Headed back out to salem County to do more stone hunting today but on the way stopped by a piece of land I noticed the state had just bought as i ride by it on the way to work every day.They had been trying to sell the lots to build on for several years but the state has it now.I immediately went home and found the deed online and plotted it,four stones! The first one i could actually see from the road as I drove by because they had festooned the trees with ribbons and painted the stone bright pink.It was about 15 ft off the road. I also found the next two as well as well as a newly placed monument but the last stone all I found was the signs and it was within 50 ft of someones back yard and marked their corner as well and I assume they possibly found the stone and not knowing what it was for may have said HMM! Nice yard ornament! In any case it's gone.Here are the cumberland county stones i found on my way to salem.
This next shot is of a pond we passed closed to on a PBX hike a couple years back but I don't think we made it to the pond if I remember correctly.
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There were about ten stones in the area of this little guy that i could not find.Found a couple ribbons but this is a very open oak woods right behind a bunch of houses and obviously is well used with many stumps and well worn trails.I assume most are missing or as small as this one which I would not have found if not for the post.I found a few very old ribbons at the other locations but this area was a big disappointment for stones.
Found this guy sunning himself.It was cold,about 41 and a 40 mph wind but he was in the sun.He didn't try to get away and being a Black racer they usually flee at high speed and bite like hell when picked up.He did neither.He was blind in one eye,looked like a series of unshed brille caps and permanently blinded him,a common malady of wild snakes,a captive bred snake can have these removed easily enough if you don't let them build up more then two sheds..He did skunk me but when i set him back down he laid there as calmly as if i was not there.I hope i didn't psychologically damage him.I left him where I found him.
I named this the "Don't Look Good Stone. Because the area was highly disturbed near a gravel pit and I said allowed to my self "This don't look good" and as I finished the sentence I saw this,hence the name.
The next two stones were on the edge of a private target range and are quite nice.I was standing on the state side when I took the pics.
Then found this monument where a stone was supposed to be wasn't
Then much to my great surprise I found this after heading south from the range.Also this was so great because the last four stones I made a mistake in plotting but looked at the aerials and guessed correctly where one stone actually would be and adjusted the other three accordingly and they all were spot on or i would not have found this stone or the monument or preceeding two stones.
It is now the IS Stone.This was not shown in the deed hence the surprise.
Went back to the car and was about to quit when I realized I had three more on the other side of the road I had forgotten.One was a no find the second one was this one
And the last one was just a monument.I was looking around for it and did not see it but there was an old tire laying there in the woods.Hear lately in this area I have been finding stones inside of old tires so on a hunch I reached down into the duff in the tire and behold I found this!
Fairly good day but now i only have 137 stones left to find in salem county that I have plotted:-(