WhiteBlaze Pages 2024
A Complete Appalachian Trail Guidebook.
AVAILABLE NOW. $4 for interactive PDF(smartphone version)
Read more here WhiteBlaze Pages Store

Results 1 to 12 of 12
  1. #1
    Registered User kayak karl's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-21-2007
    Location
    Swedesboro, NJ
    Age
    68
    Posts
    5,339
    Images
    25

    Default Batona Trail Hike

    Batona Trail of South NJ. Some others have expressed interest in hiking this so im posting.
    on 3/25-3/27 i will be hiking from Bass River to Ong's Hat, 50 miles. Buttonwood camp the first nite and Batona camp the second.

    http://www.njpinelandsanddownjersey...._position=36:3

    New maps. (1 is upper left, 2 up right, 3 lower left)
    http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/5...vhost=outdoors


    Pets are welcome for thru hikers only. this is a test run by the Wharton State Forest.

    Both Buttonwood and Batona are car camps so people can just show up for the nite too. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en...733a9bda1e&z=9

    TY
    KK & Kaia
    Last edited by kayak karl; 03-02-2011 at 19:25.
    I'm so confused, I'm not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.

  2. #2
    Registered User
    Join Date
    04-25-2010
    Location
    Newark, DE
    Age
    63
    Posts
    116
    Images
    20

    Default BaToNa in a Day

    My buddy and I thru-hiked the BaToNa in <24 hrs this past weekend and had a blast. Only got to see about half of it since it was dark much of the time. Only disappointment was not getting a glimpse of the Jersey Devil.

    Here's my trip report (for reference, a ROGAINE is a 24 hr orienteering race):

    BaToNa Thru-Hike - Ong's Hat to Bass River State Forest, NJ
    4/2/2011

    With HughMac4. Yippee!! We did it! A successful outcome was in doubt a couple times but we persevered. Also met our goals of having fun, not getting injured, and not dying.

    We approached this outing as training for a summer ROGAINE. To best simulate ROGAINE conditions, we opted for a noon start. Our target finish time was 18 hours including breaks. This proved to be a tad too optimistic. But we finished in a little over 19 hours and that included at least a half hour of side trips and wrong turns. The official BaToNa trail distance is 49.5 miles. We tacked on about 2 extra miles.

    The weather really couldn't have been better for this time of year. Saturday was partly cloudy with highs in the mid 50's and a cool breeze. Nightime was clear, calm and quite cold with a low in the mid 30's. We enjoyed a clear sunrise for the Sunday morning finish. The hike timing was chosen primarily to foil the infamous chiggers. I think we dodged this bullet but chigger-avoidance was constantly on our radar. We sat on the ground only once - at the junction to Lower Forge Camp. Navigational aids included a set of 8 very helpful USGS maps provided by HughMac, the Pakim and Batsto O maps and thumb compasses. My pre-hike preparation included several long training hikes and a reading of the 1967 John McPhee classic "The Pine Barrens." HughMac's preparation was, shall we say, a little less structured. He had attempted this hike previously about 3 years ago but bailed out due to injury about 10 miles shy of the finish.

    We met at the Bass River State Forest office at 10:00 am and got our packs organized. After dropping my car at the southern terminus of the trail, we drove to the northern trailhead near the ghost town of Ong's Hat. Surveying our gear, I realized I had left my heavy outer layer in my car back at Bass River. I still had four thin layers but expected to suffer a little in the night time cold. Tough guy Hugh had only one layer plus a thin jacket. He had left his winter hat at Bass River. My pack was stuffed to the gills with food. I ended up carrying probably twice what I needed.

    This was really a tale of two hikes - split nearly equally between daylight and night time. The night section was a mental grind. Kind of analogous to being locked in a dark walk-in refrigerator on a treadmill for 10 hours. We hit the trail at 12:00 pm sharp and set a comfortable ROGAINE pace. The first stretch was on pine-needle covered single track through pleasant forest. Hugh spotted a wild turkey just off the trail. Before long, we crossed Rt. 70 into Pakim Pond and I whipped out the O map to follow along. Our first break was at an observation point overlooking Pakim Pond. Hugh pointed out some carnivorous pitcher plants along the trail skirting the pond. We were already 5-10 mins behind our 3+ mile per hour schedule but weren't too concerned about it.

