Searching For The J Roger Brick Stone

raiden098

New Member
Apr 27, 2005
25
0
Grinnell, IA
Hey Guy, is most of that ATV damage confined to the area south of the power line cut? I know there are a few gouges running north of it but I've never really had the energy to slog it too far past the cut and take a look.
 

PinesExplr

Scout
Dec 7, 2005
94
9
Medford, NJ
tracks

Hey Guy, is most of that ATV damage confined to the area south of the power line cut? I know there are a few gouges running north of it but I've never really had the energy to slog it too far past the cut and take a look.

There are ATV tracks across a lot of the open grassy spaces in the entire area from Atsion Road thru (across) to Medford-Jackson Rd, up to the smaller distribution lines (and in the woods above those lines). When the bogs dry out (maybe not this year), those too are heavily tracked up.

I've been riding my mountain bike in the area just above the West Jersey Bogs, it's a tough but interesting area.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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the atv tracks we seen south of the swamp were old.The atv trail we attempted to follow out to the power line which shows up on birds eye pictures completely disappeard the last two hunded yards out to the lines.you could see the trace butthe briars were thick in it and we kept to the side of it.unless we missed something I'd say the tracks we followed were several years old.where they letf the other side of the bog was also an overgrown non negotiable tunnel so i believe in that meadow the tracks were actually old scars that have not healed yet.I don't know this area very well yet,not near as well as Guy does and the atco raceway does kind of destroy that out there feeling you get in say the great swamp but the swamp itself is ever bit as rough as the great swamp in a different kind of way.The great swamp is more of a blowdon mess with a lot of squeezing and tightrope walking of blowdowns whereas this swamp is just exhausting butt deep ,sucking mud and howerever you get a little high ground the briars immediately take over.I don't know the history of this areabut I'd guess it may have been a huge cedar swamp and was probably logged out and then burntor just burnt to the ground one,we saw no actual logging evidence.Now it appears to be trying togrowback in the areaw crossed but their are no trees,justbrush too small to use to pull yourself out of the mud.I saw no canals to show it was ever used for cranberry production though their is one obviously manmade ditch that shows on the aerial and map.Perhaps they tried to drain the swap and one time and may have been sucessful but the beaver have reflooded it possiby.We only sawone dam but it was being kept up by beaver an guad byants.
Al
 

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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Hey Guy, is most of that ATV damage confined to the area south of the power line cut? I know there are a few gouges running north of it but I've never really had the energy to slog it too far past the cut and take a look.

Al pretty much answered your question. There is a well worn trail that we were following just south of the Canal, but we had to turn off to get back to our cars. So when we get there the next time maybe we will be able to follow it and see if there is more damage than we know about. There is so much to see out there, but it is so hard to get to most of it.


Guy
 

Hewey

Piney
Mar 10, 2005
1,042
109
Pinewald, NJ
Great report and pictures! Some of the photos make me sweat sitting in the A.C. set at 60. The muck Al is standing in looks brutal. That muck must have smelled great. Love the turks cap pictures. The groundhog living under my shed ate my turks caps this spring so I never had a chance to enjoy them.
 

manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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Great report and pictures! Some of the photos make me sweat sitting in the A.C. set at 60. The muck Al is standing in looks brutal. That muck must have smelled great. Love the turks cap pictures. The groundhog living under my shed ate my turks caps this spring so I never had a chance to enjoy them.

yes it was some of the nastiest smelling mud I've been in in a long time.Reminded me of some holes I've been stuck in along the tulpehocken.At one point i was stuck pretty bad.Guy reached his walking stick to me to pull me out.I did not have the heart to pull him in with me so i declined his gracious offer.I almost had to perform self rescue which i didn't want to do with 600 dollars worth of gps on me.It requires you to flop over on your back and wiggle your hips and legs while working yourself backwards through the muck.It will get you out alive but no one will let your ride home in their car after you've done it.It would've ruined everything in my pack no doubt.Actually maybe thats what Guy was offering to pull out with his hiking stick,I'd be quite a chore without being stuck:)
Al
 

Hewey

Piney
Mar 10, 2005
1,042
109
Pinewald, NJ
I almost had to perform self rescue

Been there before, no fun. I jumped off the bank of cedat creek on to a spot that was white gravel washed up onto muck, It looked like solid bottom so I jumed down and sank almost to my waste. I had to wiggle and roll out of the muck to solid ground. I was shocked I did not loose my knee boots.
 

manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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Been there before, no fun. I jumped off the bank of cedat creek on to a spot that was white gravel washed up onto muck, It looked like solid bottom so I jumed down and sank almost to my waste. I had to wiggle and roll out of the muck to solid ground. I was shocked I did not loose my knee boots.

done that too.jumped into what appeared to be sand and nothing but muck underneath.

there is a sand plant down here that spews waste sand into a pond and as you walk across this waste sand area the sand undulates like a water bed and you will start to sink in it.scared the crap ut of me when it first happened.I've always wanted to go back with a long stick for support and see how close i could get to the water before sinking too far to walk.you can jump n the sand further bck and watch waves of sand head outward toward the water.I imagine awhile after pumping the sand settles and becomes firmer.
this looks like an excelent place for the varve monster to fossilize a fool like me mor going there:-0
Al
 

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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Great photo of the Lilly, and /respect for the hike. I don't believe I have that in me.

