Wharton State Forest - New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
NJ State Long Trail - Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 39.64487, -74.64699
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| Batsto Historic Site Parking Lot |
TRAIL MAP:
Wharton State Forest Trail Map - New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
HIKE DISTANCE: 14.1 miles
THE HIKE:
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| Starting off through Batsto Village. |
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| It is a straight shot through the village to the hiking trails. |
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| The yellow trail was the destination but I wanted to capture the orange Tom's Pond Trail also since that trail was closed due to flooding when I last hiked this loop in 2010. I did not know what the blue marker with an S on it was for until I uploaded my track into Google Earth when I got home. Turns out that is the blue-blazed NJ State Long Trail. I had loaded tracks of the trail into Google Earth so I could see that is where I had been. This trail is not on the park map as it is pretty new. |
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| Continuing on orange/yellow/blue S. |
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| Just after this bridge we turned right on an unmarked trail as it looked like it would loop back around to orange/yellow/blue S but might be a bit more scenic. |
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| Back on orange/yellow/blue S. |
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| At this bridge is where the trails split apart. Yellow goes right over that bridge - that would be for later. |
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| To the left is blue - we'd come in the the other side of that after orange. |
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| For now straight on the orange Tom's Creek Trail. |
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| The trail forms a loop and after coming back over this bridge, orange retraces to the left but we veered right at the fork on un unmarked trail. |
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| That came out on a sand road where we turned left ... |
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| ... then left on blue. Blue continues straight on the sand road also but this would take us back to the intersection where we needed to pick up yellow. |
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| And here we are, now crossing the bridge on yellow where we would be for several miles. |
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| Mullica River Wilderness Camp. There are fire rings that I don't believe were there in 2010 because I had to call the park office about a camp fire that was left burning and it was not in a fire ring. |
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| Right on the green Wilderness Camps Connector Trail. |
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| Green will turn right with purple joining from the left... |
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| ... to the dreaded not-at-all-dog-friendly Quaker Bridge. At only 45 pounds I figured it would not be so hard to carry Brodie over. That was the case about half way over until he started slipping, my trekking poles balancing on top of him started slipping... I made it to the other side just in time before everything went down. Forty five pounds gets really heavy really fast. |
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| Right on the pink-blazed Batona Trail. |
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| This looks like a burn area with tons of baby pines coming up. |
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| The Batona Trail continues to the left; we veered right on the white trail. |
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| The blue S NJ State Long Trail follows along this trail also. |
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| Note that these light blue blazes are a state forest trail, not the NJ State Long Trail, whish is probably why it is designated with the S where it overlaps state forest trails. |
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| Where I had not run into anyone the entire hike, this trail was starting to get busy wo we turned left on red. |
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| Then the green mountain bike trail ... |
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| ... back to the parking lot. |
