South Jersey Trails is four years old!   In celebration, I highlight an area I’ve been blessed enough to spend the last 24 years exploring – the Pine Barrens.  I started with a post on the Best Hikes in the Pine Barrens.  But hiking isn’t what hooked me on the pine barrens all those years ago (and boy, what great hiking there is there), it was the history.

So when you think of ghost towns, you probably think like me: cowboys, swinging doors, tumbleweeds…

You know, this. (Note – Bodie State Park in California).

But the pine barrens have dozens of ghost towns of their own.  Sure, there [...]

“Dad, this is a beanbag game!” “Oh, I know that. Hold still!”

32nd Annual Whitesbog Blueberry Festival June 27, 2015 whitesbog.org

Unfortunately, my canoe trip had to be cancelled this weekend due to storm damage from last week.  Happily, that meant we got to go to the Whitesbog Blueberry Festival instead!  As three of you may remember, I went to Whitesbog for the first time back in April, so I was happy to be back with the family along.  The day featured booths of local history (woodworking, spinning, etc), displays by local organizations (The Pres’s favorite by far was Cedar Run [...]

Old Bog Trail – Whitesbog Village, Brown’s Mills (Pemberton Township), Burlington County, NJ Distance: With the road walk to complete the loop and some garden wandering, 0.6 of a mile. Type: a “U”.  Can be completed as loop by walking down the road past some nice houses. Difficulty: 1  of 10

Website – Whitesbog Preservation Trust Open – Sunrise to Sunset.  General store open Saturdays and Sundays, 10 AM to 4 PM, February to December.

Terrain – bog, swamp, mixed forest, and native plant garden.

Trailheads –  39°57’35.77″N,  74°30’33.90″W

Go to the big [...]