Did the whole thing last Thursday-Sunday. The reroute by Bass River (which I hadn't done) is great. That section was kinda boring with the walks down the roads. The reroute breaks it up before you hit that long stretch on the Martha Road.
Having done the whole trail at once, I had to give in and admit that the Parker Preserve reroute is my favorite section of trail now (replacing the Carranza to Apple Pie Hill section). That stretch has everything I could hope for, pine forests, swamps, bogs... the folks that built it went out of their way to be creative with it, and I love it.
Was happy to get 13 kids and one other adult down the whole trail (57.2 miles total with the campsite turnouts). Was kind of suprised to run into four other backpackers who were doing the whole thing. I've never knowingly met anyone else who did the Batona in one go, I always figured the sort of people who would backpack that far would head up to the water gap or out to PA to the Appalachian Trail.