    We crossed Rt. 72 and soon passed an abandoned old trailer park. After crossing Rt. 563, we began a very tedious stretch of rutted jeep road with thick, loose sand. It was unpleasant walking. This was followed by a couple mile stretch of paved road walking. I had been feeling some ominous tension in my left (good) calf and as we neared agricultural fields, it began to sieze up badly. How could this be happening already, I wondered? We were only 13 miles into the hike. I stopped several times to stretch the calf but as soon as I started hiking again, the knot returned and worsened. I was thinking a really embarassing bailout might be necessary. After rejoining the trail, I decided to bring out the heavy artillery. I downed a gu, banana, and calcium tablet to try to fend off the cramps. This seemed to help a little. We decided to hike on (slowly) to Apple Pie Hill before making any decisions.

    Apple Pie hill is the highest point on the trail and is crowned by an O-themed (orange and white) fire tower. We ditched our packs and I climbed the fire tower to enjoy the view. After descending, I ate some more food and took an ibuprofen pill. Hugh theorized that I may have overhydrated and lowered my electrolytes (I was drinking only water - a dumb strategy). Whatever the case, as we descended Apple Pie Hill, my calf seemed to loosen up a bit. About a half mile down the trail, Hugh realized he had left his thumb compass at the top of the hill. We decided not to go back for it and continued on across an un-named lower knob which we dubbed Apple Dumpling or Apple Fritter. It was now early evening and the wind had died down yielding very pleasant conditions.

    My leg steadily improved as we hiked on and before long, it felt almost 100%. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. We chewed up a remote stretch of trail and just before the Carranza Memorial, discovered an unmapped camping area filled with Jeep enthusiasts enjoying a 4-wheeling jamboree. We spotted a hand pump surrounded by several young kids and headed over to refill our water. The kids pumped water while we told them about our hike. Hugh generously provided me with a couple Nuun tablets to aid my electrolyte replacement efforts. We were both carrying iodine but this was the only water refill we would need for the entire hike. Leaving the camping area, we came to an old road. Just a little ways off the trail to the right was the Carranza Memorial. We ventured over to check it out.

    Emilio Carranza was a Mexican aviator and a Lindbergh contemporary. In 1928, he flew a goodwill mission from Mexico City to New York. Shortly after leaving New York for the return trip, his plane went down in a thunderstorm. The stone memorial monument was constructed from funds donated by Mexican school children. Each July, a ceremony is held at the site in memory of Carranza. This evening, it was just Hugh, me and a middle-aged man carrying a camera. "I've been coming to this spot for 20 years," he said. "And you're the first people I've ever seen back here." He proceeded to tell us a couple spooky experiences he had near the memorial. One evening, he was in his car with his girlfriend and they heard what sounded like a very loud plane. The sound suddenly stopped and there was no plane anywhere to be seen. On another occasion, he came across some horseshoe prints in the sand around the memorial. Not that unusual, except that the prints were only about an inch and a half wide. Clearly he was attributing the mysterious prints to the notorious Jersey Devil. Nightfall was rapidly approaching and we left the man behind to rejoin the trail.

    A long stretch of trail followed to the Lower Forge Campground turn-off. Overall, the trail was very well maintained and marked with frequent pink blazes. This section featured some blowdown, however, and some confusing trail intersections. On several occasions, we missed turns and had to backtrack short distances. We took a break at Lower Forge and then walked mostly double-wide trail along the east bank of the Batsto River. We reached Batsto State Park shortly after midnight and made a short side trip to a picnic area where we took another break at a group of picnic tables. By now, the temperature was bottoming out in the mid-30's and we were both chilled. We didn't have enough cold weather gear to stay completely warm but the cold was manageable as long as we kept moving. Breaks were problematic and seemed to do more harm than good. We hiked the remaining 18 miles after Batsto with no additional breaks.

    Shortly after leaving Batsto, we hit another bad patch. Hugh was stopping to stretch a problem calf periodically and things appeared to be getting worse. I offered him a Vitamin I tablet. This seemed to work wonders and he was soon hiking pain-free. The long stretch up to Evans Bridge traverses some marshy areas. At a few places, large puddles blocked the trail and we had to bushwack a little to get around them. Fortunately, we managed to keep our feet dry. After Martha's Bridge, we made the final turn to the south. We quickened the pace a bit - we could now smell the finish. At the small pond at Ives Branch, the pond outfall had flooded the trail. We stayed dry hopping across several well-placed boards. To the east, the sky was tinged with the first morning hues. Soon, we were able to turn off our headlamps and enjoy the last several miles in the early morning light.

