Article on the homeless in the Pine Barrens
- Thread starter Trailhead00
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God Bless her. We are all slackers compared to her. I give to Doctors without Borders and the Salvation Army. This one seems worthy too.
Having had lived on the outskirts of browns mills for 10 years, I am well aware of the homeless in the woods. They stayed close to lakehurst road mostly. I was at the christain care center the day after the shooting. I was driving in to donate clothes and stuff and the police were moving into the woods from the parking lot at that exact same moment. I asked what had happened and the woman there (perhaps Mears) told me.
If I were homeless I would much rather live in the woods than some street corner somewhere. But of course, I would rather not be homeless to begin with.
On a somewhat related note, does anybody remember seeing a guy with long hair and beard hanging around route 72. I would see him between 532 and 563 along route 72. This was about 12 years ago. I always figured he was living back there (this was before the ORV park).
Jeff
If I were homeless I would much rather live in the woods than some street corner somewhere. But of course, I would rather not be homeless to begin with.
On a somewhat related note, does anybody remember seeing a guy with long hair and beard hanging around route 72. I would see him between 532 and 563 along route 72. This was about 12 years ago. I always figured he was living back there (this was before the ORV park).
Jeff
I thought I would share this incredible story regarding the successful wedding...
Lets call her Terri, and him Ed.
Terri moved to Tinsel Town (made up name of course) in June. Ed got out of jail for a minor mishap in June. Ed being now homeless, pitched a tent in the marshes across the road from Terri's new house. He lived there for several months, working and saving money up for a car. Once Ed bought a car, he parked it in a vacant lot which was also directly across from Terri's house. This too went on for several months.
One day a relative of Terri's decided to call her and set up a date to go out to a local bar and see this well known band. Terri though living near the bar, never went there before.The night the band was suppose to appear, they cancelled, but Terri and her relative went anyway. This is where Terri and Ed met. He kept looking at her until she approached him. It was great conversation and a connection was made. A strange union this was considering the age difference. Terri being almost 50 and Ed only 30 yrs old.
I will stop here and see what interest I have peeked with this true story....
The ending is even more amazing!
Lets call her Terri, and him Ed.
Terri moved to Tinsel Town (made up name of course) in June. Ed got out of jail for a minor mishap in June. Ed being now homeless, pitched a tent in the marshes across the road from Terri's new house. He lived there for several months, working and saving money up for a car. Once Ed bought a car, he parked it in a vacant lot which was also directly across from Terri's house. This too went on for several months.
One day a relative of Terri's decided to call her and set up a date to go out to a local bar and see this well known band. Terri though living near the bar, never went there before.The night the band was suppose to appear, they cancelled, but Terri and her relative went anyway. This is where Terri and Ed met. He kept looking at her until she approached him. It was great conversation and a connection was made. A strange union this was considering the age difference. Terri being almost 50 and Ed only 30 yrs old.
I will stop here and see what interest I have peeked with this true story....
The ending is even more amazing!
It's a crazy thought, but most homeless people who decided to go live in one of the state forests of the NJ Pinelands would be endlessly harassed and probably eventually arrested or forced to leave. This would even be true of people newly homeless who had paid their taxes up until the life changing events that forced them from their homes, which I find preposterous considering that the forests are public lands which are resources owned by all the citizens of NJ. Yet we must pay to aquire the right to camp on our very property which is patroled by bored cops who harass the campers who are generally easygoing and of low impact simply because they are the easiest people to locate and fine with ridiculously high penalties because the system is poorly budgeted and funds mismanaged like everything the government of this second richest state in the Union. Those that are homeless are the most low key and impact campers of all as they wish to keep their presence a secret. The real destructing crowds are the local teenage secret drinking spot partyers and monster truck/atv riders who created places like "the scar" Park your car more than am hour in any pine barrens forest parking lot, and have your plates ran and car watched for entrance/exit times so if it is seen for a day or more in one spot, the park police will seek you out at every campsite, even those without vehicle access, so they can see if you have your camping permit. They never take into account that you might have come with another person and their car was the one that was listed on the permit. Then they will suspiciously look around the site and play passive aggressive asking, " you don't have any alcoholic beverages around do you? " Well park police, I ask you, "You don't have any real criminals causing harm to these wilderness environments to catch do you? " If you are homeless, and you have a car, unless you have a good place to park it where the Rangers won't look, I don't suggest trying to live in the barrens. The Rangers will smoke you out, probably arrest you, fine you a person already without monetary means, and they won't forget you. If you have a car, sleep in that away from the authorities who will make you leave the area, and when you try sleeping somewhere else they will make you get out of there. You see, in the US, it's illegal to be homeless, and the country seems to be in denial that there are homeless people so they try and endlessly move you from place to place like they can ignore the problem so it will go away. Like that ever works for anything!?! Ugh, sorry for the rant I grew up in Manhattan and it's just so sad and terrible what we do to people in tragedy here. You know how many homeless are war veterans!?! The government should take care of them like they are the victors of the hunger games, because in a way, they are!
