided it must be a mistake and carried on – however a few minutes later we reached an underpass where a bridge was being fixed and we had to turn around and go back to the detour signs.

Unfortunately the detour took us onto some rather busy roads and I hate road cycling but we decided to just go for it. Luckily the roads had cycle lanes so it wasn’t too bad – apart from the huge uphill climb at the start.

We eventually got back to the trail and followed it towards Manasquan.

Once we reached Manasquan the trail turned back to road cycling but the town was very quiet and obviously kitted out for cyclists. Manasquan is a beautiful town and it was lovely to cycle through it as often in the car you don’t notice how pretty places are.

We reached the beach and despite it being Memorial Day Weekend it was empty. We parked the bikes and went for a very short wander. The waves were huge and it is definitely a beach I want to return to on a sunny day so the kids can play in the sea.

All that was left to do (after eating our lunch) was to cycle back to the car. We did pick up a geo-cache on the way back – there was an outdoor library and the cache was the ‘guest book’. First cache like that we have ever seen. I was slightly disappointed that the route was dotted with geo-caches and I hadn’t thought to check before we set off.

In total we did 25km which is our longest cycle in years. It was a great route which we would consider doing again – although we’d like to have a bit of time to explore Allaire State Park next time.