My first Pine Barrens experiences

[BarryC]

In 1984 we did not yet live here, outside of Egg Harbor City. We were still living up in western Morris County, near Warren, Hunterdon and Sussex Counties.
I came down to my grandparents' house in Barnegat for a weekend, by myself that year. I had been somewhat familiar with the Pine Barrens from visiting my grandparets all the time when I was a kid and from the trips there via the Parkway. Well one of the first things I did was to take a drive. I went out 554 and onto 72, into the Plains, which I thought were very cool. I drove down a dirt road (sand, but I didn't know it). About a mile in, I stopped at a "T" intersection and then started to go again, but my car immediately dug itself down to the frame in the soft sand. There were no tire tracks or ruts in the sand, so I didn't know it was sand. I walked back to 72 and saw a sign, which I had missed when I went in, which said "Forest Fire Service air attack base". That scared the crap out of me. I walked about a mile up 72 to a Gulf station I remembered seeing and had a tow truck pull me out of the sand.
My second experience was the next day. I headed down to Sweetwater to visit my cousins. I had some vague recollection of how to get there. I remember heading west on 542. I came to a sign which said "Bridge out 3.0 miles ahead". I thought it said 30 miles, not 3.0, so I continued on, but got to the bridge quickly. This is the Wading River Bridge. Actually I think I was on the opposite side of the bridge than what I thought I should have been. So I turned up what I now know to be Ridge Road, which is a dirt road, but I gave up on that and came back down it. I don't remember how, but somehow I got to a general store. I went in and said I was looking for Sweetwater. The man said "You're in it!". I don't know how I got there. I told him who I was going to visit and told him I was spending the weekend with my grandparents in Barnegat, and told him who they were. I mentioned my grandmother having been an elementary school teacher for 47 years, 30 of those years being in Barnegat. He said he had had my grandmother as his teacher one year in elementary school.
I got to my cousins' and we eventually did a little canoing on the Mullica. We got to see Pitcher Plants and Pink Lady's Slippers. So I had an interesting weekend. The following March we moved here.
Just thought you might find it a little interesting.
Barry

 

[Teegate]

Barry,

Thanks for sharing your story with us. It is always interesting to learn how various people become interested in the pines. I am in the process of responding with my story, but I am not happy with my results so far. By tomorrow or the weekend I will try to post it.

Guy

 

[JeffD]

For many years, the New Jersey Pine Barrens was that remote area "out there" for me. My younger brother went to a camp pronounced "Hal-Oh-Wah-Sah. I remember him talking about cranberry bogs. I also remember visited a camp in the Pine Barrens -- maybe it was the same one -- where I climbed a good size pine tree. I remember when I came down, a girl remarked [sic] "The boys are coming down out of the trees!" On second thought, maybe that happened at my sister's or female cousin's camp.

My mom, as did others, helped circulate rumors about the Pine Barrens. There's the Jersey Devil. The Pineys are crazy backwoodsmen. They intermarry in families, etc. At some point, many years ago, I read Jack McPhee's book about the Pine Barrens, which debunked these rumors. McPhee pointed out that there is no more inter family marrying than in other populations. He also suggested how the crazy backwoodsman rumors got started. In the book he writes about a reporter who just invited himself in a Piney's home. I think (I read the book some time ago) that the homeowner challenged the intruder with a weapon (a shotgun?). As McPhee explained, of course someone's going to act that way when someone invades your home! It doesn't matter what the place looks like; it's still someone's home! The inhabitants of the deep Pine Barrens purposely made there houses look poor on the outside. It was for tax purposes. McPhee wrote that the insides of these houses are quite nice. He gives other examples in the book that gives me the impression that the Pineys are somewhat libertarian. Like myself, they don't like the government running their lives.

Then there was the experience I related on NATURE AND THE ECOSYSTEM, where during the summer after I got out of the Navy, two other guys and I camped out in the wilds of the Pine Barrens. We brought a tube to go tubing, but I remember a gas station where we were denied air for the inner tube. I don't remember if we ever got air so we could go tubing. I certainly do remember starting a campfire which almost went out of control. Fortunately, we left a good safety margin when we lit the fire. I was amazed how fast the firewood ignited. It was as if someone had soaked the wood in gasoline!

Several years passed before I visited the Pine Barrens. During the 90's, I went to a pick-your-own farm in Tabernacle regularly, often getting back on route 206, heading south to Hamilton, where I'd drive to that long lovely beach at North Wildwood.

