I decided to take Largo's advice and clear my head with a ride through Collier's Mills after work. It's amazing how much ground there really is there. I've decided I'm going to make it my mission to inspect every last square inch of it. Provided that the ENTIRE town isn't underwater, there must be something left of Success somewhere. Anyway, I went in off of Hawkin Road near the "front lake" as my grandfather always called it.
First I drove to the north side of the area to this lake. Could that possibly have been a bog or a reservior for a system of bogs at one time? Anyway, the reason I decided to check it out was I thought that maybe I could find a way to get from where the road ends to what looks like abandoned dry bogs just to the east. I was going to park my truck at the turnaround and proceed on foot, but there were two guys sitting in a Blazer in that spot that just didn't smell right. They looked at me a little suspiciously as they sat in the car smoking. A fishing pole was lying on the shore of the lake, but it was a VERY large pole, almost the size of a surf pole. Plus, who would be fishing on such a windy cold day? I walked past them and nodded hello, and then walked back towards them and asked if they were catching anything-I couldn't really understand what the one guy said so I just smiled, hurriedly made conversation about how I was scouting the area for canoeing so as not to lead them to think I was suspicious of them and walked away, keeping my eye on them as I went back to my truck.
After that I decided that the south side of the area might be a better place to poke around. On the way back I passed a few people that seemed to be doing the same thing I was, just rambling around and enjoying the nice day. I was driving a beat up red and white 1991 Chevy S10, and I passed a black mid to late '90s Cherokee and a green Rav4. I took the road the goes from Lake Success out to Toms River Road. Didn't see a soul, and caught some beautiful bog scenery-should've brought a camera. I found five tires that some asshat had dumped here and loaded them into my truck before I turned around. I took them back out to the Hawkin Road entrance where the trailer and all of the equipment is and knocked on the door. No one was there of course, so I just left the tires in a junkpile that was sitting next to the dumpsters (tires, building waste, shot up trash cans, etc...) and hoped that I wouldn't end up getting ticketed by a game warden or cop passing by thinking I was dumping my own trash. Luckily Murphy was on a coffee break and I left without incident feeling like I had done my good deed for the day.
All in all a nice couple of hours in the pines, I hope to get back soon!
First I drove to the north side of the area to this lake. Could that possibly have been a bog or a reservior for a system of bogs at one time? Anyway, the reason I decided to check it out was I thought that maybe I could find a way to get from where the road ends to what looks like abandoned dry bogs just to the east. I was going to park my truck at the turnaround and proceed on foot, but there were two guys sitting in a Blazer in that spot that just didn't smell right. They looked at me a little suspiciously as they sat in the car smoking. A fishing pole was lying on the shore of the lake, but it was a VERY large pole, almost the size of a surf pole. Plus, who would be fishing on such a windy cold day? I walked past them and nodded hello, and then walked back towards them and asked if they were catching anything-I couldn't really understand what the one guy said so I just smiled, hurriedly made conversation about how I was scouting the area for canoeing so as not to lead them to think I was suspicious of them and walked away, keeping my eye on them as I went back to my truck.
After that I decided that the south side of the area might be a better place to poke around. On the way back I passed a few people that seemed to be doing the same thing I was, just rambling around and enjoying the nice day. I was driving a beat up red and white 1991 Chevy S10, and I passed a black mid to late '90s Cherokee and a green Rav4. I took the road the goes from Lake Success out to Toms River Road. Didn't see a soul, and caught some beautiful bog scenery-should've brought a camera. I found five tires that some asshat had dumped here and loaded them into my truck before I turned around. I took them back out to the Hawkin Road entrance where the trailer and all of the equipment is and knocked on the door. No one was there of course, so I just left the tires in a junkpile that was sitting next to the dumpsters (tires, building waste, shot up trash cans, etc...) and hoped that I wouldn't end up getting ticketed by a game warden or cop passing by thinking I was dumping my own trash. Luckily Murphy was on a coffee break and I left without incident feeling like I had done my good deed for the day.
All in all a nice couple of hours in the pines, I hope to get back soon!
