Destruction at Mount

MarkBNJ

MarkBNJ

Piney
Jun 17, 2007
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Long Valley, NJ
www.markbetz.net
Well, it was an unusually fine day to be out and about in the Barrens. I wish all I had to talk about was what a great time we had with the dogs, hiking the causeways around Friendship bogs and enjoying the unseasonable weather.

Instead I find myself seething over another act of wanton destruction.



These photos were taken today at the site of Cranmer's Tavern in Mount. All day long we'd been seeing the mudders out and about, especially up northwest of High Crossing. The roads were very wet and there were many deep holes made deeper by 35" mud rubber. I guess someone saw the cellar hole and figured it was put there for him.



The hole is deep and well-chewed up. Whoever it was made quite a few passes. In the next shot you can see the bricks they churned up.



I'm afraid that now that this hole is marked it will cease to even be a cellar hole. I can't even describe how pissed off this makes me. I don't usually post Pine Barrens related stuff anywhere but here, but I was so upset when I got home that I needed to go on a mini-rant, which I didn't care to saddle Ben with. You can read it here, if interested.
 
james ungehajer

james ungehajer

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Oct 25, 2006
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MarkBNJ said:
I'm afraid that now that this hole is marked it will cease to even be a cellar hole. I can't even describe how pissed off this makes me. I don't usually post Pine Barrens related stuff anywhere but here, but I was so upset when I got home that I needed to go on a mini-rant, which I didn't care to saddle Ben with. You can read it here, if interested.
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I share your pissed-offness as well Mark, that is a bunch of BS. :bang:

Jim
 
Teegate

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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These people make it hard on all of us. One day they will try to stop vehicle traffic in the pines, and this will be the reason why.

Thanks for the photo's Mark!


Guy
 
Ben Ruset

Ben Ruset

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Oct 12, 2004
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Yup. That place has been used by trucks for ages.

If the state had cared to do any preservation there, they would have. While I would love to 100% blame the idiot that does that, I have to fault the state for doing absolutely nothing for historic preservation/research while they constantly buy the Park Police new Jeeps.
 
46er

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
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Playing devils advocate :jd: here. These folks probably don't know what a cellar hole is or its significance. It's a shame that its not possible for the state or one of the non-profits to put something as simple as a sign at an historic spot to signify what it is. If someone then trashed it, I'd be all in favor of castrating them or worse :D

Maybe the state could finally set aside an area where these folks could go to play, like was promised :words: It really can't be that hard to do.
 
Ben Ruset

Ben Ruset

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Well, there was never a place promised for trucks. You always had to go out to Paragon for that. And signs would just get vandalized. Just look at the USGS monitoring station at Mount to see what would happen to it. It's a shame.
 
mudboy dave

mudboy dave

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Oct 15, 2008
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I've been in the process of working out a place for trucks for a while. we're slowly progressing, even PPA has our backs as long as environmental studies come back good, which i think they will , since its out of the pinebarrens. I agree there should be something done by the state as far as perserving, but I also agree that there are some guys with trucks out there I'd like to smack the living you know what out of:jeffd:
 
MarkBNJ

MarkBNJ

Piney
Jun 17, 2007
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Long Valley, NJ
www.markbetz.net
bruset said:
Yup. That place has been used by trucks for ages.

If the state had cared to do any preservation there, they would have. While I would love to 100% blame the idiot that does that, I have to fault the state for doing absolutely nothing for historic preservation/research while they constantly buy the Park Police new Jeeps.
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It must have healed up some in the last year, because I was by there numerous times, including being down in that cellar hole poking around, and I never noticed anything like what I see there now.

46er, I agree with you. Many people don't know what those depressions are, and that's the point. There are many reasons for staying on the roads. Destruction of archaeological resources is one of them, as is destruction of sensitive ecological areas, neither of which is likely to be recognized by the average person.

If people don't know what's off the road, that's a damn good reason for staying on the road.
 
46er

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
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Coastal NJ
MarkBNJ said:
If people don't know what's off the road....
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That could also be a reason for going offroad, the unknown. After all, isn't that what exploring is all about. Not to belabor this but to a very small extent, just walking destroys something; and 4 wheels can do much, much more in the way of destruction.
 
MarkBNJ

MarkBNJ

Piney
Jun 17, 2007
1,875
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Long Valley, NJ
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46er said:
That could also be a reason for going offroad, the unknown. After all, isn't that what exploring is all about. Not to belabor this but to a very small extent, just walking destroys something; and 4 wheels can do much, much more in the way of destruction.
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It could be a reason, but I don't think the people who did that damage at Mount had much interest in exploring anything. They go out there because it's an obstacle course. There's no sense trying to smooth that over. Lewis and Clark these guys ain't.

I'm not a tree-hugging type, or given to weepy displays of emotion on the demise of a deer. If someone owns a piece of land I say let them do what they want with it. Cut down all the trees, tear it up with ATVs, engage in midnight exhibitions of pagan depravity, I don't give a crap. But these woods were set aside because they're still woods. Set aside, for everyone, but not for everyone to do with as they will. If someone's thrills depend on tearing the woods up in a motor vehicle... screw that. I say if you come out of the woods with more than 30% mud coverage above the mirrors you get to join a weekend work gang and fill the ruts back in.

I'm just bummed, I guess. I used to be in the live and let live camp, but I'm sick of seeing this stuff. I don't mean to lecture, but you seem to be equivocating, when I believe there are some really bright, readily visible lines being crossed.
 
MarkBNJ

MarkBNJ

Piney
Jun 17, 2007
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Long Valley, NJ
www.markbetz.net
mudboy dave said:
I've done that not deliberatly tearing anything up. I have also seen people leaving campgrounds with more than that.
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Yeah, that was a little tongue and cheek. My daughter's cell phone has a little tab on the battery. If she gets it wet this thing turns a red color and the guy at Verizon can laugh at her when she says "I don't know why it stopped working." They need a mud tab to go under the fenders of 4WD trucks, that turns puke yellow if immersed in goop.
 
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