The Mordecai Revisited

long-a-coming

Explorer
Mar 28, 2005
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Berlin Twp
What a trip!!! Amazing Photos especially the knarled huge Cedar root! I will be heading out there. I was probably riding "Its a Small World After All" while you explorers were in the swamp. :mad:

Every trip I've been on so far there have been an abundance of tree stands. What's keeping the hunters away? just curious. Sacred ground w/ little trash. An Old Schmidts Can eh? I have a old can in my garage with a woman dressed in Colonial attire.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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hey,i just saw this thread.i walked the batsto crowleytown road last winter.whenever it approaches the islands it really denses up and is hard to follow but the swamp portions are beautiful as your pics show.did you guys follow the whole route from the batona trail all the way to buttonwood hill?it took me three trips to find all the sections because i kept loosing them wherever the ground rose in elevation.their are many other islands off the road itself that are quite isolated and beautiful.i also used that plank bridge in your pics:)and here i thought i was the only one to cross the mordecai in a hundred years except for the hunter who left some orange ribbons in one spot and some fresh tracks on one of the islands.
if you haven't found all sections of the road i have the tracked saved and can send a gpx file.
this is the most awesome swamp road i have ever walked and was keeping it to myself but since the cats out of the bag it's a great area isn't it?
Al
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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Apr 6, 2004
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Galloway
Al,

We hiked the road from buttonwood hill 'til it exits the swamp just east of Batsto. I can see how you lost the road once you got onto high ground. you might not have realized that a couple hundred yards or so of the road is actually a natural dune.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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Ben
here is the link to the trenches i was talking about.i tried putting in waypoints but it would only except a track so i encircled the islands which appear as white areas where sand is exposed.I want a better term then islands but have none.trenches appear on all islands encircled.the aerial wasnt working when i uploaded the track but hopefully it will for anyone else viewing it.
Al
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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Basically the whole barrens is a dune,yes but when these dunes are in the middle of a present day swamp(lagoon):) I've been in the habit of calling them islands.maybe i should call them sand bars.Dunes and sand bars while geologically true no longer seem descriptive.At least they don't conjure up the appropriate mental picture to me.We need a new term for them.Islands in the true sense no they aren't.You can walk to all of them and at least part of the year you would'nt even get your feet wet.But you do have to cross a very nice cedar swamp to get to them and once your on them their obviously not swamp.A few inches closer or further from the water table makes a great deal of difference in the barrens.So does anyone have any ideas that desribe these little pieces of paradise plopped in the barrens swamps?Wile not islands their really no longer dunes vegetationally speaking.Maybe this should be a new thread.Spung is quite unique to the barrens,we need a unique term for these places.Como se llama?
Al
 
Apr 6, 2004
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556
Galloway
Interesting thoughts, Al and Ben.

With a higher water table in the past, the Mordecai and others swamps were no doubt significantly wetter throughout the year. As such, the scattered dunes in the Mordecai would have warranted a description as "islands" more so than today.

Sandbars aren't exactly what they are, for they are of aeolian (wind) origin, not fluvial (water) origin.While the dunes are now anchored by vegetation, they remain dunes nonetheless. But I'm all for inventing a new colloquial term for them.

Al, what do you mean exactly when you say that the whole Pine Barrens is basically a dune?
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
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isn't the topography of the barrens all created by wind and water with rising and falling sea levels after the ice age?the sand it'self was deposited by the sea and wind whipped it into the gently rolling terrain we see today.the layers under the sand I believe are runoff from melting glaciers after the ice age.I know it's not all one dune but it was all seacoast at one time.Everytime i come up on a ridge rising out of the level barrens I automatically think dune.I know the higher ridges like apple pie hill are river gravel laid down in old channels that course through the area as meltwater so the highest ground now was the lowest ground then.
Al
ps
yes they were referred to as islands.forgot about that
 
Apr 6, 2004
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556
Galloway
Manumuskin said:
isn't the topography of the barrens all created by wind and water with rising and falling sea levels after the ice age?

I don't have it all sorted out yet, but I think that what you suggest above is basically right, save that sea level has been on a general incline since the last ice age.

the sand it'self was deposited by the sea and wind whipped it into the gently rolling terrain we see today.

I've read that most of the Cohansey formation was deposited by ancient rivers flowing from the Appalachians to the Atlantic Ocean. The rest of the Cohansey was deposited in marine and near shore environments.

the layers under the sand I believe are runoff from melting glaciers after the ice age.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

I know the higher ridges like apple pie hill are river gravel laid down in old channels that course through the area as meltwater so the highest ground now was the lowest ground then.

Right on. Inversion is a cool thing (and a good beer by Deschutes).
 
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