I tend to think we all have it in us, it just takes an overwhelming desire to get through it. It is hard to believe that for me it is a stupid stone!

Guy
 

c1nj

Explorer
Nov 19, 2008
272
169
I have crossed that canal twice, once pushing a motorcycle. It's no fun. That's why it is called "the mile of mud."
 

manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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I tend to think we all have it in us, it just takes an overwhelming desire to get through it. It is hard to believe that for me it is a stupid stone!

Guy

I don't believe it was stupid to go through that because it was a stone but possibly because it really does appear to be easier to get there from the south now that i have really birds eyed it.Now if the stone was in the middle of the swamp you do what you have to do but since it was on the south side and it does appear to be accessible from the south side we really didn't have to cross the swamp but then we wouldn't have seen places most people don't and we wouldn't have seen the snake.The heat was bad but i have poor shape to thatnk for the hard time.If anything was stupid I'd say it was me tackling something like that in this heat knowing I'm not in the shape i was in last winter.i tend to sit around too much in the summer and get out of shape fast,then i have to get back in come cooler weather.I need to force myself to stay in shape all summer long.
Guy could not carry me out of there so he would have had to take a gps fix.then if he lost his gps on the way out they would have had to take a fix on the buzzards to find me.
Al
 

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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Al and I made another attempt today to find the stone mentioned in my first post and again came up empty. We did come away with a thousand brier cuts and I made Al promise me to never let me go there again.
 

c1nj

Explorer
Nov 19, 2008
272
169
When I was young my friends and I would explore the meadows during a deep freeze.
 

Teegate

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They are really nice meadows there. ATV users have done some major damage though.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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the ice was a problem out there.there was about three inches of water on top of invisible ice,it would bear your weight till you had all your weight on it and then it would collapse,very tiring and also occasionally it would cause a fall if the piece you were standing on hit bottom on a slant and then held together enough long enough to cause you to slip which is going to happen everytime you find yourself on wet tilted ice.
 

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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All,

With the help of some very nice individuals I have acquired the deed and a map showing the original tract of land for the rectangular lot that this thread is about. It is much larger that the one we know of so somewhere over the years the lines have changed. This shows the date of the survey.


a.jpg



The map is described as a "draught (draft) of part of Atsion Meadows including some cedar swamp, part of the real estate of Amos Wills, deceased."

b.jpg



Now the question is where is the rest of the property? I spent a considerable amount of time the other night looking it over and I now know where some of the corners are. This corner and the lines running to it was of great help in my figuring it out.


c.jpg



Not wanting to delay my start on this I got up early and before sunrise I was in the woods between Atsion Road and Atco Dragway. I had realized and was surprised that a few of the stones mentioned in the survey I had been to before and on my way to find the one mentioned above I stopped in and revised as I passed by. All of these stones are from before 1826 and are on the Micajah Wills property line. Two of them are also on the property corner of Charles Wills who most likely is related to the Charles Wills in the grave at Eagle.


IMG_4079.JPG



IMG_4089.JPG



Then on to find the stone mentioned in the photo above. This was a struggle and took much more time to get to than I had hoped. After picking up my hat 200 times and cursing all the way I finally arrived. There is hand dug canal there covered in brier and I was able to get on the top of the mound of dirt along it and find the stone. It was in the mound and obviously had been placed there after the canal was dug. So the canal also dates to before 1826.


The well worn and small far northern stone corner to Micajah Wills land.


IMG_4095.JPG



The map shows much of the area to be cedar swamp, but it is obvious sometime many years ago the cedar for much of this swamp is long gone with no traces of it.

Guy
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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Guy
I think the stone your referring to on the berm covered in a massive wall of briars is the NJ12M stone right?I went to that one,I guess you had never been there? I remember fighting my way up onto that berm and getting a call from my wife just as I found it.She asked me where I was and I told her Hell and told her I didn't think i was getting out:)
 

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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Yes, that is it. I was able to trace that stone to the top right corner of the map looking at it normally, not north up. I think there is an error in the map on the 1.95 chains. In the event it was not an error I went to the location where the lower stone would be and did not find anything. It is not a place to be :( I think the distance should be 1 chain on the map and that would make it NJ10M and NJ11M. Look that over closely and I think you will agree.
 
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