At some point, I'm not sure when, I discovered the abandoned railroad tracks off of Quaker Bridge road, the area I'm most familiar with and at home with in the Pine Barrens. I occasionally returned to the railroad tracks. I also discovered Basto Village, where I had flown kites with my daughter and enjoyed touring the village and visitor center. I've also enjoyed walking the nature trail there and parts of the Batona trail and I've been to the top of the Batona fire tower.

Some years ago I followed a trail from Quaker Bridge and found the Old Forge campsite. Recently took a hike to it again.

So this is my story of how I became interested in the Pine Barrens.

 

[Teegate]

Here is my contribution.

In the spring of 1973 I turned 16, and a friend of mine helped me get a job at the Sunoco station in Marlton where he worked, and right down the street from where I lived. One of the employees who worked there owned a 1972 Land Cruiser, and mentioned he camped at the Forked River Mountains frequently. This peaked my interest, and after a long conversation about there being mountains in South Jersey, he introduced me to Henry Beck's book.

That was the beginning of a almost ten years of trips to the pines. At first I had to persuade my brother to drive me around in his 1967 Falcon, but by March of 1975 I had saved up enough money to buy a 1973 Land Cruiser and my camera, so I could explore myself.

Within 3 years I had traveled forty thousand miles, most of them going to and from the pines. Camping was one thing I enjoyed, so I camped exclusively at the Forked River Mountains, because I found them to be the perfect camping place. At that time the remote side that we set up camp was quiet and isolated, and only once did a dune buggy try to ascend the motorcycle wide road that we used to access our site.

We always blocked the upper and lower entrances to our camp with our vehicles which thwarted his attempt. There was a few large tree there, and we would tie ropes between the tops of them and hang our lantern from it. It would light up the whole area, and we could walk around at night like it was daytime. At sunsets and sunrise we would climb to the top of trees and watch natures greatest sites.


During the day we would search for fossils (read what Tom Brown Jr. says about Forked River Mountains and fossils), hike, and even attempted to drill a well for our water supply. This ended with a ground collapse, and looking back, it was not a very intelligent action..

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/fossil.jpg

We would camp in the heat of summer and the dead cold of winter, once in single digit temperatures. That adventure resulted in my co-workers wheels freezing after breaking through some ice, and then us parking at camp overnight. This rendered his vehicle immobile, requiring me to pull him out to 539 with his tires dragging through the snow. We left his car at 539 and drove to his house in Moorestown for a torch, returning later in the day to thaw out his wheels and retrieve his vehicle.



http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/camp.jpg


By August of 1978 my 73 Land Cruiser was getting tired, so I purchased a new 1978. By this time my one friend John and I had become the only two continuing to explore and camp. We would pick out a place on our maps and head there, usually being sidetracked by some other experience along the way. We encountered wild dogs near Chatsworth, a snake that stretched across the complete road in front of us, a brief glimpse of a fox, beavers near Batsto, and countless turtles.

Many times we would travel after days of raining, causing some of the roads to be washed out. That brought about many odd and humbling moments.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/stuck1.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/stuck1a.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/stuck2.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/stuck3.jpg

We traveled thousands of more miles, but by the mid 80's my kids were born, and my car had fumes leaking in a few rust spots in the back. It became a concern whenever I would transport them. I sold it to a young girl giving her and her dad full knowledge of every flaw in the car, and other than a few short trips over the preceding years, I have not been back until recently.


Guy

 

[JeffD]

I guess even off-road vehicles are not invincible! This reassures me that I made the right decision on one of my recent jaunts into the Pine Barrens. I drove across Quaker Bridge, en route to Lower Forge. Someone with me wanted me to drove further on the sandy road to get closer to the hiking turn off to Lower Forge. I was afraid my Buick Skylark would get stuck in the sand or if I got to a point where the road got too bad, I wouldn't be able to turn around. So I parked up on the small hill across the bridge and to the right and walked to Lower Forge from there.

You mentioned Forked River Mountains, Guy. This past summer I tried in vain to find that 200 feet above sea level hill that I read about in some publication. The information on the Internet from the Forked River Coalition didn't help either, even after I emailed them for information. I think they wanted me to join their group before they talk. I asked people in the area and they didn't know anything. A couple of guys thought it was in some state gamelands. Never found it. I imagine it's not nearly the same, not as nice as it was way back when when you visited it. Maybe the sand was leveled.

-Jeff

 

[Teegate]

Jeff,

Many of the sugar sand roads should be avoided by cars at all costs. If I remember correctly that area right after Quaker Bridge is quite sandy. You may have saved yourself some embarrassment and possibly money.

