So my friend Joe and I decided to take a trip to see if we could find Calico like MarkPBNJ did. We decided to go in the first way that he tried. So we entered the woods near Harrisonville and proceeded towards Martha. At Martha we made a right onto Calico Road and followed it down for awhile. It eventually turns right and left a few times with a final turn left that takes you to Cutts Rd. Where Calico and Cutts cross there are fences/gates on both sides keeping anyone from going east or west so we went straight across.
As we crossed Cutts Rd. the road rose some and we noticed a couple of things. On my side there appeared to be a rise on the far side and thus making it appear as a waterway or canal. On Joe’s side he saw a dam that appeared to control the water into the waterway on my side. The road has drops off on both sides and looks as if it had just been created to get to the water source, similar to how jetties look in the ocean. We followed that trail down for a short time and came to the first puddle that Mark had concerns about and rightfully so because it looks like it has been there for quite some time and with a swampy area next to it just does not look fun without excessive 4wd hardware. But upon further investigation we noticed a cut around to the left. It looked a bit muddy, curvy and narrow. The clear coat on my truck has long been gone so we decided to try it out. Made it up and around the sharp right turn back towards the trail and around the puddle and arrived at yet another puddle that was ancient. This too had a cut around to the right side and had only some water so we went up there and made it through with no problem. I was pleasantly surprised that we made it around both because backing up and turning around would have been a very long chore.
Driving up the trail we came to a trail that was off to the right and went down towards the water. We went down towards the water and stopped to have a look around. When we saw the tree bridge in the water it did not dawn on us. Joe crossed first to see if he could get a better angle on the lake with the dead trees in it. He was certain it was the one from the pictures and ride write up from Mark. I tried slowly to cross the tree bridge and did my best job of impersonating a tree by falling in. Luckily it was mostly my shoes and pride that got wet. After recovering from my pride being embarrassed, we walked down the trail parallel to the lake. It kept getting more and narrower until we decided to proceed no further and come back across the tree bridge. I did not fall down this time. We looked around and determined that it was a small party place because of the way some of the logs were arranged around an old fire pit. While back in the truck we discussed whether the lake was the one from the post, I did not think it was but then we looked at the pictures from Mark’s post and low and behold the tree bridge is in there! Joe found it not me.
Excitedly we backed down the trail to Calico Road again and went less than 100 yards and found a large open area. Getting out of the truck we started looking for the tree that starts Mark’s post off. It looks to be an oak of some sorts, which I thought would be more common in this area and maybe I misunderstood Mark’s post concerning this tree. We did find that tree and took a picture from close to his point of view.
Looking around we found the paint thinner can
and then this tree which can be found at Martha near the screaming tree. And I thought this would be a tree that is not common to this area. I thought it was Northern Catalpa but may be incorrect as well.
We found this huge dead oak that was hiding behind two smaller cedar trees right off of the trail, while walking back towards the tree bridge area.
Looking closely at the dead tree, I saw this small shiny object and realized it was a marble it the tree. Also found another marble in that tree.
Walking back towards the tree bridge we found the small cellar hole, corrugated metal panels, loop and the small hole.
There was another piece of corrugated on the other side of the tree bridge as well. We walked back towards the cellar and past towards a point near the water. More metal was observed there. Feeling that we had seen and found what were looking for, we decided to relax for a bit and discuss.
We did not copy all of the photos of Mark but we did find most of them and a few more. Joe was pondering more about the fact that there was only one cellar in the area that was still visible. And what type of industry did Calico have? I said I did not know fully but I would guess some type of industry that coincided with Martha. Then Joe had a thought. Cutts Road has to do with the local cranberry bogs and that maybe the single foundation and associated hole with metal corrugated panels was the remnants of a pump house to flood the cranberry bogs. This would go along with the waterway looking terrain and the fences on the roads. I think this is a possibility. And I think this answer was found in a previous older post by TeeGate that I just recently read. Obviously most, if not all, the towns of the Pine Barrens have had fires destroy them time and time again. The high water table in this area at the time may have prevented basement foundations so that is why we cannot find any but newer modern construction would help preserve those foundations as well as just being newer than Calico. While observing the area I speculated that the water level had to be higher at one time in the past because of the way the land was sloped. The days before so many humans were taking from the Cohansey-Kirkwood aquifer.
