Swamp Monster

Oct 25, 2006
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All

With today Wednesday being the best day of the week weatherwise, i decided from a few day's ago to go to a few places in the Pines that i have never been to before, my ultimate objective was first to go to the Swamp Monster.

I left at 0830 this morning to pick up my friend George, then to meet Ed Campbell at 1000 at the Pic, we then traveled Rt.206 South to West Mills Road, upon entering West Mills we were greeted with numerous washouts going from one side of the road to the other.

Ed would exit his Jeep to check out the water depth, and George would join him from mine, some were deep and rutted, taking the point in my Jeep we first arrived at a Hmmonton Township Monument, GPS coordinates supplied by Guy, thank you.
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Reentering our Jeeps we then traveled to the parking spot to walk to the Swamp Monster, on the corduroy road to the Monster we encountered this plant, lacking in Flora and Fauna expertise i cannot tell you the name of it.
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Probing our way through the Swamp with the help of Ed's walking stick, in some spots the water was almost to the top of our knee high boots, we arrived at the Monster, Gnats and Mosquitoes were out in force, here is a pic of my friend George on the Monster.
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Here is another pic of Ed checking out his Geocache.
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We then after investigating the machine started walking back to our Jeeps, on the way i took the following pic of the lake bedded road, Ed said that in August that you can get your vehicle up this road negating the walk, in many places due to the water level we had to bushwack through the woods.
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We then traveled to a plank bridge that Guy and Bob visited recently, we did not play pirate to walk the plank or to straddle it to the other side, the first planking was on the loose side and that ended all thoughts of any attempt.
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Returning to our Jeeps we then traveled further on the main road to once again attempt to find the Nescohague Geodetic and also the two reference marks and the azimuth mark associated it. After a brief search Ed spotted the Geodetic which is the main station, it has the year 1935 on it, also with the name Nescohague.
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Finding the station we then decided to look for the two reference marks, fanning out in the direction of the triangle lines on the station disk and after a longer search i found reference mark #2, also with the year 1935 on it.
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Finding reference mark #2 we then spent a long time looking for reference mark #1, since the mark only projects one inch above ground we did not find it due to the heavy ground cover.

Leaving the area we then decided to look for the azimuth mark, on the way we spotted this blazed tree.
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Then after exploring in a very dense area for some time i found the azimuth mark, again with the year 1935 on it.
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Now it was time to return to Rt.206, we decided before leaving to go to Rockwood, i have been there once before but never really looked for anything in Rockwood. Navigating the wide rutted puddles we finally arrived back at Rt.206, Ed said that he had to return home to attend to business, and after saying our farewells George and i then went to Rockwood, yes there is somethin in Rockwood. We found ruins in the area, all the following pics were taken from a distance on the road mostly, here is the first ruin site., notice the foundation just past the edge of the road.
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Here is a pic another ruin site, this site looked massive, but due to the numerous no tresspassing, private property signs we did not investigate.
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We then came upon the third ruin site, here is a pic of my friend checking out the lavender flower on the tree, once again i do not know it's name.
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A closeup of the flower.
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We then left Rockwood, we still had time on our hands as we were not due at our frinds house in Tabernacle until 1630 for some suds and buds, so we decided to go to Apple Pie Hill, it was only 1430 and on the way to Apple Pie i spotted the following monument.
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Arriving at Apple Pie we searched around for the Geodetic again for the fourth time with no luck, but we did spot this old reference mark without a plate in this strange place.
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With time still to spare we then went to Pine Crest and in the area found the following laying on the ground, i do not know what it is.
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After finding that object it was now time to visit our friend for refreshment, we had our fill and left at 2000, arriving home it starting raining hard, a reflection of another long day in the Pines was that it was a pleasure to be exploring with Ed again, George once again at my side, no rain until we got home, and new discoveries, it was a very satisfying day, oh yes the permanone treated clothes left me free of Ticks.

Jim
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,673
2,586
60
millville nj
www.youtube.com
Jim,
I'd say the first plant you couldn't identify is pyxie moss and the second in the tree would be wysteria.the pyxie is native but the wysteria was no doubt planted my man or escaped from a planted plant.it only grows in nj where it has been planted hence it is what i term a people plant and can lead to old foundations and so forth.
Al
 
Oct 25, 2006
1,757
1
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Jim,
I'd say the first plant you couldn't identify is pyxie moss and the second in the tree would be wysteria.the pyxie is native but the wysteria was no doubt planted my man or escaped from a planted plant.it only grows in nj where it has been planted hence it is what i term a people plant and can lead to old foundations and so forth.
Al

Thanks Al, any help on plant or flower id is greatly appreciated.

Jim
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,951
8,695
Jim,

The Apple Pie Hill Geodetic monument is reported to be destroyed. It was broken, then another report says they could pick it up and look at it, and now it is gone. I believe the concrete in your last photo is the base for the milepost that was there. It is turned over.

Guy
 
Oct 25, 2006
1,757
1
74
Jim,

The Apple Pie Hill Geodetic monument is reported to be destroyed. It was broken, then another report says they could pick it up and look at it, and now it is gone. I believe the concrete in your last photo is the base for the milepost that was there. It is turned over.

