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Pine Barrens Report 2008 - Lots of pics

elgecko

I've got a magic window!
I headed out for Bass River State Forest in the Pine Barrens Thursday after work. I hoped to leave early and do some Geocaching all evening on the way there. (http://www.geocaching.com/about/ for those who do not know what this is.) Till I got done watering plants and taking care of other things before I left, it was much later then I wanted. I did find some caches on the way, but not near as many as I wanted.
Friday afternoon I decided to head to Batsto Lake to do some paddling there.

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After I was done paddling I did some more caching while driving back to the camp site.
Back at the camp site I hiked around most the lake finding more caches. Then relaxed.

Late Friday night Ron and his wife showed up and set up camp. We hung out talking plants and such for some time before heading off to sleep.
Rich was going to meat us early Saturday morning to show us some sites that he is familiar with.
One of the stops we made was at a location that last year when Rich took Gale and myself, there was hundreds of large D. filiformis everywhere. I was very disappointed that there was nowhere close to the amount of plants and they were smaller then a year ago. The ground they were growing on was very dry compared to last year.

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An area that had water last year was a mushy ground and thousands of D. intermedia was growing all over the area. So that made up for the lackluster D. filiformis.

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We then went to Webbs Mill Bog.

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We were all hungry so Rich took us to a very good Chinese buffet. We all ate till we were stuffed and sat around and talked for a long while enjoying being inside with the A/C.
We headed back to the camp site and talked a bit more before Rich headed home.

Ron his wife and I put our boats into Lake Absegami, which was right where we were camping. I did not take my camera but wished I did. We paddled throw large rush / reed fields that stuck up above the water around 3 feet. It would have been a very neat shot to get us paddling through them. We also noticed that among the floating plant debris, algae, and Sphagnum moss, D. intermedia was growing on these floating mats. Some of the water that it was floating at was over 2 feet deep.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to Tuckerton. We placed our boats on Pohatong Lake and paddled upstream. This was a very neat location to paddle.
After going a half mile upstream we came to drainage pipes where the water -flowed from the other side of the road. I kidded about taking out and putting back in across the road, but we had to get back and both tear down camp by noon.
This will be a place I want to paddle again from across the road we came to. I checked my Garmin Mapsource maps and the other side of the road continues for 2 and a half miles before coming to another road. I’m hoping that this area will be navigable for the distance.

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This picture is upside down…………or is it?

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Here we found some duck eggs and Ron suggested that we have some scrambled eggs when we got back to camp………………best eggs I ever had. J/K

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Purple U. inflata

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Well that’s a quick summary of the good times that we all had on our 2008 Pine Barren trip. I cannot wait till 2009 for the next one.

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures.
 
wow! wonderful! i did enjoy it...very much! i loved the egg thing haha!
 
That seemed like fun :D. I like that water reflection picture :p.
 
Very nice! You're lucky that seagull didn't poo on you! :0o: Thanks for sharing those great pics!
 
For those who have not yet had an opportunity to explore the NJ Pine Barrens (w/ folks who know where to look & what you're seeing), I can't recommend a trip like this strongly enough. Steve has been kind enough to offer the opportunity for anyone willing to show up - for the past few years. The last 2 years, Rich has traveled several hours to guide folks to sites with incredible plants and amazing diversity.

Kayaking that lake in Tuckerton (particularly the 'upper reaches'), was truly incredible. Virtually everywhere you looked, there were CPs growing - aquatic utrics in the water (w/ U. purpurea in flower), yellow-flowered semi-aquatic utrics in shallower areas, 3 sundew species (D. rotundifolia, intermedia, filiformis) growing in more places than I could imagine (In addition, we saw 2 hybrids in other locations), as well as S. purpurea all over. Each time we stopped for a bit, we would keep seeing more & more as we looked around.

Beyond the CPs, the scenery was gorgeous and the wildlife abundant - turtles, birds, butterflies, dragonflies & damselflies & on & on....

Special thanks to Rich & Steve for a very memorable trip. :bigthumpup:
 
wow, awesome! thanks for sharing and taking so many pictures!
 
Stunning! Man, look at those plants.

I too heartily recommend going to the Pine Barrens. It's fun with Steve...but even if you can't go on his annual trip, go whenever you can.

Also...you don't have to have a canoe or kayak. I went and was land-bound but its so beautiful and so much to see! Photo ops galore. Like Ozzy falling into the water. hehe

Thanks for sharing Steve. How many caches did you get? (By the way, forum member Viater Araignee (sp?) is also a cacher.)
 
  • #11
Thanks for the comments.

Like Ozzy falling into the water. hehe

Thanks for sharing Steve. How many caches did you get? (By the way, forum member Viater Araignee (sp?) is also a cacher.)

I forgot about Ozzy getting his whole leg soaked............. good times. LOL

I found 14 caches. I wanted to get more in Delaware, but till I got finished watering plants and other things I needed to do before leaving, it was 6:45 PM till I got to the park in DE I wanted to cache at. They charge $6.00 to enter the park. If it was earlier, fine, but not that late. There was not that many caches in the park anyway.
 
  • #12
Thanks for sharing! Too bad I live 400 miles away.
 
  • #13
Scott,
That's no excuse. Next year you need to come.
 
  • #14
Beautiful pictures. I'm on Long Island right now... may have to take another trip just to visit New Jersey.
 
  • #15
WOW Steve, ABSOLUTELY breath taking photos.. Wish i could have been there, seeing all those CPs in person in the wild like nature intended would have just touched my heart.. JUST BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! Maybe Jen and i could plan a trip to be there next yr.. Unless we have racing.. :blush: THANK YOU VERY MUCH for sharring with us...:hug:
 
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