All,
On Sunday 11/16/2025 Bob sent this edited message to all PBX members.
Hello explorer friends of mine,
I told most of you at the last tailgate after the Forks trip that I was bound and determined to cross the Great Cedar Swamp in Cape May County soon on a mostly sunny and decent temperature day. It’s too far a drive to gamble with the weather. I also said you would get very short notice, and that I’d still go even if only one person joined me. Well, that day has come.
I am going this Tuesday, November 18. This will be a tough trip even though only 3.5 miles, because who knows what we’ll run into. I’m not thinking briar (though that will be ‘somewhere’ in there). My only worry is the shrubs. I was in this swamp before, and true to form, when you get away from the marginal areas near roads and trails where all plants are clamoring for a piece of the sun, things do space out.
We’ll meet at 9:30 AM at a public parking lot east of Dennisville Road (rt. 628).
Let me know if you’ll be coming so I can look out for you.
Happy Trails!
So yesterday Bob, myself and M1Abrams ventured to the Dennisville area in Cape May County and headed into the Great Swamp. Things were going well at first.
This is pretty much how the beginning looked like.
Bob and John
About a quarter of the way across the swamp a solid wall of vegetation came into view and it was almost noon at this time. Unsure what lied ahead we decided to give up and return since we only had gone part way and the sun would set in a little more than 4 hours.
On the way back.
This area was logged before 1931 as one can see the roads on the 1931 aerial. We came to one of the forks in that old and long unused road.
Around 1:45 we finally retreated out of the swamp to a trail along the edge of the upland. Remember, we are in Cape May County. As we started down the trail two dogs were coming towards us and then a man appeared holding the leashes. He passed by me and as he met up with Bob his expression changed. He then said "I know you, you are Guy and Bob." It turns out it was a member of this site. A very small world. We had a few minutes of discussion and he walked back with us towards our vehicles.
Where our vehicles were parked, there was what I believe to be a large sawmill operation many years ago so we spent some time there while I explored much of it.
It has been reported that some of the trees that came out of the swamp years ago were extremely large. If this is where they placed them they must have planned ahead when making this.
We found evidence of RR ties under the dirt telling me that donkey rails were used to move the wood between saws and maybe to the road.
Notice the curved or circular deck of some sort.
And near the above sawmill was this huge steel pipe solid in the ground
Our tracks show how little distance we accomplished.
Watch the video below.
Click Here For A Video Of The Structures
On Sunday 11/16/2025 Bob sent this edited message to all PBX members.
Hello explorer friends of mine,
I told most of you at the last tailgate after the Forks trip that I was bound and determined to cross the Great Cedar Swamp in Cape May County soon on a mostly sunny and decent temperature day. It’s too far a drive to gamble with the weather. I also said you would get very short notice, and that I’d still go even if only one person joined me. Well, that day has come.
I am going this Tuesday, November 18. This will be a tough trip even though only 3.5 miles, because who knows what we’ll run into. I’m not thinking briar (though that will be ‘somewhere’ in there). My only worry is the shrubs. I was in this swamp before, and true to form, when you get away from the marginal areas near roads and trails where all plants are clamoring for a piece of the sun, things do space out.
We’ll meet at 9:30 AM at a public parking lot east of Dennisville Road (rt. 628).
Let me know if you’ll be coming so I can look out for you.
Happy Trails!
So yesterday Bob, myself and M1Abrams ventured to the Dennisville area in Cape May County and headed into the Great Swamp. Things were going well at first.
This is pretty much how the beginning looked like.
Bob and John
About a quarter of the way across the swamp a solid wall of vegetation came into view and it was almost noon at this time. Unsure what lied ahead we decided to give up and return since we only had gone part way and the sun would set in a little more than 4 hours.
On the way back.
This area was logged before 1931 as one can see the roads on the 1931 aerial. We came to one of the forks in that old and long unused road.
Around 1:45 we finally retreated out of the swamp to a trail along the edge of the upland. Remember, we are in Cape May County. As we started down the trail two dogs were coming towards us and then a man appeared holding the leashes. He passed by me and as he met up with Bob his expression changed. He then said "I know you, you are Guy and Bob." It turns out it was a member of this site. A very small world. We had a few minutes of discussion and he walked back with us towards our vehicles.
Where our vehicles were parked, there was what I believe to be a large sawmill operation many years ago so we spent some time there while I explored much of it.
It has been reported that some of the trees that came out of the swamp years ago were extremely large. If this is where they placed them they must have planned ahead when making this.
We found evidence of RR ties under the dirt telling me that donkey rails were used to move the wood between saws and maybe to the road.
Notice the curved or circular deck of some sort.
And near the above sawmill was this huge steel pipe solid in the ground
Our tracks show how little distance we accomplished.
Watch the video below.
Click Here For A Video Of The Structures
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