Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, NJ - Batona Trail from Pakim Pond to Park Office

ABOUT THE PARK: 
Brendan T. Byrne State Forest - NJ Division of Parks and Forests

DIRECTIONS:
Pakim Pond picnic area parking lot:
GPS coordinates 39.880188, -74.533664

TRAIL MAP:
Brendan T. Byrne State Forest Trail Map - NJ Division of Parks and Forests

HIKE DISTANCE:  6.6 miles

THE HIKE:

The trails start at the far left corner of the parking lot.

The trails to the left, Pakim Pond and rest rooms to the right.

Pakim Pond

Hiking a section of the pink-blazed Batona Trail which runs along with the red-blazed Cranberry Trail for a bit.

I turned left on the Batona Trail which isn't exactly what I intended to do.  I had planned on hiking the new relocation through Franklin Parker Preserve which turns out to be to the right.  We'll just have to go back again.  The part we did hike was a section we had not hiked yet so it all worked out.

The Batona Trail leaves the Cranberry Trail.

A boardwalk peeking through the snow - and those boards are worse than walking on ice when wet!

Shawnee was more on melting ice than boardwalk ...

... and crashed right through the ice.

She's OK!

Sections of trail were blissfully clear.

Other sections not so much but it was interesting to see how long this raccoon followed the Batona Trail.

A flooded section but only in this one area - much less than I expected with a sudden heat wave after over a month of snow and ice.

Snow on the trail but nowhere else.

Then a very snowy section that was pretty tedious to get through.

A blue trail to the park office.

We looped around on the paved road ...

... around to the park office and the start of that blue trail ...

... connecting back to the Batona Trail.

Retracing back.

Our tracks going the other way.

Instead of going back over those slippery, flooded boardwalks, we took the paved roads back around ...

... to Pakim Pond up ahead on the left.

At some point during the past month while Shawnee was out of hiking commission due to the awful weather, she had (or is having) a birthday.  Don't know the exact date but she was about 4 months old when she was sprung from the shelter on 7/11/2001.

Rancocas Nature Center and Rancocas State Park, NJ

ABOUT THE PARK:
Rancocas Nature Center
Rancocas State Park - New Jersey State Parks
The way I understood it when researching this park is that the Rancocas Nature Center (no dogs allowed) is north of Rancocas Creek and Rancocas State Park (dogs allowed) is south of Rancocas Creek.  This is true but where Rancacos Nature Center only has a couple of miles of trails, there are also state park trails on the northern side of Rancocas Creek which allow for a much longer hike.  These trails are not shown on the state park map but were on a map by the bridge, picture below.

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.003201, -74.821251

View Larger Map

Parking at Rancocas Nature Center

TRAIL MAPS:
Rancocas Nature Center Trail Map

This map was at the bridge crossing the creek into the part of Rancocas State Park that is north of Rancocas Creek.  The state park trails are to the left of the bridge and the nature center trails are to the right of the bridge.

Rancocas Nature Center, NJ at EveryTrail


HIKE DISTANCE: 3 miles

THE HIKE:
Where we had been heading south to hike, recent snow storms to the south have made the terrain too treacherous for Shawnee (not to mention single digit temps) so we haven't hiked in a couple of weeks.  Today I had to be in Mt. Laurel in the morning so I decided to swing by Rancocas Nature Center for a short no dogs allowed hike before heading home.  Snow had partially melted and refrozen and it made for tough going even with microspikes.  Sometimes I was walking on top of frozen snow, other times crashing through into inches of icy snow or twisting my ankles in frozen footprints if I was not paying attention to where I was stepping.  I'll go back with Shawnee to do the southern part where dogs are allowed.  If the snow and ice ever melt.

Starting on the blue trail (no blazes here) between the kiosk and the barn.  It was very rough going on these ankle-breaking frozen footprints.

A short distance in, a left on red where no man had gone before. Relatively smooth sailing here on top of frozen snow with microspikes.

When there were prints they were only small wildlife prints.

The trail skirts the edge of the conifer plantation.

Conifer Plantation

A left on blue continues through the conifer plantation to ...

... a left on orange.

Again, no footprints on orange and it was a very pretty trail through holly trees.

Rancocas Creek

It was terribly loud walking on frozen snow and ice so birds generally did not hang around when they could hear me coming from a mile away.

It was in the low 20's but it was a beautiful, clear day with the moon still visible in the afternoon.

Orange ends after a stretch along the creek - heading back.

Left on blue but not quite as many frozen footprints here so it was easy to avoid them.

The bridge over a small side creek to the state park trails.  The map above is at the other side of this bridge.

The yellow-blazed trail into the state park.

Animal tracks perfectly following the yellow trail.

Tufted Titmouse

Rancocas Creek from the yellow trail.

Back to the side creek then the bridge.

Instead of crossing the bridge I went a short distance on the brown trail along the side creek until it met up with white.  This would have made another nice loop but was running short on time so had to turn around back to the bridge.

After crossing the bridge, turned left on yellow.  I believe this part is still state park - it is obvious when you are back on the Nature Center part because the blazes on the trees end and you have to follow the numbered posts that have yellow on them.

Yellow ends at the Nature Center back at the parking lot.