Search results

I have heard there is guy who hikes pines and if he is certain you are the one who ate a meal on the trail then threw your soup cans, soda cans, food wrappers, paper towels, and spent propane canister on the ground, he will clean it up and then dump it on the hood of your car when he returns to...

I hiked the last leg of my hike today in the dark from Quaker Bridge to Carranza using the Gaia app on my iPhone. I was going to upgrade my 10 year old Garmin handheld GPS but the apps I have on my phone work so well I couldn't justify spending $200-$500 for a backup handheld device. I have...

I'm very familiar with that swan at Parvin's. He hangs out in the west side of the lake where the river starts to form. That swan is very aggressive and has tried to attack me a few times. I respond to his aggressive moves towards me by making aggressive moves towards him, which quickly reminds...

I average 500 miles a year on the Batona Trail, so I have some experience with the insect population out there. :D The arrival of deer flies varies from year to year. I have seen them arrive as early as the second week of May, and as late as the second week of June. On average they'll appear...

Losing your wallet is a mess. This past winter I set my wallet down on the tonneau cover of my pick-up truck in the parking lot at the Brendan Byrne Park Office. I didn't realize I had left it there until I went to a grocery store 45 minutes later. I raced back to the parking lot to look for it...

I'm thinking about buying enough of these to cover my body, but I'm afraid if I go hiking in a swampy area I'll have so many deer flies attached to me, if I fall down I won't be able to stand back up...

Sea Isle flooded badly on Monday morning. Many streets were impassable. Moved the cars to higher ground Monday night in anticipation of predicted worse flooding on Tuesday morning. Got up Tuesday morning and discovered the high tide was nowhere near breaching the bulkheads. Very happy the...

I use Toyota pickups for my business. If you change the oil every 5K and maintain the engine, the floor will wear out before the engine dies. The last two Toyota pickups I put up for sale both sold to the first person who looked at them for 100% of my asking price. One time I parked one of my...

I was laughing as I read this because I had the exact same thing happen to me while I was hiking on the Batona Trail. It was about 11am and I saw what looked like a Siamese cat approaching me from about an eighth of a mile up the trail. I thought, "Somebody must have dumped a cat out here." But...

I hike 500-1,000 miles in the pines every year, and I walk in daylight and at night. It's a rare treat to see a coyote. I've only seen them twice. In both instances it was a pair of coyotes and as soon as they spotted me they ran away as fast as they could. Honestly, I think the coyotes in the...

I noticed all the new blazes on the Batona Trail when I was hiking it today, and I did think it was a bit excessive. But when 5pm rolled around and I still had two hours of walking before I would reach my truck, I have to admit I was happy for the extra blazes because there was virtually no...

Fecal transplant? I just changed my mind about never refusing life saving medical treatment. :D

I'll say it's warm. I was out fishing yesterday afternoon on a lake and at dusk I got swarmed by mosquitos! I can't ever remember mosquitos in November?

I think the higher number of blazes on the Batona Trail is due to the frequency of fire lines and dirt roads that intersect it. For people who are unfamiliar with the trail, it's really easy to wander off it in some spots.

I walked through all kinds of grass, weeds, and bushes in the pines 1-2 weeks ago and didn't get one chigger on me. I have read that chiggers are not active in temperatures below 60 degrees, and it was below 60 when I was out there, so maybe that's true...or maybe it was the 1/2 can of...

You can find parking at Ongs Hat right near the northern terminus of the trail, and also at the southern terminus, but in both instances you'll be leaving your vehicle in places that are secluded, which would make it an easy target for thieves or vandals. If you can coordinate it, the safest...

September always seems to be the worst month for chiggers, but like others above, I haven't had a problem with them after mid-October. They're predicting frost this weekend, so that will be the end of them. Unfortunately it won't be the end of the ticks. They're active year round. Although...

Honestly, I wouldn't care if the president renamed Mt McKinley after Aunt Ester on Sanford & Son, as long as he did it in accordance with the rule of law and did not exceed his constitutional authority. Same for Chris Christie.

Mt. McKinley was named by an act of congress to honor an assassinated republican president. Some have wanted to change it to Denali for decades , but they have been unable to do so because they could not get majority support in congress. Is it okay for a president to ignore the constitution...

A hard lesson I learned when I started backpacking is...never keep my insect repellant in the same compartment of my backpack as my food. :(