*** FINAL WEATHER CHECK:  IT LOOKS LIKE A BEAUTIFUL DAY AT THE BEACH TOMORROW! ***  OF COURSE WE ARE RIDING.  :-)   SEE YOU THERE IN THE MORNING!  - TOM

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Long Island is notoriously car-centric (thanks a lot, Robert Moses), with busy high-speed parallel east-west major roads that makes it almost impossible for a cyclist to ride north-south safely to get from the middle of the island to the beach.  Only one safe north-south route exists for cyclists, a bike path that extends from Syosset to Massapequa, a veritable oasis in the middle of this car-crazy island.  Join us for a nice ride down this bike path from Bethpage to Massapequa, where we will use less-busy side streets to connect to the Wantagh Bike Path to get to Jones Beach on this fine summer day.  Even better, bicycles are now allowed on the Jones Beach boardwalk (the bicycle ban was lifted in 2015), so we can ride along the beach when we get there!

This ride will start and end at the Dunkin Donuts parking lot at the corner of Benkert Street and Stewart Avenue in Bethpage, just down Benkert street from the Bethpage LIRR station on the Ronkonkoma Branch.

To get to Bethpage by 9AM on the LIRR, take the 8AM Ronkonkoma-bound train from Penn Station in Manhattan or Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.  From Atlantic Terminal one will need to change train at Jamaica.  You will need your LIRR/Metro North bike pass.  If you need to buy one, it costs $5 at Grand Central Terminal or Jamaica.  The timetable for the LIRR Ronkonkoma branch is here:  http://web.mta.info/lirr/Timetable/Branch2/RonkonkomaBranch.pdf

For those of us who prefer coming by car, ***DO NOT PARK YOUR CAR IN THE DUNKIN DONUTS PARKING LOT!***  It’s for their customers only.  Curbside parking on the residential streets near the LIRR station is allowed on Saturdays.  Just take care not to block anyone’s driveways.

We will start the ride from the Dunkin Donuts at 9:30AM after everyone has signed in and had the chance to use the restroom at Dunkin.  A snack break stop about 16 miles into the ride is available at the Jones Beach concession stand to tide us over, and the lunch stop will be at the East Bay Diner next to Cedar Creek Park at Mile 32.  For those who took the LIRR, there are LIRR bailout points at Wantagh and Massapequa if you wish to shorten the ride.

We would like to keep a good pace in order to finish the longish 37-mile ride at a timely hour (nobody wants to finish the ride in the dark!), so this will be a high-moderate ride (just below advanced moderate).  Please bring your road bike or skinny-tire fast-geared hybrid, and make sure your bike is in good working order.  If your bicycle is not in good working condition or if you have difficulty keeping up, you can bail out when we get to the Massapequa LIRR station at Mile 6.

Bring a bike lock, money for snacks and lunch and train fare, your LIRR bike pass, and a sense of adventure!

Rain cancels.