We decided to leave the way Mark came in via Shamong Rd. It is not a long drive to the military gate with the non-regulation no hunting writing. We decided to make a right onto Shamong Road to see what we could find further east. The trail narrowed down to the point it was just easier to walk along the way. After walking about ¾ of a mile, we decided it was not panning out into anything and walked back to the parked truck. Only observations on this trail were a single motorcycle track on and off the center of the road. We turned around and drove back to the military gate and kept going west on Shamong Road. Now this is a trail that if you mind custom tree striping you should not go down. The trail is quite narrow at times and going slow only prolongs the ‘great’ sounds of branches down the truck lol. We found this nice swampy area on the right while proceeding out.
Along with different holes that look like much contemplation must be done before entering when wet.
After all those trees we came to a cross road that to the left has not been travelled by vehicle in many years but is open to the right so we decided to make a right. The road does not go far maybe a mile or so, before you come upon two jersey barriers with spray painting that says USA and no hunting on it. At first we figured it was the base barrier area again then thought maybe it was the hunting clubs version of a barrier to keep people out. Although our clue should have been that the spray paint was the same as the metal gate we saw earlier.
So we turned around and went back to Shamong Road and got back on it. We finally came to another intersection that was the end of Shamong Road. We decided to turn right and see where that would bring us. Again this road ended at a t with the crash barrier in front of us, a gate to the left which did not appear military so we went right and shortly came to the military barrier. And I believe this is Anderson Road.
This one I had been to previous some years ago and I thought it said something about use of deadly force was authorized but I see that sign has been removed. We turned around and back to the last intersection and then back to where Shamong Road had ended. We continued past Shamong Road and back towards Martha. I was surprised at how smooth and open this road was compared to my last adventure several years ago when it was narrow and up and down. We did come upon this tree while headed towards Martha. It was at the break to go towards Nash’s Cabin. We found it interesting because of the tied branch/dead tree tied to another and figured it to be a marker of some sort.
Came back past the old water shoot and then back to Martha where we took a few more pictures. One to correlate the picture of the tree that was at the Calico site with the one that is at Martha and to just see how Martha has changed since we were last there.
Now here is a question Joe brought up, why is Martha fenced off? The high walls of Harrisonville make sense to me why it is fenced off and the proximity to the highway. Martha has neither. Any thoughts on that?
So it was a great trip for us since it was a new area for us. We had been to the military area before but we were grateful to Mark and his post with pics to help us along our way. So thanks Mark and TeeGate for there previous posts concerning Calico.
As we crossed Cutts Rd. the road rose some and we noticed a couple of things. On my side there appeared to be a rise on the far side and thus making it appear as a waterway or canal. On Joe’s side he saw a dam that appeared to control the water into the waterway on my side. The road has drops off on both sides and looks as if it had just been created to get to the water source, similar to how jetties look in the ocean. We followed that trail down for a short time and came to the first puddle that Mark had concerns about and rightfully so because it looks like it has been there for quite some time and with a swampy area next to it just does not look fun without excessive 4wd hardware. But upon further investigation we noticed a cut around to the left. It looked a bit muddy, curvy and narrow. The clear coat on my truck has long been gone so we decided to try it out. Made it up and around the sharp right turn back towards the trail and around the puddle and arrived at yet another puddle that was ancient. This too had a cut around to the right side and had only some water so we went up there and made it through with no problem. I was pleasantly surprised that we made it around both because backing up and turning around would have been a very long chore.
Driving up the trail we came to a trail that was off to the right and went down towards the water. We went down towards the water and stopped to have a look around. When we saw the tree bridge in the water it did not dawn on us. Joe crossed first to see if he could get a better angle on the lake with the dead trees in it. He was certain it was the one from the pictures and ride write up from Mark. I tried slowly to cross the tree bridge and did my best job of impersonating a tree by falling in. Luckily it was mostly my shoes and pride that got wet. After recovering from my pride being embarrassed, we walked down the trail parallel to the lake. It kept getting more and narrower until we decided to proceed no further and come back across the tree bridge. I did not fall down this time. We looked around and determined that it was a small party place because of the way some of the logs were arranged around an old fire pit. While back in the truck we discussed whether the lake was the one from the post, I did not think it was but then we looked at the pictures from Mark’s post and low and behold the tree bridge is in there! Joe found it not me.