Guy

Guy

Is that Monument we found on the way to Apple Pie, is that a Tabernacle Township Monument. NJ 14 T, and does the L stand for which way the line's direction goes ?

Jim
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,951
8,695
Guy

Is that Monument we found on the way to Apple Pie, is that a Tabernacle Township Monument. NJ 14 T, and does the L stand for which way the line's direction goes ?

Jim

Jim,

That is the Wharton line with the L meaning line. If it was a C it would be corner. The actual corner is right there by the Bordentown Gun Club just 100 yards or so from NJ14T. Unfortunately, it is no longer there.

There are many more in that area and I will get them together for you and pass them on.

Guy
 
Oct 25, 2006
1,757
1
74
Jim,

That is the Wharton line with the L meaning line. If it was a C it would be corner. The actual corner is right there by the Bordentown Gun Club just 100 yards or so from NJ14T. Unfortunately, it is no longer there.

There are many more in that area and I will get them together for you and pass them on.

Guy

Thanks Guy it is much appreciated.

Jim
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,661
4,838
Pines; Bamber area
Jim, I'd say the first plant you couldn't identify is pyxie moss and the second in the tree would be wysteria.the pyxie is native but the wysteria was no doubt planted my man or escaped from a planted plant.it only grows in nj where it has been planted hence it is what i term a people plant and can lead to old foundations and so forth. Al

Not so on the pyxie moss Al. If you saw that after backing up a bit you'd recognize it as sand myrtle...Leiophyllum buxifolium. An easy mistake looking straight down on it. Pyxie is only an inch or so high.
 

glowordz

Explorer
Jan 19, 2009
585
8
SC
www.gloriarepp.com
Jim,
the wysteria was no doubt planted . . . or escaped from a planted plant.it only grows in nj where it has been planted Al

Another reason to move to the Pines! Your wisteria appears to be limited to one small bract at a time. Here, it strangles trees with long tangled cords as thick as my wrist and blooms in horrific abundance. Even worse, it grows everywhere it pleases without waiting to be planted. :(

Was the Swamp Monster your name for that machine, Jim? Looks like y'all had a great trip. Thanks!

Glo
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,951
8,695
Glo,

The Swamp Monster name was around long before I learned about it. I first visited there in 2004 when the late Bob Bruneau (bobanddusty.com) took a group of us there. He is in the yellow. Some for the first time, and some returning. Some notables were Bob, me, Jessica, Mike Baker from Mikebaker.com, and Steve Greer who's photo’s have appeared in National Geographic. Also on the trip were a few other members of this site.

sm.JPG



Guy
 

lowerbankman

Scout
Nov 12, 2008
31
0
Lower Bank, NJ
are there more of these old abandoned rigs out in the pines? I can remember being 4 or 5 (1994 or so) and going out there with my dad. I'd much like to visit this place before its gone to history.
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,951
8,695
are there more of these old abandoned rigs out in the pines? I can remember being 4 or 5 (1994 or so) and going out there with my dad. I'd much like to visit this place before its gone to history.

That's not going anywhere :)

Guy
 

Sue Gremlin

Piney
Sep 13, 2005
1,286
245
61
Vicksburg, Michigan
Another reason to move to the Pines! Your wisteria appears to be limited to one small bract at a time. Here, it strangles trees with long tangled cords as thick as my wrist and blooms in horrific abundance. Even worse, it grows everywhere it pleases without waiting to be planted. :(
Trust me, it does that here, too. I can't seem to find a photo, but I had one in my yard that was growing around a 150 year old cottonwood tree whose vine was at least 24" in diameter. It was quite a sight to behold.

They are beautiful, but quite parasitic.
 
Oct 25, 2006
1,757
1
74
Another reason to move to the Pines! Your wisteria appears to be limited to one small bract at a time. Here, it strangles trees with long tangled cords as thick as my wrist and blooms in horrific abundance. Even worse, it grows everywhere it pleases without waiting to be planted. :(

Was the Swamp Monster your name for that machine, Jim? Looks like y'all had a great trip. Thanks!

Glo

Glo

Sorry for the very late reply, but Verizon DSL has had major problems for the past 24 hours, yes it was a great trip, viewed things that i have not seen before, I wouldn't have done it without Ed and his Jeep though, there were plenty of washouts, deep and rutted, my idea is not to go through water like that, i do not want the inside of my vehicle smelling like Swamp water.

Ed's Jeep has a winch, what i need to invest in is tow hooks front and back.

Jim
 
Oct 25, 2006
1,757
1
74
Guy

I should have taken a pic of one area that we saw when i was on Butterworth Bogs Road on the way to Goose Pond Road, but we passed through an area that looked wet at one time, on each side of the road, in the now dried areas there were about 100 tires embedded in the muck, are you familiar with place ?
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,951
8,695
Guy

I should have taken a pic of one area that we saw when i was on Butterworth Bogs Road on the way to Goose Pond Road, but we passed through an area that looked wet at one time, on each side of the road, in the now dried areas there were about 100 tires embedded in the muck, are you familiar with place ?

I can't quite place it.

Guy
 
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