In dry weather the road to the Forked River Mountains can be negotiated by car. At least that was the case 20 years ago. In wet weather it is best left to 4x4. The below link shows what it is like in we weather right at the base of the first hill coming from 539. The access road to the first hill is at the bottom left of the picture.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/firsthill.jpg


I know nothing about the The Forked River Mountain Coalition except what I have read online. They did not have control of the property when I frequented the area. I hope that anyone can freely camp or drive as in the past, but I am concerned that those days are gone.


Guy

 

[JeffD]

Guy,

So my instincts were right that I would get stuck if I drove along the sugar sand road. Interesting name, "sugar sand." The sand really does look like sugar in that area.

I remember reading something about some preservation areas in Forked River. There was a lot of private property in the area as I drove down, I think, Lacey Road. I saw a "no tresspassing" sign by what I think was the cement plant. There were also a lot of recent developments. The Forked River Coalition website mentions that much of the land there is privately owned. But I would think that a preservation area, which is taxpayer funded, and which I think the Forked River Coalition may have something to do with, should have at least a right-of-way to access the area. But I could not find a single trail, let alone a road that goes there. I believe I turned left after I got off of the Garden State Parkway (I don't remember which exit) after coming from the north. I found the Popcorn Zoo a little past the area where I looked for the sandhill on my way out.

####

I just went to the Forked River Coalition site. It says that "most" of the land is privately owned and the the future is uncertain. The coalition points out that the area is on the outskirts of the Pine Barrens preservation area, where development IS allowed. They say that housing developments and the sand gravel industry may increasingly encroch on the scenic area.

The area seemed really built up to me. The Pine Barrens Commission management plan allows some development but still allegedly restricts it. It kinda makes you wonder. Hummmmmmm? Maybe we need to hold some folks accountable by documenting what's happening, via photos, etc., versus what the commission says.

 

[Teegate]

Jeff,

I don't know where you would be coming from, but you can access them off of route 539. If you are heading east on 72 turn left on 539. Look for the mile marker signs along the road, and travel to the 16 and a half marker. There is a dirt road on your right that takes you right past the mountains. You will know that you are on the right road when about a mile in from 539 you will pass cement foundations on your left for a fire tower. The Cedar Bridge tower was previously located there, but has since been moved to 539.

There are other roads connecting this road, so a good map is required to make sure you get the proper one. You must travel about 4 miles before you notice the subtle changes in the landscape. Then it is best to walk. There are motorcycle trails that wind around and across them and they are the way I traveled by foot between them.


Guy

 

[JeffD]

Thanks for the directions, Guy. It may indeed be best to pick up a geologic survey map of the area, which BobM said on the tread about maps could be bought at the Lebanon State Forest office.

I am familiar with route 539. In fact I pick it up in Allentown, NJ and is one way I go to the Pine Barrens. So the road to Forked River Mountains would be before I got to route 72, as I heading south on 539. I remember reading about the Cedar Bridge fire tower on a different thread on this forum.

Speaking of Lebanon State Forest, a few weeks ago I took a nice day hike there around the lake. One of the rangers there told me about the trail when I inquired about trails in Lebanon. He even went to the trouble of photocopying the nature trail guide for the lake area, as only one guide was left. It was a good, short trail for taking your time and appreciating nature.

 

[Teegate]

Jeff,

I dug up this photo of the road leading into the FRM from 539. It was taken a while ago so it may have changed. Also, there is a possibility that it is mirrored, but I believe I have it the right way. You can barely notice the deer in the photo.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/16halfmarker.jpg

Guy

 

[JeffD]

I followed your directions, Guy, which along with directions from a guy from the state forest fire service, led me to the top of Forked River Mountain. I headed south on 539, and clocked .5 mile on my trip odometer at mile marker 16. Just past the Cedar Hill Fire Tower, exactly at .5 mile, was the dirt/sand road that headed towards the mountain. I saw the concrete blocks from the former fire tower location, but it was more than a mile in. More like 3 miles. At about four miles I came to a fork in the road. I turned right because it seemed to climb. At some point in the road, by a building, a pickup truck sat in the road. I got out. It was a state forest fire service truck. The guy inside was following a grader which was grading the road. He told me that to get to Forked River Mountain I would turn left at the fork instead of right, as I had done. It's good that I didn't take the left fork. The gentleman said that that road was very difficult and I might get stuck in the sand in an area where the road dips, etc. So I went around to enter Forked River Mountain from the other side.

