South Cape May Meadows Preserve – Cape May, Cape May County, NJ Distance – 1.75 miles of trail (but spur requires some backtracking, plus can walk down to the beach at certain times of the year), we did 2.4 miles here. Type – Loop with an out-and-back spur, as well as a spur that connects with Cape May Point State Park. Difficulty: 1 of 10

Website – The Nature Conservancy Open – Sunrise to Sunset.

Terrain – Beach and marsh Surface – mostly dirt, sand, and shells

Trailheads: Main entrance from parking lot –  38°56’16.33″N,  74°56’40.97″W Connector trail from Cape May Point State Park (spur off of [...]

So I am asked on a surprisingly regular basis what I bring on a backpacking trip.  Up to this point, I’ve really resisted making a post on this, because there are a lot smarter people out there than me about this (like seriously, try Backpacker Magazine, or getting a book from the library, or finding an old Boy Scout Backpacking Merit Badge book, or take a class at REI, or just go talk to the AT Thru Hikers and Section Hikers at REI).

But, since folks keep asking (and you are for some reason still reading this and not any of the resources above), I figure better to just post what I take backpacking so that people can argue about what a dolt I am in the comments [...]

Batona Trail Batsto to Ongs Hat 3 days – 34 miles

Back in November, Skunk, Danny, Pat, and I went for a little three day, 34 mile stroll on the Batona Trail.

(Note: This is more adventure log and not so much trail info.  For trail info, go to https://southjerseytrails.org/batonatrail/)

Three of us managed to get off on Friday (sorry Danny), so we met at Batsto and, after getting our permits, headed off down the Batona.  The first few miles flew and we walked through the areas that burned in the forest fire a few summers back.

The first bit of really [...]

Grave of Henry Charlton Beck Harleigh Cemetery 1640 Haddon Ave Camden, NJ 08103 GPS Coordinates – 39°55’27.20″N,  75° 5’19.56″W

It started with a slow news day…

“…the foreman of a newspaper composing-room, always ready with ideas for making busy people busier, proposed that an honest effort should be made to locate the town still indicated on maps of New Jersey by the mysterious name of Ong’s Hat,” (Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey, 1936)

Henry Charlton Beck, a reporter for the Camden Courier-Post, was the one sent out in an old car down suspect roads with a photographer who could also [...]