NJ>Pine Barrens>2nd Annual Thanksgiving Weekend Hang>11/29-30

[SilvrSurfr]

Is it too soon to be talking about food?

We gonna wing it with dehydrated meals, or since it's not a long hike in, do we want to plan a campfire meal for Friday?

Currently a Stage 2 campfire ban, according to Wharton State Forest when I called them Saturday. The state website says it's stage 1, so I don't know where the disconnect is:

http://www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforest...trictions.html

So if it don't rain soon, we may be gathering around the flashlight for storytelling.

[njredneck]

Is it too soon to be talking about food?

We gonna wing it with dehydrated meals, or since it's not a long hike in, do we want to plan a campfire meal for Friday?

Its never to soon to talk about food. I was thinking bacon wrapped filets with baked potato with sauted onion, peppers and mushrooms. But hey I'm up for just about anything.

[silentorpheus]

I paid for five at site M002 for two nights. Darned web site got hung in the middle of my reservation. I had to log out of ReserveAmerica, then log back in but the site still showed Reserved (though I hadn't paid for it). Finally called them up and was able to reserve M002 over the phone (reservation number 2-449107).

I chose to reserve five because if you later decide to add people to the reservation, there's a $7 fee. So in essence, adding one person to the reservation for one night would cost $10. Highway robbery, I say.

Ah, but last time we went out adding people at the time you pick up your permits (assuming we go to batsto to retrieve them) had no additional fee ... just the extra $3 per person.

If they've changed it, that's just rude. Rude Highway Robbery.

[silentorpheus]

Its never to soon to talk about food. I was thinking bacon wrapped filets with baked potato with sauted onion, peppers and mushrooms. But hey I'm up for just about anything.

You lost me at mushrooms ... but I'm right there with you on the rest of it.

[Ratdog]

It was Stage 2 Fri/Sat
We got a little rain but who knows by the end of next week.

Low humidity, some wind, if it hasn't rained, it will be Stage 2.
Reserve America still has it at Stage 2

[Ratdog]

quick video
used cellphone and brand new video editing software, apologies for the quality

[SilvrSurfr]

quick video
used cellphone and brand new video editing software, apologies for the quality

Thanks so much for the reconnoitering, Ratdog. I feel better that we'll have enough trees.

[SilvrSurfr]

I was talking to Silent Orifice and he's interested in a wee taste of night hiking! JTdad13 also mentioned night hiking from Batsto on Friday night. Anybody else interested?

I'll be at Batsto Village before 4 pm to get my camping permit. We could dawdle around Batsto Village doing the touristy thing till it gets dark enough for it to be scary. We'll have a waning moon at 12.41% full, so it will definitely be creepy out there. You're virtually guaranteed to see the Jersey Devil or Bigfoot in the shadows.

I'm quite experienced at getting lost at night in the Pine Barrens, but I don't think it's possible to get lost going from Batsto to Mullica. If it could be done, I'd have done it (on second thought, I'll have to go back and review my trip reports because I probably did get lost going to Mullica at night).

[SilvrSurfr]

The scariest thing I ever saw in the Pine Barrens? I was lost hiking from Batsto to Lower Forge, and a pickup truck came down the road. The pickup bed was full of turnips.

I stopped for a bit, trying to understand what I had just seen. Why is some guy driving around the Pine Barrens with a pickup truck full of turnips? As I pondered the meaning of all this, another pickup truck came down the road. It was also full of turnips.

I don't think turnips grow very well in the Pine Barrens, so I highly doubt these pineys were illegally harvesting rare, indigenous Pine Barrens turnips. I think they were importing, not exporting. They've got a still and they're making turnip moonshine or something, right? Maybe they were going out there to do ritual sacrifices of turnips - to this day, I just don't know. It troubles me deeply.

Can you hear it, Clarisse? That horrible screaming of the turnips?

[silentorpheus]

I was talking to Silent Orifice and he's interested in a wee taste of night hiking! JTdad13 also mentioned night hiking from Batsto on Friday night. Anybody else interested?

I'll be at Batsto Village before 4 pm to get my camping permit. We could dawdle around Batsto Village doing the touristy thing till it gets dark enough for it to be scary. We'll have a waning moon at 12.41% full, so it will definitely be creepy out there. You're virtually guaranteed to see the Jersey Devil or Bigfoot in the shadows.

I'm quite experienced at getting lost at night in the Pine Barrens, but I don't think it's possible to get lost going from Batsto to Mullica. If it could be done, I'd have done it (on second thought, I'll have to go back and review my trip reports because I probably did get lost going to Mullica at night).

No need to lolly-gag just to ensure hiking in the pitch black. I'm sure we'll deal with that soon enough, regardless.

I'm gonna aim for getting to the ranger station by around 3, maybe a touch later. That way we can hope to be on the trail by 4. It'll get nice and dark about 45 minutes in - but it should only take an hour and a half to get to camp - 2 tops.

NJredneck said he was hiking in a little earlier - so maybe he and his young'ns will have a fire waiting for us, to guide us into camp.

For anyone planning on hiking in from the North, just remember that Atsion is closed October - March. So park at your own risk.

We'll wait until we're a few days out, and assess whether or not we'll be allowed to have an open fire, before deciding on what kind of food to bring.