BAT001
Location: 39.644329, -74.646762
Start at Batsto Village, a preserved industrial town of 18th-century stone and wood buildings connected by dirt roads. Head north on the pink-blazed Batona Trail through thick pine forests interspersed with sassafras, sweetgum, and oak trees.
BAT002
Location: 39.675617, -74.6521
Parallel the shallow, tea-colored Batsto River. Along the riverbank (or in the marshy areas around it), watch for great blue herons, swans, and the endangered purple-and-green Pine Barrens treefrog - which you'll know by its distinctive nasal "quonk-quonk-quonk" call and the flash of bright orange on its hind legs, visible when it jumps.
BAT003
Location: 39.709566, -74.665902
Pass the low, metal Quaker Bridge and continue to follow the pink blazes to stay on the Batona Trail as it alternates between a narrow, pine-fringed path and wide, rarely used sandy roads.
BAT004
Location: 39.720656, -74.669952
Slight left to camp.
BAT005
Location: 39.724876, -74.672829
Lower Forge Camp. Set up in the spacious, pine-ringed clearing, the trail's most remote site. The gentle flow of a narrow, shallow section of the Batsto River burbles from beyond a wall of shrubs and low trees. Latrine available.
BAT006
Location: 39.728181, -74.664631
The Barrens' sandy, acidic soil is poor for crops (hence the name), but great for blueberries and huckleberries. Snack from the low bushes scraping your shins (ripe in late June or early July). Good idea: knee-high gaiters.
BAT007
Location: 39.780574, -74.632359
Detour east on the wide, sandy fire road .2 mile to the Carranza Memorial, a large stone obelisk erected in memory of Emilio Carranza (known as "the Mexican Lindbergh"), who died when his plane crashed nearby in 1928.
BAT008
Location: 39.781762, -74.628754
Pass the roadside Batona Camp. Latrines and running water available.
BAT009
Location: 39.807332, -74.589366
Apple Pie Hill (205 feet): Climb the narrow metal steps to the top of the 60-foot, red-and-white fire tower for views of an ocean of pine trees that seems to stretch forever in every direction. If it's clear, glimpse the skylines of Atlantic City (40 miles southeast) and Philadelphia (35 miles west). Retrieve the car you've stashed here.
Lose yourself in woods deep enough to terrify mobsters (at least the TV version, in the “Pine Barrens” episode of The Sopranos). But wild in New Jersey doesn’t mean hard: The pancake-flat, 17.6-mile shuttle hike along the 50-mile Batona Trail is mellow enough for newbies, and it’s just an hour’s drive from Philadelphia. You’ll journey alongside the country’s largest cranberry bogs and snag long-distance views from the region’s highest fire tower.
Gear up REI, 501 NJ 73 S, Marlton. (856) 810-1938; rei.com
Contact (609) 561-0024, bit.ly/njwharton
Permit Reserve ahead for pickup at trailhead; $5/person/night ($3 NJ residents).
-Mapped by Karl "Kayak Karl" Rothenbach. Description by Amy Reinink.
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