On Tuesday, I had to go to Vineland on business. After that was out of the way, though, I gave myself a Halloween treat (almost surely my first-ever low-calorie Halloween treat). Instead of returning home, I continued going south until reaching Maurice River Bluffs Preserve.
(Note: The river is pronounced Moor-iss with the first syllable accented rather than Moor-eese with the second syllable accented. I have a friend living nearby to the preserve who gets disturbed when the incorrect pronunciation is used. Of course, yours truly finds it difficult to imagine getting riled by having a local landmark mispronounced!
Strangely enough, I happened to have an Uncle Maurice who pronounced his name the same as the river!)
Although there are not much more than five miles of trails here, there was plenty of variety and a lot of ups and downs by stairs and hills. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it's an hour away from my house, or otherwise I would plan to spend a lot of time here.
About twenty minutes along, I got my first view of the Maurice River:
This view would have made the trip worthwhile all by itself, but there was much more left to see.
These are the ruins of a house dating back from the late 1700s known as the Wheaton Mansion.
Riparian vegetation in the shallow water.
It looked as if this piece of wood was being roped back into shore by the vines and trees.
A venerable old tree:
Trail curving down toward the marsh.
Plants adjacent to the marsh.
Post and pilings:
As mentioned, lots of ups and downs. There was sand mining done here in the past, leaving the hills and low areas seen today.
Someone told me that he has drank from this artesian spring since he was five years old...just about the time Neil Armstrong was taking his first steps on the moon.
For more information, here is a link to The Nature Conservancy's page on the preserve: Maurice River Bluffs Preserve
(Note: The river is pronounced Moor-iss with the first syllable accented rather than Moor-eese with the second syllable accented. I have a friend living nearby to the preserve who gets disturbed when the incorrect pronunciation is used. Of course, yours truly finds it difficult to imagine getting riled by having a local landmark mispronounced!
Strangely enough, I happened to have an Uncle Maurice who pronounced his name the same as the river!)Although there are not much more than five miles of trails here, there was plenty of variety and a lot of ups and downs by stairs and hills. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it's an hour away from my house, or otherwise I would plan to spend a lot of time here.
About twenty minutes along, I got my first view of the Maurice River:
This view would have made the trip worthwhile all by itself, but there was much more left to see.
These are the ruins of a house dating back from the late 1700s known as the Wheaton Mansion.
Riparian vegetation in the shallow water.
It looked as if this piece of wood was being roped back into shore by the vines and trees.
A venerable old tree:
Trail curving down toward the marsh.
Plants adjacent to the marsh.
Post and pilings:
As mentioned, lots of ups and downs. There was sand mining done here in the past, leaving the hills and low areas seen today.
Someone told me that he has drank from this artesian spring since he was five years old...just about the time Neil Armstrong was taking his first steps on the moon.
For more information, here is a link to The Nature Conservancy's page on the preserve: Maurice River Bluffs Preserve
