Spiders

Orbweavers

Orchard Orbweaver

If you are trying to escape the sun in the shade of overhanging tree branches, you are inevitably going to get spiders in the boat. These are almost entirely harmless orbweavers - they are not aggressive and don't bite, and are not poisonous to humans, at least no more poisonous than a honey bee. That said, our brains are programmed at the most basic level to fear spiders, and I don't like them any more than anyone else. Just calmly knock it out of the boat.

Basilica Orbweaver

I hate to advocate killing something just for being what it is, and it's not like the poor creature deliberately attacked you, it fell in the boat by accident. But what else can you do? Have the heeby-jeebies for the rest of the day? It will become fish food, all part of nature's great cycle. Orbweavers are pretty big, as spiders go, and really neat if you take a close look at them. Or maybe just settle for photographs.

-- Wikipedia


Deal Lake
( 40.23338, -74.01328 )

  1. Deal Lake - Asbury Park (N) ( 40.23759, -74.00784 )
  2. Deal Lake - Asbury Park (S) ( 40.22957, -74.00938 )

This lake has a lot of different branches to explore, and you can actually go quite a long way. The two marked sites are the best accesses for the northern and southern branches of the lake. Unfortunately, located in the middle of Asbury Park, the water is not the cleanest, especially near the railroad and toward the drain at the beach. The 'headwaters' are better.