But doggo needs to get some beach experience. Not so simple, in NJ in the summer. Beaches are mostly off limits to doggos in the summer, here. That never made much sense to me, so don't ask.
However. My neighbor told me about a beach on the bay that allows doggos anytime. It's not a huge beach, and it's not the easiest place on earth to get to from here, especially when you take into account all the road work that's going on right now. More detours than normal roads. Very scenic, yes. But annoying, and lots of extra traffic.
The place is called Popamora Point, and it's in Highlands, right at the south end of the Henry Hudson Trail. Small beach, and like a lot of bay beaches, kind of strewn with rocks and shells and sea glass (!!! but mostly green), so not the softest sandy circumstances. Still, nice breeze, and gentle waves lapping on the shore, all the beachy things you look for. Even some shade, which I noticed because of a tank top on someone at the dog park the other day that said "nobody likes a shady beach."
Since doggo hasn't had any previous beach- water edge experience, we tried it. First, he wouldn't go anywhere near the water. Then, when he saw other dogs in the water, he got closer. What ensued really required a second person to do a video....he barked at the waves, charging at them, till they came towards him, at which point he backed away furiously. If I hadn't needed to hang onto his leash, I might have done a video. Alas, I only have two hands, and he's very strong. And I was laughing too hard to hold a camera still, anyhow.
And no, he didn't end up going into the water. Maybe another time.
Then we took a walk up the Henry Hudson Trail. It's nice. It has sea smells. Like rocks and salt water and leftover crab shells and stuff like that. Smelly stuff that dogs love. And the land side of the trail has a sort of drainage indentation where the water lands when it comes off the hill above, before joining the bay. Which doggo assures me contains all sorts of living creatures, like frogs! I didn't see any frogs. But he actually set foot, or feet, into that water, chasing his imagination, and having a nice cool drink. Considering we had almost 4 inches of rain yesterday, I'm pretty sure it's mostly clean rainwater.
This is from the trail, at the north (or west) end of the beach. Directions are odd in this part of the world. It's the water.
Looking south (or east) from the trail. It continues along the water like this, for a couple/few miles. At some point, it turns inland a tad, to pass behind the huge marina in Atlantic Highlands. We tried walking it once from that end, but the part behind the marina is deathly boring and not cool (temperature or otherwise), so we gave up. It was a hot day that time, and today isn't particularly hot.
Nice thing is, there's some shade on the trail. And the water ditch, which is apparently tasty if you're a dog.
There's a huge hill along the trail - or rather, the trail is at the foot of a huge hill. Huge houses at the top of the hill, stuff I could never dream of affording. Nevermind the probability that at some time in the not so distant future, those houses stand a good chance of landing at the bottom of the hill, due to the climate things that are going on.
Be that as it may, one house stood out to me, enough so I got a picture of it. I particularly like the method for getting down from the house to the trail, and thence the beach....kind of medieval. Let down the drawbridge....
Right. The last flight of steps can be raised or lowered via a set of pulley type mechanisms. Pretty ingenious. Scary (for me) if you're at the top. It's a long way down.
Next time, I may try climbing these steps to see where they come from....they look like a public thing, rather than a private house access. Pretty, in any case. But I'm curious. I just didn't quite have the energy to climb them today.
Doggo thought about it too, and declined. So there's more exploring yet to do. Which is always a good thing, especially on trails that don't loop. And next time, I'm taking the real camera. The phone isn't as good as they claim it to be.
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