On Monday 7/16/07 I planned on taking the Mullica River Wilderness Trail to the Mullica River Wilderness Campsite (say that five times fast!) A very nice drive to Batsto led to a not so nice rainstorm when I arrived, but hey, I had just drove for nearly fourty minutes to get down here and a little rain wasnt going to stop me, at least thats what I thought. The rain began to let up when I pulled into the Batsto Visitor Center parking lot and I walked in to get my permit issued. The two kids working had no idea what the weather report was but one of them thought that heavy thunderstorms were going to rain on my parade so to speak; it started raining harder when I walked out of the building.
I loaded up my gear but decided that I would leave my new camera, just to be safe, and headed out onto the trail. Gradually the rain began to fall harder but I was really enjoing myself, it was almost like the rain was washing away all my problems and bad thoughts. I was smiling for a change, and the berries, oh the berries. Blueberries, huckleberries all fat, ripe, in season and waiting for me. I would take a handfull, when they were gone I would take another handfull, I was in heaven. Then the rain stopped.
At first I was happy that the rain had stopped and that the sky had cleared up, but then the chaffing started, and the clothes I had on started feeling heavier, the sugar sand started forming sugar sand cakes on my boots and would only fall off with a kick. I stopped and was planning on changing into drier clothes, but I then realized the importance of purchasing a packcover if you are going to be hiking in these conditions. My dry clothes stuff sack was wet, as were its contents and also some of my other essentials were saturated as well. That smile quickly faded away as I decided to push on in my wet clothes, that way I'd have something sort of dry for the next day.
I kept thinking I wish I brought my camera, I wish I brought my camera, I wish I brought my camera, because now that the rain had stopped everything had this sort of glow, and an almost magical feeling to it. I decided to turn around, abandon the backpacking trip and just get some nice pictures before the sun decided to set. Afterall backpacking trips are much better when the only water is the kind you drink and the kind you swim in. I got back to Batsto and changed into my somewhat drier clothing, reminding myself to buy a pack cover and some rain gear (sometimes money spent is money earned.)
I started off just fiddling with my camera. It is new afterall and I was somewhat unfamiliar with all its settings. After I figured out what I wanted to do and what settings I needed to use I took some pictures of the mansion. Here's an example of one of the photos of the mansion: http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0091.JPG. There were chickens nearby I got a nice shot of one of my favorite ones: http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0067.JPG.
I dillydallied over at Batsto for a little while then I headed to the Atsion area. I had never been down Quaker Bridge road before mainly because I thought that motor vehicles were not allowed on the bridge and I assumed that motor vehicles were prohibited on the whole road. I was wrong, you can drive down a good portion of it and you apparently can also drive over the bridge. On Quaker Bridge road I came upon a small bridge or some sort of crossing, anyway the view was really beautiful: http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_02481.JPG.
Afterwards I took a ride down the famous Hampton road which I had been down plenty of times before but had only cruised through while heading elsewhere and I was excited to have a good look around. By now the sunlight was fading away and the whole place had this eerie redish glimmer to it. It was really pretty actually, but still eerie:http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0379.JPG.
With all the ghost stories and legends and lore on this site I'm sure that some of you have heard that when an "orb" appears in a photograph it is supposed to be the materialization of a human spirit showing up in the image or something like that. Well I dont know about all that, I think its prolly a reflection off the sun or a particle of dust or something like that, but its cool to think about and I captured one in this photo: http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0371.JPG. Make what you want of it because I'm really not sure but I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I finished off the day by stopping at the ruins of the Hampton cranberry packing house http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0386.JPG and then I headed home. Even though I didn't accomplish what I had set out to do, the day was extremely eventful and I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Plus that leaves something for me to do on a nicer weekend, and my fiance was also really glad that I came home early and surprised her.
Thanks for reading,
Chris
I loaded up my gear but decided that I would leave my new camera, just to be safe, and headed out onto the trail. Gradually the rain began to fall harder but I was really enjoing myself, it was almost like the rain was washing away all my problems and bad thoughts. I was smiling for a change, and the berries, oh the berries. Blueberries, huckleberries all fat, ripe, in season and waiting for me. I would take a handfull, when they were gone I would take another handfull, I was in heaven. Then the rain stopped.
At first I was happy that the rain had stopped and that the sky had cleared up, but then the chaffing started, and the clothes I had on started feeling heavier, the sugar sand started forming sugar sand cakes on my boots and would only fall off with a kick. I stopped and was planning on changing into drier clothes, but I then realized the importance of purchasing a packcover if you are going to be hiking in these conditions. My dry clothes stuff sack was wet, as were its contents and also some of my other essentials were saturated as well. That smile quickly faded away as I decided to push on in my wet clothes, that way I'd have something sort of dry for the next day.
I kept thinking I wish I brought my camera, I wish I brought my camera, I wish I brought my camera, because now that the rain had stopped everything had this sort of glow, and an almost magical feeling to it. I decided to turn around, abandon the backpacking trip and just get some nice pictures before the sun decided to set. Afterall backpacking trips are much better when the only water is the kind you drink and the kind you swim in. I got back to Batsto and changed into my somewhat drier clothing, reminding myself to buy a pack cover and some rain gear (sometimes money spent is money earned.)
I started off just fiddling with my camera. It is new afterall and I was somewhat unfamiliar with all its settings. After I figured out what I wanted to do and what settings I needed to use I took some pictures of the mansion. Here's an example of one of the photos of the mansion: http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0091.JPG. There were chickens nearby I got a nice shot of one of my favorite ones: http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0067.JPG.
I dillydallied over at Batsto for a little while then I headed to the Atsion area. I had never been down Quaker Bridge road before mainly because I thought that motor vehicles were not allowed on the bridge and I assumed that motor vehicles were prohibited on the whole road. I was wrong, you can drive down a good portion of it and you apparently can also drive over the bridge. On Quaker Bridge road I came upon a small bridge or some sort of crossing, anyway the view was really beautiful: http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_02481.JPG.
Afterwards I took a ride down the famous Hampton road which I had been down plenty of times before but had only cruised through while heading elsewhere and I was excited to have a good look around. By now the sunlight was fading away and the whole place had this eerie redish glimmer to it. It was really pretty actually, but still eerie:http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0379.JPG.
With all the ghost stories and legends and lore on this site I'm sure that some of you have heard that when an "orb" appears in a photograph it is supposed to be the materialization of a human spirit showing up in the image or something like that. Well I dont know about all that, I think its prolly a reflection off the sun or a particle of dust or something like that, but its cool to think about and I captured one in this photo: http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0371.JPG. Make what you want of it because I'm really not sure but I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I finished off the day by stopping at the ruins of the Hampton cranberry packing house http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/500/medium/DSC_0386.JPG and then I headed home. Even though I didn't accomplish what I had set out to do, the day was extremely eventful and I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Plus that leaves something for me to do on a nicer weekend, and my fiance was also really glad that I came home early and surprised her.
Thanks for reading,
Chris