Excitedly we backed down the trail to Calico Road again and went less than 100 yards and found a large open area. Getting out of the truck we started looking for the tree that starts Mark’s post off. It looks to be an oak of some sorts, which I thought would be more common in this area and maybe I misunderstood Mark’s post concerning this tree. We did find that tree and took a picture from close to his point of view.
Looking around we found the paint thinner can
and then this tree which can be found at Martha near the screaming tree. And I thought this would be a tree that is not common to this area. I thought it was Northern Catalpa but may be incorrect as well.
We found this huge dead oak that was hiding behind two smaller cedar trees right off of the trail, while walking back towards the tree bridge area.
Looking closely at the dead tree, I saw this small shiny object and realized it was a marble it the tree. Also found another marble in that tree.
Walking back towards the tree bridge we found the small cellar hole, corrugated metal panels, loop and the small hole.
There was another piece of corrugated on the other side of the tree bridge as well. We walked back towards the cellar and past towards a point near the water. More metal was observed there. Feeling that we had seen and found what were looking for, we decided to relax for a bit and discuss.
We did not copy all of the photos of Mark but we did find most of them and a few more. Joe was pondering more about the fact that there was only one cellar in the area that was still visible. And what type of industry did Calico have? I said I did not know fully but I would guess some type of industry that coincided with Martha. Then Joe had a thought. Cutts Road has to do with the local cranberry bogs and that maybe the single foundation and associated hole with metal corrugated panels was the remnants of a pump house to flood the cranberry bogs. This would go along with the waterway looking terrain and the fences on the roads. I think this is a possibility. And I think this answer was found in a previous older post by TeeGate that I just recently read. Obviously most, if not all, the towns of the Pine Barrens have had fires destroy them time and time again. The high water table in this area at the time may have prevented basement foundations so that is why we cannot find any but newer modern construction would help preserve those foundations as well as just being newer than Calico. While observing the area I speculated that the water level had to be higher at one time in the past because of the way the land was sloped. The days before so many humans were taking from the Cohansey-Kirkwood aquifer.
We decided to leave the way Mark came in via Shamong Rd. It is not a long drive to the military gate with the non-regulation no hunting writing. We decided to make a right onto Shamong Road to see what we could find further east. The trail narrowed down to the point it was just easier to walk along the way. After walking about ¾ of a mile, we decided it was not panning out into anything and walked back to the parked truck. Only observations on this trail were a single motorcycle track on and off the center of the road. We turned around and drove back to the military gate and kept going west on Shamong Road. Now this is a trail that if you mind custom tree striping you should not go down. The trail is quite narrow at times and going slow only prolongs the ‘great’ sounds of branches down the truck lol. We found this nice swampy area on the right while proceeding out.
Along with different holes that look like much contemplation must be done before entering when wet.
After all those trees we came to a cross road that to the left has not been travelled by vehicle in many years but is open to the right so we decided to make a right. The road does not go far maybe a mile or so, before you come upon two jersey barriers with spray painting that says USA and no hunting on it. At first we figured it was the base barrier area again then thought maybe it was the hunting clubs version of a barrier to keep people out. Although our clue should have been that the spray paint was the same as the metal gate we saw earlier.
So we turned around and went back to Shamong Road and got back on it. We finally came to another intersection that was the end of Shamong Road. We decided to turn right and see where that would bring us. Again this road ended at a t with the crash barrier in front of us, a gate to the left which did not appear military so we went right and shortly came to the military barrier. And I believe this is Anderson Road.
This one I had been to previous some years ago and I thought it said something about use of deadly force was authorized but I see that sign has been removed. We turned around and back to the last intersection and then back to where Shamong Road had ended. We continued past Shamong Road and back towards Martha. I was surprised at how smooth and open this road was compared to my last adventure several years ago when it was narrow and up and down. We did come upon this tree while headed towards Martha. It was at the break to go towards Nash’s Cabin. We found it interesting because of the tied branch/dead tree tied to another and figured it to be a marker of some sort.
Came back past the old water shoot and then back to Martha where we took a few more pictures. One to correlate the picture of the tree that was at the Calico site with the one that is at Martha and to just see how Martha has changed since we were last there.
Now here is a question Joe brought up, why is Martha fenced off? The high walls of Harrisonville make sense to me why it is fenced off and the proximity to the highway. Martha has neither. Any thoughts on that?
So it was a great trip for us since it was a new area for us. We had been to the military area before but we were grateful to Mark and his post with pics to help us along our way. So thanks Mark and TeeGate for there previous posts concerning Calico.