I followed the pickup truck and grader, first passing the pickup truck when it moved to a cutoff to let me pass and then the grader, when there was room and the driver signaled me to pass, to route 532. I turned left, then left on route 9 and went north, then left again at a light and left again on Lacey Road in Forked River. I passed the entrance to the Garden State Parkway. Outside of town, I looked for Carriage road on the right side of the road. The first dirt road on the left was the entrance to the mountain. I kept bearing to the right, at one point crossing a sand road where electrical wires ran, and came to a road on the left where the land rose. I drove all the way to the top of the mountain.

I had mixed feelings about the mountain. It looked a bit like the way Union Clay Works was described on it's own post, with beer cans, a cigarette wrapper and other trash on the edge of one part of the clearing. In the middle of the hill was a concrete foundation, which looked like a campfire had been made with an old muffler and tailpipe strewn in the middle. I had a great view in the distance in only one direction. I believe it was east, towards the Barnegat Lighthouse vicinity. I walked on what must be the motorcycle trails, which you mentioned, Guy, which were about 5 feet wide and ran down the mountain along a tight tree corridor, which enveloped the trails. They were clean.

An occasional yellow jacket flew into my car, which I parked near the trashed out area. As I was getting ready to leave, a young couple drove up in a jeep. The guy had a sheepish smile on his face as he drove around the periphera of the hill, drove down a road that narrowed, out of sight, backed up, then shut the engine off. I think he and the girl wanted privacy when they played checkers. You know, you have to really concentrate on the game.

The forest fire guy mentioned that the township had put a gate across to keep people who were dumping out but that it should be open when I went. When I asked if it was private property, he said that it was some kind of preserve, which is open to the public.

Trashing a preserve is about as destructive as development. Being good stewards of the earth begins with us respecting the land and cleaning up after ourselves.

I remember reading that Forked River Mountain was created by humans. I think it's interesting that a giant heap of sand and gravel that was dumped over the years became a hill that was integrated with the surrounding landscape. After the dumping stopped, plants colonized the mound and after years of ecological succession became a forested mountain.

I left Forked River Mountain and, pumped up by all the posts about the abandoned railroad that runs through the Pine Barrens, I headed to Quaker Bridge Road, off of route 206 in Atsion and parked by the railroad tracks. A yellow jacket, uninvited, had hitched a ride from Forked River Mountain. I executed it.

I first went right and walked to the bridge over the Mullica River, getting lost (metaphorically) in the wooded corridor of that remnant of railroads past. I returned to the crossing and headed towards Carrazanza. I was impressed with the occasional dirt road and clearing in the woods. I passed a bog area to the right of the tracks, which looked like it had been worked at some time in the past. The area looked like it had been cleared, but what really indicated there must have been a cranberry, blueberry, or other operation there was a row of bushes, which were neatly in line at the far end of the clearing, where dirt was pushed up in mounds with a ditch at the foot of the mounds.

Further towards Carazanza a stream, technically the Basto River not far from it's beginning, that ran through two tunnels/pipes through a concrete fixture under the tracks. If someone canoed or even kayacked from the beginning of the Basto he/she would have to carry the vessel. The tunnels were quite small and thick brush blocked passage once you crossed the tracks.

I mused at the pine trees and groundcover that had colonized the tracks. In some areas on the tracks you could put up a pup tent and camp.

 

[BarryC]

Jeff,
I've never heard such a thing. But if that's true, I'd like to hear the story some day if anyone knows it. I bet it's interesting. But Forked River Mountain, the peak bearing that name, is only one of at least a couple dozen high peaks like that, heading west for a few miles at least to Woodmansee. Some are 215 feet (higher than Apple Pie). But I have yet to visit those "mountains". One day I'll get up there.
Thanks,
Barry
JeffD wrote:
"I remember reading that Forked River Mountain was created by humans. I think it's interesting that a giant heap of sand and gravel that was dumped over the years became a hill that was integrated with the surrounding landscape. After the dumping stopped, plants colonized the mound and after years of ecological succession became a forested mountain."

 

[Teegate]

Jeff,

The Forked River Mountains and the surrounding area was formed naturally by nature. If you travel to the south eastern side of the west mountain where I camped, you can find numerous naturally formed fossils by just looking through the stones on the paths leading up.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/fossil.jpg




If you read the below paragraph, or go to the following link to the Nature Conservatoey website, you can read some info on the subject.


http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/newjersey/work/art4433.html

Stagecoach routes, railroads, taverns, charcoal pits, cedar logging and forgotten towns all have been the substance of local legends and songs about the Forked River Mountains. Historical records show that during the pre-Revolutionary War era, Native Americans revered the mountains as a sacred burial site. By the late 1700s, German colonists began to harvest wood to produce charcoal-which became one of the chief means of economic production. The Tuckerton Railroad wound through the mountains during the 1800s. A tower was erected temporarily on the eastern mountain to overlook ballistic experiments during World War II. But a more far-reaching change came to Forked River in the 1950s when the Garden State Parkway cut through the area. Today, Forked River still encompasses thousands of acres of uninhabitated cedar woods and swamp.



