I was so glad to finally get out and do this entire route! It was a perfectly sunny cold day and the Island was pretty quiet for the holidays. I ran and my 3 kids joined as my support crew. My older two (9 and 7) rode their bikes and my youngest (4) rode his bike some and took breaks in the stroller I pushed. I packed a ton of food, water and layers in the stroller as well so no need to resupply.
We parked at the public parking lot near the start at the north and end. No payment needed in the off season. We started right at the entrance to the lot and headed down along Northern Blvd through the neighborhood on the sidewalk which made things easy. Once we paid our fee and entered Parker River WR we simply ran/biked on the shoulder or right side of the road. There weren’t too many cars since it’s off season and drivers were all very considerate to drive slowly and pass carefully on the refuge. The gravel road starts at about 3 miles from Sandy Point but the road is in good shape and I was happy that I stuck to road running shoes for the entire run. We took a nice lunch break at Sandy Point before turning around retracing our route back to the northern lot.
Love this route, highly recommend it! For others that run it, leave time for beach time and a restaurant meal at the local places afterward. 😊