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There are a whole bunch of routes you can follow between Ong's Hat and the Brendan Byrne State Park office that will give you an 8-9 mile loop hike, but I'm not confident I can accurately describe every turn you need to make without getting you lost. If you happen to have a GPS, you can set a...

If you're comfortable walking 13-14 miles for a day hike, I think the best circuit hike on the whole Batona Trail is from the Batsto parking lot to Quaker Bridge. You can take the Batona Trail to Quaker Bridge and follow the Mullica River back, or vice-versa. That is a much more scenic route...

Two days is good. It's not easy following one 25 mile day with another 25 mile day, even on flat ground with a light pack. So if you leave Bass River at 9am Sunday, that'll put you at Lower Forge around 6pm or so. Hmmm...if I can push back my Monday job to Tuesday, I might be able to hike out...

Well after what's been a fairly cool spring it looks like you're going to catch some warm weather this weekend. Are you planning on doing it in three days? If you're going to be in the Batona Camp area on Sunday night and I can slip away from my family undetected (LOL) I'll stop by and say hi...

Thanks Guy. Seven years ago I had to abandon a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail when I became very ill with Lyme disease. I discovered the Batona Trail towards the end of my recovery from Lyme and decided to replace my failed attempt at thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail with a personal goal of...

There is a parking lot at Pakim Pond. I'm not aware of any prohibitions against overnight parking there. I would just stop in the park office as you enter Brendan Byrne State Park and inform them of your plans. You can pick up a Batona Trail map right there in the outside information display at...

Thanks for the info, Karl. One good thing I did find at Walmart are mosquito head nets for $1.88. I don't use them to repel mosquitoes, I use them to repel the deer flies that are out in the summer. I've been in swampy areas and have had 50 of those biting flies buzzing around my head. Dick's...

I've been buying the same brand of Permethrin at Dick's Sporting Goods, Sports Authority, and Wal-Mart for years. It's called 'Repel Permanone' and it's sold in an orange can for about $5. But I can't find that for sale anywhere this spring. Dick's sells another brand of Permethrin, but it's $8...

Hi mossberg, Here's another option for you if you have somebody providing transportation. On day one you can start at Pakim Pond (this is found in Brendan Byrne State Park) and head south for 10.7 miles to Batona Camp. On day two you can continue for 12.9 miles to the Batsto park office. There...

I was one of the 34 people who was issued a ticket in Salem, NJ on September 23, 2009. I did a google seach to see if I could find the newspaper article regarding this crosswalk sting and discovered the Salem police department ran this crosswalk sting again a month later and issued 97 tickets...

After this happened to me I was outraged. I wanted to check with the nearby businesses and see if a security camera had recorded what happened so I could use it as evidence to show that the undercover police officer that darted out in front of me had violated the very law I was issued a summons...

Beware! Some NJ police departments are setting up stings at crosswalks. If a driver is careless or disregards the law and legitimately endangers a pedestrian crossing the road, I don't have a problem with the police issuing him a ticket, but what the Salem, NJ police department did to me and...

Will my Hummer with the bumper sticker "Drill Baby Drill!" be safe at this Stockton event?

Whoever put those metal spikes in the mud puddle near Carranza isn't just targeting 4X4's and this isn't a new phenomena in that area. About 3-4 years ago I set out on a hike on the Batona Trail from Carranza road to Quaker Bridge. About a half mile south of Carranza road I encountered two...

I attended the short course at Burlington County College on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed it. You get to choose five (one hour) classes out of the 30-40 classes they offer. My choices were: 1) Primitive Survival (survival course) 2) Voices In The Pines (taught by book author Karen Riley)...

It's nice overnighting on the Batona Trail with a daypack. I've accomplished this by caching my sleeping gear, food & water. Slackpacking is a better option since you don't run the risk of arriving at camp at the end of the day, tired, thirsty and hungry, only to discover that a human or animal...

I hiked through Apple Pie Fire Tower today and I'm sorry to have to report to the folks here who generously gave of their time and effort to clean that site up that it has been thoroughly trashed again. There's beer bottles and garbage strewn all over the place, all kinds of household items...

They should mount a few non flash infrared cameras in the area that snap pictures when they detect motion. I don't know if the people who trash the tower will ever succeed at bringing it down, but left unchecked, they may succeed at getting it closed to the public.

I hiked by Apple Pie Fire Tower today while I was on the Batona Trail and it looks like the vandals who throw things off the tower and spray graffiti everywhere aren't satisfied with that anymore. Now they're trying to bring down the tower. Two of the four vertical supports that run the full...

I climbed Apple Pie Fire Tower on Saturday during a hike on the Batona. Man, they're just destroying that place. Pumpkins and electronic items smashed on the ground, garbage strewn all over the place, logs, tree trunks and burnt debris from fires is scattered about, the fence is covered in layer...