Your PB Hike Recommendations?

[kingathelas]

As the title says, looking for opinions so I can find more trails, especially those that folks have experience with. I've been tooling around various hiking sites like njhiking and some hiking apps but I'd like to hear from fellow locals what's been enjoyable for them. Looking in the Ocean county/Burlington county area for now, but I'm not opposed to heading north.
As far as what I'm capable of, I've done moderately intense day hikes before, although they're usually rated as such because of elevation changes rather than length. I'm comfortable going to the 6~ hour/8-10 mile range max per day. I've hiked a lot of Wells Mills, DT, and a short section of the Forked River Mountains. I am eyeing up the Batona trail as I just saw a group complete it in 5~ mile pieces over a few weeks, which seems pretty doable to me. Would like to hear from anyone who's hiked that recently (within the past year-ish) about what they liked/didn't like etc. Also looking at Bass River, as just driving through has been beautiful on the rare occasions I get to.
I'm a casual birder, and I like stopping to catch the views, so if the trails have either of those that's certainly a perk. Cheers.

 

[bicycle tim]

Suggest you look at some combination of the three trails at Franklin Parker Preserve. It checks a lot of the boxes you mentioned in your post and with a little planning you can end your day where you started. I’d also look at hiking the NJ Central railroad tracks starting at Atsion or Carranza Memorial and head north, but I haven’t done that in a year and don’t know the condition of some of the trestles. Perhaps another member can help with that.

 

[teleflux]

The first few miles of the Batona from the trailhead in Bass River are really great, a nice variety of landscapes.

The 1808 Trail in Wharton near Batsto goes through a beautiful cedar swamp on an old corduroy road. You can do a ~4 mile out-and-back or a longer ~9 mile loop via the Buttonwood Connector and Batona.

Also, a little south of where you're looking but have you been to Forsythe? The Bristow Trail is 4 miles, half through forest and half on the road in the marsh. And there's also the 8 mile Wildlife Drive. Always lots of interesting birds.

 

[c1nj]

The drought has opened up many opportunities for hiking with dry feet. Most of Belleplain SF trails are puddle free.