Man, I needed a trip like this. My 22-year-old son Vanilla Pudge came home from college and we went canoeing in the Pine Barrens. We met up with HF member Ratdog at Atsion, dumped our gear and canoe, and Ratdog kindly followed me to Batsto Village to drop my car off. Then he drove me back to Atsion - Ratdog is my hero! Thanks for the shuttle.
Of course, I brought my camera but left the memory at home. We started paddling about 4:00 pm. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and temps were around 63 degrees. In the first mile from Atsion we saw several cormorants, a bird I've never seen in the Pine Barrens. I explained to my son how they dive for fish and can stay underwater for up to half a minute. Every time I saw a cormorant I would point it out to him and then the cormorant would dive. Our canoe would pass over and we'd look back to see the cormorant surface, but we never saw one surface.
Eventually Vanilla Pudge, ever the skeptic, decided that we were seeing the same cormorant over and over again, that somehow the cormorant would dive at the sight of our canoe, swim furiously underwater and resurface 50 ft. in front of us. Nothing I said could convince him that we had seen multiple cormorants - he was convinced it was only one - a Michael Phelps of cormorants.
There were a fair amount of blowndown trees, more than I expected, but nothing like the upper Batsto. We reached Beaver Pond and alas, we saw no beavers - so I brought an extra razor for no reason. We did see a ton of waterfowl; ducks, grebes, and other waterfowl I couldn't identify, but the highlight was three kingfishers, an Eastern Painted Turtle, and a huge snapping turtle. We saw a ton of deer -easier to sneak up on them in a canoe.
The trip from Atsion to Mullica River campsite took four hours - which surprised the heck out of me - I thought it would only take a couple of hours. I had to endure "We're lost," and "Let me see the map" comments from Pudge (I didn't have a map). We didn't arrive at camp until dusk and set up hammocks in the dark. We skipped tarps and bugnets, and quickly scarfed down Pack-It Gourmet Tuscan Beef Stew for dinner - very tasty. With a total fire ban, we couldn't have a campfire, but the rules said we couldn't have a fire on the ground - nothing about using an Emberlit EL Mini on top of the camp grill, so that was our campfire. We hit the hay around midnight.
I slept with my 20* HG Phoenix and Burrow, while Pudge used my 0* Incubator and Burrow. The low was 28 degrees - excellent camping weather. We were serenaded to sleep by coyotes, owls and whippoorwills. It was the best Pine Barrens soundtrack I've ever heard!
Around 7 am I awoke to the sound of turkeys - I've never seen a turkey in the Pine Barrens so I popped out of my hammock to find them. I realized they were on the other side of the river and began singing "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye to the turkeys, and to my son, to get him to wake up. Wildly inappropriate (I hope the ASPCA and PETA don't hear about this), but my son sleeps like a log so I did what I had to do to wake him up:
"Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, let's make love tonight
Wake up, Wake up, Wake up, Wake up, 'cos you do it right
Baby I got sick this morning
A sea was storming inside of me
Baby I think I'm capsizing
The waves are rising and rising"
About that time a ranger drove by - glad he didn't arrest me for disturbing the peace or something.
We ate some oatmeal and were on the river by 9:15 am. The Mullica River Camp to Batsto Village section is some wonderful paddling - strong current, not many narrow spots or shallow spots, and amazing scenery. We made it to the pull-out in 2.5 hours, including breaks. Wish my camera was working - somebody put up a sign at the Pleasant Mills pull-out that said "Twerk Here." Hanging from the sign was a bag of garbage with a busted spinning reel, and an empty can of creamed corn, among other things. It was quite the mental image: a piney, fishing on the Mullica, eating cold creamed corn - twerking. And then the excellent vibe was ruined by a busted spinning reel! Oh, the irony.
Other than the ranger, we never saw a single soul the entire trip. We had the Pine Barrens and the Mullica River all to ourselves - quite a rejuvenating trip and some great father/son time.
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best time to go anywhere is midweek...no people
Originally Posted by SilvrSurfr
2. How did you ever find your way without me. 
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