With good binoculars or a strong zoom lens, you can view the Oyster Creek nuclear station and the lighthouse from the mountains. Notice the lighthouse on the right of the photo.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/nuclear-Lighthouse.jpg


There is really two main mountains, but there are other areas in the vicinity at almost the same altitude. This photo was taken of the main mountains from one of the adjacent area's.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/viewofforked5-79.jpg


Things must have changed in that area on the eastern side of the mountains. It was never easy to get to them from the parkway as I remember it. This was the main road in.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/teegate/NearParkway8-78.jpg


Guy

 

[JeffD]

I can't find where I thought I read that Forked River Mountain was a result of dumping gravel and sand,guys. I think I read it in a library book. I'll have to try to find it. Yes, it does sound interesting, Barry. Something like that sticks in your head.

The link you posted, Guy, says their was an observation tower on the east mountain. That's what the concrete in the center of the hill must have been. It's possible just part of the mountain may have been where people dumped sand and gravel at the base of the tower. But even the geological events that resulted in these sand and gravel "mountains" (in Albuquerque, New Mexico the mountain is about a mile above the city) is interesting.

Looking at the map I found on the Forked River Mountains Coalition site, I see that I came out Jones Road, the dirt road, onto 532 where the directions on the link you posted, Guy, directs you in. You can see on the map I posted below where I entered off of 539 and turned right on Jones Road to 532. So, I was actually on the western edge of the Forked River preservation area. The map I posted doesn't show the road I came in, but I can see about where I entered, shortly after crossing the Garden State Parkway.

The directions you posted, Guy, stop at that junction I mentioned in the last post, where if I would have bared left from the way I entered the road would have been too difficult for my car. The forest fire service guy said it would be a very long walk to the mountains from that fork in the road.

I think the road I entered Forked River Mountains is being kept a secret, to keep the party types out. I didn't mention that I also saw lots of broken glass mixed in with the sand, gravel and leftover-from-fire-charcoal on the edge of the hill, in the vicinity of the vista.

I tried twice two rig it so when you click on the link the map will come up. To see the map, click on "map" on the left of the link that comes up. I told you I was technologically challenged. And this was a challenge.


http://www.frmc.org/mountains-index.htm

 

[Teegate]

Jeff,

The advice that it would be tough on your car was good. I helped pull out quite few cars in that area.

In the end you did make it there and that is what you had hoped for. It is an interesting place especially at sunset.

Here is a tip to help you with links that as you found out appear to have the same URL.

(I am using a Mac so yours may be different) If you notice the address appears to be the same as you navigate through the Bibliography, Fast Facts, and the maps. But if you go to the map, right click on it, up will come a menu and you choose something like "Copy this image location". Then you just paste that address into your letters, or right back into the URL at the top of your browser. You will find if you paste into your browser you will get the complete map eliminating the coalition background.

Here is the map link directly from the coalition site.

http://www.frmc.org/mountains-index.htm

And here it is after copying and pasting into your browser URL.

http://www.frmc.org/map.gif

Notice the size difference.

If you are a Mac user, and only have a one button mouse, hold down the Control key and then click on the map.

Guy

 

[JeffD]

Thanks for the technical tip, Guy. I think I remember doing something like that before. I forget how I did things sometimes. My daughter taught me a similar trick.

http://wmuma.com/caretaker/pinebarrens/njcf.html

There, I think I got what I wanted on this page.

Notice the line, in the third paragraph of the page on this link about having people watch the Forked River Mountain Preserve and alert authorities to problems. I realize you can't watch everything all the time, but the top of the East Mountain is really trashed out in places. It looks like it had accumulated over some time. Am I being too critical of the Caretakers of the mountain and the Nature Conservatory or is this just an example of symbolism over substance?

 

[Teegate]

Jeff,

I had noticed that it says the Forked River Mountains area. That may mean that they do not have control of the actual mountains that we are discussing. That may be the reason it has not been taken care of.

Guy

 

[JeffD]

Yeah, and so the East Forked River Mountain, like the mountains the Al Queda fled to in Afganistan, has become a place where desperados hang out. The trash on East Mountain evidently has become the local township's problem.

East Forked River Mountain affords a great view. I imagine the view is really nice at sunrise, as it faces east.

Jeff