DISCOVER LONG ISLAND

Shelter Island, a Ferry Ride Away

By Barbara Shea
Staff Writer

Bicyclists love Shelter Island for its laid-back New England atmosphere and gently rolling, tree-shaded biways -- many ending at vest-pocket beaches. To avoid the long weekend ferry lines, savvy daytrippers leave their car in North Haven or Greenport, walk their bikes aboard the boat (or rent them on the island), then meander around on two wheels.

The 8,000-acre island -- whose irregular shape one resident described as a Rorschach inkblot gone mad -- is even more compact than its official dozen square miles when you eliminate marshes and other areas not suitable for bicycling (including the huge Mashomack Preserve, which does, however, provide bike racks).

Sunset-viewing is a major evening activity and there aren't too many planned daytime events. There's a scattering of shops, galleries and places to stop for a meal, snack or picnic fixings. But the overall snail's pace is just fine with the locals -- and with visitors drawn by the island's simple charms.

Your itinerary should include lovely Dering Harbor -- New York's smallest incorporated village (at last count, 28 households on 200 acres) -- and sprawling Big Ram Island, en route to which you'll see huge osprey nests on platforms the phone company built for them atop its poles along the causeway. You can also visit a centuries-old Quaker cemetery off North Ferry Road.

On summer weekends visitors can tour a couple of historical society properties -- the home of a member of the First Continental Congress and a museum with changing exhibits in an old chapel -- both in The Center, which is one of the island's two main communities. The other, known by an equally straightforward name -- The Heights -- has the island's oldest public building. It's the Chapel in the Grove, noted for its marine mosaic windows. It was built in 1875-1876 for guests of a fashionable hotel that was the center of a religious community. The gingerbread-trimmed houses on the streets between the chapel and the harbor were also part of the complex, and were built in the form of a cross. Earlier history is still being probed and visitors are occasionally invited to view the archeological dig at a 250-acre private estate once the core of a 17th century plantation that covered the entire island, supplying provisions for two Barbados sugar plantations.

Last stop: Crescent Beach -- for a soul-melting sunset and, in season, inspiring free concerts by gifted students at the summer home of the Perlman Music Program (co-founded by Toby Perlman, whose husband, violinist Itzhak Perlman, provides mentoring).

Information: 800-9-SHELTER, www.shelter-island.org; Perlman Music Program, 631-749-0740.

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