Campsite sharing experiment
 

Reservations for the first half of the summer season are available for camping at Sandy Hook near NYC. Weekends are nearly booked up so I got the 3rd Sat night in May and June. July and Aug are not available yet. its 30$ for a campsite for 6.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ca...764cab62?hl=en

I have some friends and family i can take but I'm also interested in seeing if any other bikers want to share the site. There is some excellent biking in the area and quite a few mass transportation options to get there or partly there (I can ride there and take mass transportation 70% of the way back). I've looked around to see if there are any apps for sharing campsites, some people are talking about it but not are available. I'm willing to work out details through email or something, although the problem could be no shows since nothing is on the line. Any opinions on whether its worth it? if it doesn't go over i'll probably skip trying to reserve July, Aug. Maybe go in September when its not so crowded.

You may also want to post this under the Companions section of the Crazy Guy on a Bike Classifieds.

The fine print often says at most two tents. Sometimes rangers can be made to understand three or even four tiny tents, and the people in them, are much less intrusive than the usual crowd, sometimes they can't. Sometimes they don't notice.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

OP: If you pick a date through the web site reservation process you see this: "No more than two tents or one tent and one screen shelter permitted at each campsite."

Just curious: Where do hammocks come into play when "two tents" is the limit? Never ran into the issue before but random thought....

the fine print on the site I reserved does say 2 tent max. However, i usually don't even put up a tent unless there is a rain problem. bivy sack is good enough for me. I do have a very small hiking tent that can fit 2, but no extra space for equipment. It would be strange if the park people made a big deal of it since the group is not showing up with a vehicle, just bikes and you would think there would be some consideration for that, but we are talking about the government. Maybe I'll just bring a big piece of plastic and make a big pretend shelter over some of the small tents. If the tents are under the shelter, the shelter should take precedence.

+1 for the bivy. That's what I use. What brand do you use? Specs?

Can't say for sure about Sandy Hook since I've only ridden/kayaked there without camping, but my experience at other parks with the one or two tent limitation is that I've never had an issue when we used small backpacking tents and were technically over the limit. My impression is that the rule is there since it's hard to enforce the number of people limit - some can always claim that they're just visiting and won't stay overnight. But if the ranger sees a big crowd of people and extra tents it's easier for them to show that the rules are being violated.

Theres no name on it, it was really inexpensive when I got it a few years ago. but its water proof as long as theres a good plastic sheet under it with good drainage so its not laying in a pool of water. I've been in it in the rain and its a bit claustrophobic, so i take a small 2person hiking tent with me anyway unless its just for a single night out. The big advantage is its so fast to setup and takedown, its great for biking. If I'm hiking i don't mind spending some more time at camp to give my feet a rest and cook. but if i'm biking i bike till dark and want to get going again first thing in the morning. when i'm biking I'm closer to civilization so i eat at restrauants or grocery stores.

Got it. Mine is an Outdoor Research one. $80 at LL Bean and weighs about 12 ounces I'd guess. It's listed as 1lb but that includes the stakes which I don't use. My hammock stakes are a fraction of the weight so I use those. In my 4 previous tours I haven't eaten at a single restaurant so I can't say I know how that feels in terms of time commitments.

Some of the restaurants can be real old timey with great ambiance. Stopped at one in Virginia that had high ceilings and big ceiling fans and yellowed linoleum floors. it was like the clocks got turned back 50+ years. It might have been in the same town we rode down main street, there was a mom with two kids and one pointed to us and yelled, 'look mom, strangers!!'.

haha That's awesome. I always have a feeling people are staring at me when I ride into town on my loaded bike. "Honey, there's an outsider in town! He's on a bike with these weird backpacks on the back!" "A harley hun?" "No! A foot powered bike!"