Galloway Township Nature Preserve – Galloway Township, NJ – 2 miles

Galloway Township Nature Preserves – Galloway Township, Atlantic County, NJ
Distance – I did 2 miles total
Type – Lots of interlocking loops
Difficulty:  4 of 10 – can do a route that is a 1 or 2, but if you walk parts of the bike paths, it’ll be a little steeper and crazier

Website – Galloway Parks and Recreation Facilities
Open – Sunrise to Sunset.

Terrain – Hills, forests, open sand pit areas, meadows
Surface – Mostly dirt

Trailheads – N 39° 29.076 W 074° 28.033

Directions – 100 S. Old Port Republic Road, Galloway Township, NJ

Parking – Very large lot

Dog friendly? Dogs allowed on leashes
Stroller friendly? Some parts yes, others no
Benches? No benches as of when I hiked it
Facilities?: Port-a-potty

Sledding hill

Rules –

Markings – Painted blazes and metal arrows
Map –

Description –

So there is some friendly competition between myself and Mike of Family Adventures New Jersey, as Mike (Family Adventures Mike, not me Mike, I’m not talking in the 3rd person.  On this post at least.  Yet.) as he is better than halfway toward hiking all 250+ South Jersey trails that I’ve done so far.  The problem, of course, is that I keep hiking more trails in a desperate attempt to stay ahead of him in accordance with this blog’s super serious, ultra-dedicated purpose:

1) To seek out those trails in South Jersey that the others guys miss (or hit, we’re not particular), whether it be through a local park or deep in the Pine Barrens where the Jersey Devil steals children (other people’s children, mine are too scary for him). Then, I shall share them so the three people who read this blog can have new places to hike.

So Teacher’s Convention weekend, Mike texted me and asked if I’d done Galloway Township Nature Preserve, which he’d just driven past after doing some hiking.  I had definitely not, I didn’t even have it on my list.  And I love a hike I haven’t done that’s not even on my list.

I woke up Friday morning too early, so decided to sneak a hike in at Cameron Wildlife Preserve, one of my favorite places to hike in South Jersey.  While there, I sat down on one of their swinging benches and scrolled through the different classes being offered that day at teacher convention… no elementary math classes… no writing classes… no history classes that don’t really have anything to do with teaching 3rd Grade but I take every chance I get anyway and then try to work it in somewhere…

So I made a fateful choice, I was going to cut convention that day for the first time in all the years I’ve gone and go to check out Galloway Township Nature Preserve instead.  If my boss reads this, it is Mike’s fault.  Or maybe Galloway Township’s fault.  Or possibly my Scoutmaster’s fault from 30 years ago.  I am innocent.

With my innocence thus established, the township bought this sand mine several years back from Ole Hansen for $1.  It now contains a disc golf course, a JORBA (Jersey Off Road Bicycling Association) maintained mountain bike course, a sledding hill, and, of course, trails to walk.  I pulled into the lot, set my GPS track, forgot my water bottle (whoops), and set off from the trailhead at the end of the parking lot on the northbound trails.

I immediately started running into disc golf holes along this blue blazed trail that’s clearly for bicycles.  While I don’t play disc golf, they look like some serious platforms.

Not having any frisbees on me, I continued on the trail.   It had some up and downs and some odd angles in places as it stayed in roughly the middle of the hill around the old sand pit, which is to be expected on a bike trail.  It had a trail to the left of it and maybe some trail to the right too.  When I had enough, I jumped over to the unblazed (but very clear) rim trail that runs between the blue blazed and red blazed bike trails.

The rim trail quickly curved to head east along the northern border of the preserve, then curved right to start heading roughly south into the majority of the preserve.

At this point, the blue trail to my right seemed to end.  However, the red trail for mountain bikes was visible to my left, generally just a dozen feet from where I was walking, but with enough little connections that I switched back and forth between them depending on which slightly different angle looked more interesting… the woods or the old sand pit.

It ended up at another overlook almost directly across from where I had parked.

Onward!  I trekked mostly on the rim trail down to the southeast corner of the preserve, where there was either a small lake or a very large puddle.

Was feeling pretty good and rounded the curve to walk the bottom stretch of trail.  This is where I got myself in trouble.  I was doing good, chugging along.  The trail seemed to go downhill, but also left.  So I stayed left.  Then I saw some red trail markers.  Great!  I followed them.  Then I hit a party spot that had lots of trash (like, insane amounts of trash)… but the trail markers seemed to evaporate.  Uh oh.

I decided to try to take a shortcut across a small sand pit, which looked like it would be a straight shot back to the edge of the huge sandpit.  This is usually a terrible idea, but it worked for once (Serious note: I am always running a GPS track, so I’m comfortable trying this stuff a) knowing which way I’m heading thanks to the GPS and b) I can always, always, always just backtrack and follow the route I came.  Also, doing this so that you don’t have to since 2013!)

The rim trail dipped down into the pit for a short stretch, then climbed back out of it for the rest of the loop.

I was now most of the way around the rim, and the birds kicked in for the first time.  Mostly angry blue jays.  It’s always angry blue jays.

I rounded the final curve and crossed the top of the sledding hill back to the car.

Good hike!

Ratings:

What I liked:

Lovely views, possibilities to change the feel of the hike up along the way by switching trails that all go in similar loops.  This one will change a lot as trees grow in the old sand pit.

What Could Be Better:

An official trail map posted could be helpful!

Overall rating – 6 out of 10.

Nearby:

Nearby are the Seaview Tract Trails, Forsythe NWR, and the Port Republic Trails including the Mill Pond Trail and the trails on the west side.