Half Wet, Half Dry, All Wild....a PBX Hike

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,984
8,737
All,

Today was a Pine Barren Explorer (PBX) hike that Steve designed and called "Half Wet, Half Dry, All Wild".

So this morning at 7AM I headed out a few hours early to look for a stone near the Charles Wills Grave. At 7:45 this morning I was walking up and down Eagle Road searching with no luck. I was able to find a property stone for a neighboring property.

6033.JPG


At around 8:30 I headed to Friendship to await the arrival of the rest of the group. In attendance from this site were Bob (BobM), Steve (Behr655), Stu (OneHand), Ed (ecampbell), and myself, along with two other people.

6036.JPG


From Friendship we headed to the beginning of the hike at Hawkins Bridge where we would head up along the West Branch of the Wading River, and eventually head NW back to Friendship on high ground, hence the name Half Wet, Half Dry, All Wild.

At the very beginning of the hike Bob found hidden in leaves the cement remains of what I have always believed to be one of the numerous locations throughout the pines where machinery was mounted to saw trees for logging purposes. They would pour the cement along with the mounting bolts, saw the wood in the area, and move on to another location with the saw, abandoning everything else.

6038.JPG


A few sights along the way. Notice in the first photo where the deer have eaten the trees as far as they could reach.


IMG_6041.JPG




IMG_6042.JPG




IMG_6043.JPG




IMG_6045.JPG


The hunters are planning ahead and baiting the deer with corn and pears, which according to a few on the hike is now illegal.

IMG_6048.JPG


One of many savannahs we traveled through. Always interesting!

IMG_6050.JPG


Discussing plants with Bob.

6051.JPG


IMG_6052.JPG


Lunch time discussions as the sun was disappearing.

6053.JPG


Bushwhacking near the end.

IMG_6059.JPG


Back at Friendship Bob and I explored the bog as Steve took photo's of us from the bridge there.

6060.JPG


All in all a great day with a great group of people.

Guy
 
Last edited:
Yep, it was a great day for sure. The first part along the river was easier than I expected and the river was beautiful. The dry part was smooth sailing and I was thinking how I wasn't even tired and then we hit the last section. I've got to study those final legs a little closer I think.

Steve
 

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
5,064
3,341
Pestletown, N.J.
Looks like a good time.
Guy, baiting for deer in N.J. was legalized about 6 years ago under a lot of pressure from the bowhunters. It spread to the shotgun and muzzleloader guys immediately.
The argument from the bowhunters is that it lets you are able to make a closer, cleaner kill shot.
Prior to that, the baiting law, since I started hunting in 1968 and probably long before that, was that you could not bait within 300' of an elevated stand.
You could hunt from the ground over bait at any distance you pleased.
Baiting for deer in any season, be it bow, shotgun or muzzleloader, is completely legal in N.J.
Pennsylavania takes a tough stance on baiting and they do a lot of enforcement work on finding illegal bait around hunting camps especially during bear season.
The kicker is that they do not specify a minimum distance from which you can hunt near a baited area. It is left to the discretion of the game warden.
Scott
 

onehand

Explorer
Apr 11, 2005
374
1
potter co. pa.
i had a great time also, good group of guys

enjoyed feasting on wild cranburries, stomping throught the water and seeing old property markers

many other interesting sites as well

thanks for a well planned stomp throught the pines
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,984
8,737
It was nice having you along.

I don't know how you can eat those cranberries. I have tried them and without sugar they are horrible :)

I really do wish I could eat them!

Guy
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,984
8,737
BEHR655 said:
I've been trying to up-load some pix from the hike but the up-loads keep failing.

Steve


I just uploaded a file to check it out, and it successfully uploaded into my gallery.

Guy
 
Top