Hurrah! I love it! anti government! I love it! I agree with everything except one thing.You give the Rangers way more credit for their ability to smoke people out then I have found. The trick is to park ( your right about your car being your weak point) and high tail it with your pack or canoe and camp in a spot that is surrounded by water or thick brush. I usually make no fire (because I"m lazy) but if you do keep it small and for goodness sake don't set the woods on fire.When coming back into your car( if you stay more then one night switch your cars position daily unless your sure you have it in a very secret area (Blocking a very tight rarely traveled road with a natural looking knocked over tree isn't a bad idea neither (Many Rangers are lazy as well)before you get near your car drop your pack or ditch the canoe and walk back in nonchalantly and check the area around it,tracks if possible and set up some brush if driven over it will be broken.Don't bring your gear in till your sure no one is there.PS you are alloowed to hike till hearts content with a loaded pack,claim your breaking gear in or getting in shape for a hike.If the gear isn't set up they can suspect all they want your not busted by carrying a full pack.Also a good idea is not to set up camp till it starts getting dark.Your not camping till a tent goes up and get it down at first light.A tarp and hammock set up is even better.A tarp could be counted as a tent but no law against hammocking for the day.The fire is also a dead ticket if it's still hot hence an advantage to being lazy and not having one. I take it you also bang your head when you wish to go camping and (get away from everyone) and your immediately herded into a tree studded concentration cam to be subjected to other peoples excuse for music and to meet their undisciplined kids.The key is low impact,move frequently,don't get caught with the tent up and a hot fire and don't forget to smile and wish them a nice day.
Thanks, through a try out basis, I have come to many of the conclusions you have listed, but yours are far more refined than mine. I did not know that about the being able to hike to your hearts content but that's great thanks for the heads up. I find that after a certain time , the rangers are near non-existent like around 10:30 pm they no longer seem to patrol the parking lots. I am a hammock camper so I have that advantage out of the way, and I figure if there aren't any roads they can drive down to get to you, then you are safe. I have never seen a ranger walk more than 50 feet away from his vehicle. With the fire thing, I have a number of self made Woodgas paint can stoves I have made, so when I need to heat something I use one. They burn real hot I can boil water in about 5 mins they burn so efficiently that they have a secondary ignition that burns the smoke leaving very little smoke to see, and after its done everything burns to white ash which I just scuff into the sand. I haven't tried the spying techniques but they sound genius. I have been sneaky enough recently to get away camping right next to the second bridge that is out on the old Mullica trail that has been diverted. This is also along a the toms pond trail. Some super early hikers saw me still half asleep waking up from my hammock but all they did was smile and say morning!
Oh, I just want to say i don't fully hate the government, but.....wait what am I saying I do hate the government and their nonsensical stupidity! !
I was night driving once heading south from Quaker Bridge tBatsto down the east side of Batsto River when I encountered a couple camping right on the shoulder of the road.They had a tent and a fire going.The guy was a large muscular black guy maybe 30 years old,I couldn't really see the girl since she was between me and the fire and was just a sihouette but I stopped and explained to him that what He was doing was illegal and that He was in a prime spot to get busted since he was on the shoulder of a well used road the Rangers use to go between Batsto and Atsion and that he would get ticketed for illegal camping and a fire if busted.He seemed to act as If I was an arrogant ass trying to give him a hard time and seemed to be quite defensive so I told him hey it's your cash the state will help themselves to and I drove off.It was about 8 pm and prime time to get hit.Nothing like being not only an arrogant ass but a stupid one as well.
Stupid is as stupid does.
If your going to be stupid, you better be tough.
No point in being stupid unless you can prove it.
There is a difference between stupidity and ignorance.
well he may have been ignorant till I filled him in but I doubt it.He was definitely stupid after I left him but I think He was all along.
What would it matter if he is tough? Is he gonna beat up the ranger so he won't get a ticket? Obviously he is dumb to not heed the advice, so if he were instead tough, how is that going advantageous in this situation for him?
I guess I can understand maybe he just didn't understand your intention was to help and he thought you were busting his balls. I agree that he is dumb and should have more sense than that. Hey, question, why did you mention he was black? HAha! Just kidding man, now I'm busting your chops! I am heading out to a secret spot tonight I found in Wharton, so happy camping, and screw the law!
Bacause He was Black.I work in a place that is half black and half white and has over 300 people in it and when anyone is speaking of anyone in there weather they are black or white the first thing they do is throw out their color in the description so you can narrow down who you might be talking about by half.I have been there four years and still don't know 75% of the people working there since most are on other shifts and the turn over is high so race is a big eliminator there.Also running into anyone black in the barrens at night is a real oddity,at least for me and this way if he ever reads this he'll know I was talking about his dumb ass and believe me blacks do not have a monopoly on dumb asses.We have a few of each at work,color is no clue to who will be a dumb ass.
No I get it man I wasn't serious I was just joking. There was this cartoon on cartoon network on the late night segment they call adult swim called sea lab 2020. There was episode when one character slept with another character named Debbie, and there was two Debbie's on the show so when the guy was spilling his beans about it another character asked him which Debbie. He replied that it was not the black Debbie but the white one and the joke the whole episode was "why does it gotta be black Debbie!?" This just reminded me of that, not accusing you of anything, just busting your chops is all.
I used to do night drives in Wharton and had a route 50 mi lon g that took 4 hours to drive.You could do this drive without recrossing or repeating ground and not crossing a blacktop road.I was on this route when I wandered into yon dumbass. I also wandered into a blazing bonfire up near Carranza memorial east of High crossing and there was no one there.Just a bonfire in a open patch near a sawmill ruin and no person and no tent and no vehicles.Must of been backpackers and they ran but where was the tent. A very big fire for backpackers,looked like a keg party.I wanted to investigate but had Momma with me and figured about the time I got into the clearing the rangers would pull up and swear I built the fire.
Hey we're all the same color (Melanin) only some folks have more of it then others. Some folks have better UV protection and some have a better ability to synthesize Vitamin D from sunlight
We all walked off the same boat though I know there are those who would disagree with that
We all walked off the same boat though I know there are those who would disagree with that
That's kind of creepy. That's like there was some crazy cult burning up sacrifices or something to the Jersey Devil. Not only that, but unattended Bon fires are definitely a big danger in our fire prone pine woods.
It was built in a good open sandy location and there was no wind but still it was big! I didn't go over and check for tracks.I wonder, can Sasquatch make fire?