john mcphees, the pine barrens

[Pan]

FWIW, the post you deleted has two attached pictures which are still there (I think these are just thumbnails because I don't see full images in the gallery)

nj-pb-avatar-jpg
plainslwf0-jpg

Don't know about file size limits, but will check later. I'd be willing to bet they were too big however. I think you first need to upload all your pictures, either one at a time or as a group. Then after uploading there should be a button to attach individual or multiple images. I'd just try again with files that are smaller and see what happens.

As for the picture... It was taken on June 16,2002 - wow, where did the last 20 years go?? Let's see how long it takes for somebody else to identify that. Should be an easy one.

"where did the last 20 years go??"

50

 

[Pan]

Road to Jenkins 22Sep1971

 

[Pan]

1972. Ultralight backpacking in the PB plains.

 

[Teegate]

The photo with your bug is Stephenson's road. It is also called the red road.

 

[Pan]

The photo with your bug is Stephenson's road. It is also called the red road.

I never knew that. It wasn't so marked on the maps I had (geo. survey map and Esso or Mobilgas free road map). It was my favorite entry to the PB. GW Bridge > NJ Tpk > Freeway > Rt 72 west

The little bug ran great on those sandy roads.

 

[TommyP]

I’m enjoying all the old photos. Cool stuff. I wish the signs were still around or maintained.

 

[Pan]

I’m enjoying all the old photos. Cool stuff. I wish the signs were still around or maintained.

There didn't seem to be much (any) interest (except for my rare Friendship photo - which reminds me I was supposed to call back that lady at that Jersey college about it) so i took down a bunch of them, plus i don't know that i wanted to post them all anyway, plus i probably posted some of them before.

The VW was great on those narrow sandy roads, light weight, good ground clearance and traction - and a gas tank that i cld dip a rag in for tick removal (not approved by contemporary authorities).

 

[stiltzkin]

There didn't seem to be much (any) interest (except for my rare Friendship photo

I'm certainly interested!

 

[Pan]

That must be the one with an additional addendum and photos. I only saw it once, when it first came out I think. It must be rare.

On Amazon, under reviews, the first one by "A Customer", from 1999, that's me.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book, November 9, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Pine Barrens (Hardcover)
I live out west now. I just returned to the east for a visit. I drove down to the NJ Pine Barrens and I camped out one night in the Plains (the dwarf forest), no doubt in violation of millions of New Jersey rules and regulations. The benign peacefulness of the place, the smell of the pines, the sound of the wind, all swept over me. I used to live in Manhattan. I'd often make the 2 1/2 or 3 hour drive to hike and canoe and camp in the Barrens. I love that magical forest, the dark bogs, the open plains, the pure rivers, the endless sandy roads. John McPhee's book truly captures the atmosphere of this very special place in the world.

Amazon used to have my review on top but they seem to have totally deleted it now, perhaps because of my allusions to illegal activities. Idindonuffin!

 

[Teegate]

Sorry to hear that. Maybe someone reported it.

 

[Pan]

Sorry to hear that. Maybe someone reported it.

Maybe someone objected to encouraging illegal camping, which actually is probably a good thing. I don't leave a trace, but you'd get people trashing the place and starting fires.

 

[bobpbx]

Are you speaking of this one Pan? I have it, and don't think it's rare (or maybe it is).

 

[bobpbx]

By the way, in the back of the book there's a picture of a house at Friendship. Obviously being lived in. Probably Sue's.

 

[Pan]

Are you speaking of this one Pan? I have it, and don't think it's rare (or maybe it is).

View attachment 19234

View attachment 19235

Yes, I believe that's the one. I never owned it but just looked through it years ago in a book store, I think. I don't know if it's really rare but i don't recall ever seeing it again.


ADD: I did own it but I forgot!

 

[bobpbx]

See post 20 on this thread. It's there as well. We get old, we forget things, we don't care.

 

[Pan]

See post 20 on this thread. It's there as well. We get old, we forget things, we don't care.

I don't care!

 

[Pan]

Post 30: I ordered that book from Ebay? I don't remember that either. What became of it. Do i have it buried here someplace? I've moved various times since then and a lot of things have disappeared, and i also used to trade in old books at the Bookmans...(I'm reading thru this whole thread)

Oh...Post 32 refreshed my memory. The book wasn't as memorable as my memory thought it was...in my memory! (I remind myself of Criswell in Plan 9 From Outer Space (the worst - and funniest - movie ever)..."The future is where we will all be living...in the future!")

 

[Pan]

Since I enlisted in the forum some four years ago, I've managed to produce a whopping 38 posts (including this one). I've probably mentioned McPhee in a half-dozen of these. That gives the world's best writer something like an, I dunno, .175 batting average?

Anyway, I just received the January '74 Nat'l Geographic magazine mentioned in the Fred Brown thread found somewhere else on the forum (thanks again, Guy), and I've spent part of my Saturday afternoon reading the pb-article penned by ... yup ... Mr. McPhee. A part of one paragraph hits home ...

"Mink live here as well, and otter, deer, raccoons, opossums, the gray fox. Pine snakes. Milk snakes. Corn snakes. Rattlesnakes. Bass. Pickerel. Catfish. Fifty billion mosquitoes. Hyla andersoni, ventriloquist tree frog, is found almost nowhere else but here. He is green, has a purple stripe down his side, looks like a state trooper, and goes WONK WONK in the dead of night."

Wonk! Wonk!

Indeed.

That wonk wonk sound, and whippoorwills, brings back memories.

Here is a road named after me (Pan is just my nom de plume...Larry Lief...everybody spells it wrong) that i found in the barrens:

 

[stiltzkin]

Here is a road named after me (Pan is just my nom de plume...Larry Lief...everybody spells it wrong) that i found in the barrens:

That'd be the Mojave desert barrens, not the Pine Barrens, right? Here?

 

[Pan]

That'd be the Mojave desert barrens, not the Pine Barrens, right? Here?

Right! Very good. It's in the California desert. I was just kidding. I found it on my gps years ago, and when i was in the vicinity i went to find it and took that picture. Well, it's not exactly the Champs Elysees, but I'm rather proud of it, named after me, sort of. Plenty of free parking...