Old Pine Farms – Deptford Township, Gloucester County, NJ
Distance: Not known. We did a little more than a mile on the Main Trail, Creek Loop, Beaver Loop, and Nia’s Way.
Type: Loops
Difficulty: 3 of 10
Website – Old Pine Farm Natural Lands Trust
Open – Sunrise to Sunset.
Terrain – Forest, field, and marsh.
Trailheads – 39°48’34.31″N, 75° 5’13.46″W
Video about the Old Pine Farm:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt3TQGQtHZQ]
Directions: Parking lot is at the end of Rankin Ave. From Rt 41, turn onto Good Intent Road, then onto Rankin.
You’ll know you’re in the right spot when you see this –
Parking – Small lot with room for 4-5 cars.
Markings – Occasional sign posts. Trails very clear.
Map –
From the website!
Description: It was a beautiful Tuesday. I survived another day of work. The Wife heads to work. What better to do than grab The Pres and Tree Rider and check out a new trail? (Answer: Nothing)
We headed down to Deptford to check out the Old Pine Farm, a park on Big Timber Creek run by the Old Pine Farm Natural Lands Trust. It has about a mile and a half of trails, so we were pretty stoked to start hiking. First, we had to drive around for a while because the address on the official website is NOT where the trailheads are. The parking lot for the trailheads is one street over.
A fire road heads from the parking lot, the main trail heads right from the gate. It passes down a well-worn path through the woods. Other trails will come in on either side. I wasn’t sure if these were real trails. They are, we hiked several later. But first…
After a trip through the woods, we hit the Creek Look. We headed straight onto the loop, which shortly took us into a really nice meadow with a lot of benches in it. Following the trail straight will bring you to the shores of Big Timber Creek.
I feel welcome.
Fire road to the left, trail to the right.
Down the trail.
I love Spring.
Made it to the meadow.
Nice meadow.
Reaching Big Timber Creek.
From here, you can head left or right. We didn’t know it at the time, but the right trail was called the Beaver Loop. I very much regret not taking this short loop, because beavers.
Left was pretty awesome too though. You pass a picnic table and call walk out for a great view of the marshes. The Creek Loop then parallels the marsh edge and loops back through a nicely wooded area. It eventually comes to an intersection. Straight will take you to a road, so we headed right to stay on the Creek Loop.
Nice marsh. Need to canoe this now too.
We then hit another intersection with Willoughby Way. We walked down it until we hit the farm house, which the preserve was trying to purchase as of 2011 (not sure if they did or not), then headed back to the Creek Loop. The Creek Loop continued back to the Main Trail. We crossed it to Nia’s Way. Here we headed right onto a trail built last year as an Eagle Project (well done Albert Myers of Troop 62) that I don’t see on the map. It parallels the Main Trail back until nearly the parking lot. There, we rejoined the Main Trail for the short walk to the car.
New trail.
In the flower.
Tree fort?
From there, we set out to find a playground, because otherwise one of the teachers at work yells at me to stop taking my kid hiking and start taking him to fun places.
Two months later…. I went back to check out the canoe launch for a possible future adventure. While there, I did the short Beaver Loop and the rest of Nia’s Way, which The Pres and I had only half done. This place is buggier in the summer, but not too bad. Things definitely look different in different seasons!
Timber Creek down by the canoe/kayak launch.
The launch. It’s 1/4 mile carry in for anyone who might be wondering.
Cross the bridge to start the Beaver Loop.
Different view of the creek.
The loop comes back out into the meadow.
Doing the other half of Nia’s Way (an unmarked trail bisects it, the Pres and I had taken that before).
Ending at a view with benches.
Also nearby: Can be paired up with the 0.6 of a mile hike at nearby Timber Creek Park in Deptford or the much longer trail system at other Timber Creek Park in Glendora, both of which are within ten minutes of here.
Wasn’t kidding about the playground (Sadly, in Haddon Heights, so no where near here)
Big Timber Creek and some marshlands.
Little hard to find the first time (thankfully, you have this blog to help). Also, bugs can be bad during certain times of the year.
Nice write-up. I don’t think I’ve been there since the Willoughby’s were living there. They were the nicest people. If anyone’s curious, I wrote a remembrance about them when George died (http://www.quakerranter.org/2010/01/remembering_george_willoughby/) and there’s a bit about the farm. There’s a link to a 2013 article on their fundraising efforts.