I found it!

[JeffD]

On my last Shore/Pine Barrens excursion I found the boardwalk at Webbs Bog. It was too late in the day to explore the area, but at least I found it. I left Gravel Point at Mystic Island shortly before sunset and I didn't get to Webbs Bog until late dusk. The trail that leads to the boardwalk is between mile markers 20 and 21 on route 539, in a low area (of course, it's a bog). The trail comes in across the street, and slightly south of the Greenwood Forest sign on the left side of the road, if you're traveling north from 72 and 539. Just north of the Greenwood Forest sign are railings, where you can see the bog but not the boardwalk.

The trail is narrow but well defined and adequate for walking, although there are a lot of roots. I wouldn't recommend sandals. The trail was dry. After I looked at the boardwalk, which was a square loop which looked less than 1/4 mile total, I unintentionally started walking back through a passage slightly further south of the other trail. It was a little wet, even after all this dry weather. I got back on the original trail to my car and drove away.

Next time I plan to explore the area more fully.

 

[German]

We are quickly getting past the best time to see the several species of orchids that grow there, but the bog is always worth a stop if you are in the area. Be sure to look for the curly grass fern if you go again though. If you walk the boardwalk in a clockwise direction, you can spot a nice patch of them just before you come to the first small stand of cedars. They grow right up against the boardwalk.

 

[JeffD]

Thanks for the tip, German. I'll check out the curly grass fern next time I have a chance to visit Webbs Mill Bog. I'll have to manage my time better.

The skinny about this place on Places to Visit said that if you explore a little you may find ruins of the mill and dam and mill pond, etc. I imagine you would look for these things in the vicinity of Webbs Run. It was too late when I visited Webbs Mill Bog to see if the trail I was on went past the boardwalk. I guess I'll just have to explore to find out.

I just did a search on this forum for Pasadena. I think it was you, Barry, you said there was a map and information about the Pasadena area on a Yahoo link. I don't know much about this area except that Webbs Mill Bog is in the Pasadena area. Maybe I'll do just as well in my quest to find relics of Webbs Mill Bog by, as I said exploring around Webbs Mill Bog. At least now I know how to access Webbs Mill Bog.

 

[JeffD]

On my visit to Webbs Mill Bog yesterday, I believe I found some curly grass fern. I also think I found the earth star fungus and the tread something sundew. I didn't have a field guide but looked on a web link that showed plants of the Pine Barrens, which also had a slide show.

What I thought was interesting was that on the edge of the area seen from the boardwalk there were channels. And there were areas of standing water and areas with no surface water. I'm sure the water was quite close to the surface.

Webbs Run runs under the road where the guardrails border route 539, a few hundred feet north of the spot where I took the trail to the boardwalk. It seemed to be a tight squeeze between the vegetation along this trail this time, maybe because the recent rain flattened the vegetation towards the center of the trail. Anyway, it was passable.

After a leisurely visit to the boardwalk, I followed a trail to a sand road, which led me to route 539, a few hundred feet north of the guardrails that border Webbs Run. I went back to my car, which was parked by the Greenwood Forest sign across and slightly above the boardwalk trail entrance, and drove up route 539 and turned right on the dirt road. I couldn't find a path to get down to the run. I drove about a mile on the sand road, which evidently was graded, although some spots were a little rough, then turned around and crossed route 539 and followed the sand road the other direction. Shortly before I crossed the highway, I noticed some small, seemly slow moving streams partially tucked into the woods between the road and Webbs Run, which was a little lower in elevation than the road. I came to an intersection on the sand road and turned left.

I followed the sand road to where there was a short but abrupt rise in the road at the edge of a large meadow. I got out and walked. The meadow was bordered on both sides by the pine forest. I followed the sand road that was covered with a thin veil of vegetation to where the meadow ended at the edge of the woods. It looked like someone had cut a giant meadow rectangle into the woods. I don't know if this meadow was a naturally occurring ecological nitch (maybe this belongs on the nature and ecosystem forum) or was the result of a clearcut. The latter would make sense. After all, it is a wildlife management area, and some critters, including some endangered species, need this kind of habitat. With the exception of a rare sample of glass that littered the area, the meadow was quite nice, adding variety to the area I visited over a short span of time.

One more thing. As I drove north on 539 from Webbs Mill Bog I noticed a sign for Pasadena road. This was somewhere in the area where there's a sign for a railroad crossing which wasn't there.

 

[Teegate]

How long has the boardwalk been there? I traveled that are extensively years ago and never came upon it.

Guy

 

[westyvw]

Sounds like you found a feeder strip, there are quite a few of these along the roads in Passadena-Greenwood Forest WMA. As for the road you were on, if you continue east, you should come out at Bamber Lake. If you go west of 539, should bring you out to Wheatland (aka Passadena). The tracks you crossed are the old "Jersey Central".

 

[German]

The first time I was there was on a college field trip in the late 70s, and the old wooden boardwalk was there then. How long it existed before that, I cannot say. About a half dozen or so years back, the decaying wooden boardwalk was replaced with the current one made of metal and a recycled plastic-type material. It definitely lacks the character of the old one, which you can see if you have access to old NJ outdoor magazines, but has railings which have cut back on all the off-trail walking that once occurred, and was evident by deep footprints all over the area.

The plant community that exists there was threatened a few years back by beavers that dammed the creek downstream from the bog. While still a natural community, the bog would not have continued to hold all the plants so many have visited it to see. After repeated attemps at solving the problem by breaking up the damn (damn busy beavers!), they were finally trapped out and all is well again (except in the mind of those silly animal rights folks)........sorry, couldn't help myself.

 

[BarryC]

Hi Jeff,
I visited Webb's Mill Bog with someone who lives in that area. I had never been there. We parked our vehicle on the side of the road, walked a little path into the woods and there it was, the boardwalk. There was Curly Grass Fern galore! There was even more Thread-leaf and Spatulate-leaf Sundew. And there were Pitcher Plants and Arethusa (Dragon's Mouth Orchid). That was incredibly cool. I loved it. And of all those plants, the only ones I had ever seen before in real life were the Pitcher Plants.