    We were feeling so good, in fact, that we decided to jog for about a mile on the last wooded stretch down to Stage Rd. It actually felt good to use some different leg muscles. We walked the final 1.5 miles on the sandy woods road adjacent to Stage Rd. and arrived at the finish at 7:12 am. We were still wide awake and soon headed back to Ong's Hat to retrieve Hugh's car. Fatigue started to set in during the drive. After picking up the car, we stopped at the Four Mile Circle WaWa for some badly needed caffeine, hash browns, and (gasp!) a bacon, egg and cheese bagel.

    The coffee did its job and got me back to Delaware. I took a shower and headed to bed for a 3 hour nap. I'll be a little stiff for a couple days but overall, we both emerged from the hike in pretty good shape.


  3. #3
    Registered User kayak karl's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-21-2007
    Location
    Swedesboro, NJ
    Age
    68
    Posts
    5,339
    Images
    25

    Default

    sorry you missed seeing the trail. i could not push my dog those kind of hours and i'm not an idiot. hike your own hike ????
    I'm so confused, I'm not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.

  4. #4

    Default

    cant read such long posts. karl+1
    matthewski

  5. #5
    Registered User kayak karl's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-21-2007
    Location
    Swedesboro, NJ
    Age
    68
    Posts
    5,339
    Images
    25

    Default +1

    Quote Originally Posted by mweinstone View Post
    cant read such long posts. karl+1
    her she is unleashed in all her glory.


    her she is leading the way at 6 am



    see the eyes LOL
    I'm so confused, I'm not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.

  6. #6
    Registered User kayak karl's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-21-2007
    Location
    Swedesboro, NJ
    Age
    68
    Posts
    5,339
    Images
    25
    I'm so confused, I'm not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.

  7. #7
    Registered User
    Join Date
    04-25-2010
    Location
    Newark, DE
    Age
    63
    Posts
    116
    Images
    20

    Default Thanks for the pics

    Thanks for posting the pic link Karl - very nice.

    Yeah, we're a little bit nuts. It's not the way I usually hike but I like these kind of challenges once in a while. Maybe someday I'll do the trail again in a little bit more of a "sane" fashion.

  8. #8
    Registered User
    Join Date
    04-01-2011
    Location
    Cherry Hill, NJ
    Age
    76
    Posts
    33

    Default

    Kayak Karl,
    Could you write a little about the hike? How was it? I'd like to do the same hike in May or early June. Looking for someone to go with.
    Bob

  9. #9
    Registered User kayak karl's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-21-2007
    Location
    Swedesboro, NJ
    Age
    68
    Posts
    5,339
    Images
    25

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Transition Bob View Post
    Kayak Karl,
    Could you write a little about the hike? How was it? I'd like to do the same hike in May or early June. Looking for someone to go with.
    Bob
    my first wife went to cherry hill east. thanks for reminding me

    i also have the gpx files for the trail. will post about camps and water sources soon. ill hike it anytime with ya if i can fit it into schedule. i go to post office on tues and food shopping on thur.
    I'm so confused, I'm not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.

  10. #10
    Registered User
    Join Date
    04-01-2011
    Location
    Cherry Hill, NJ
    Age
    76
    Posts
    33

    Default

    I can go pretty much anytime except over Memorial Day weekend. I just need at least two weeks notice. Pick some days, and let's see if we can do it.

  11. #11
    Registered User kayak karl's Avatar
    Join Date
    08-21-2007
    Location
    Swedesboro, NJ
    Age
    68
    Posts
    5,339
    Images
    25

    Default

    5/7 to 5/23 is open. if we do week days we will avoid the scouts in camps. this hike is 21, 17, 17 miles three days or two 26 mile days (2 day cuts out a blue blaze to buttonwood)
    I'm so confused, I'm not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.

  12. #12
    Registered User
    Join Date
    04-01-2011
    Location
    Cherry Hill, NJ
    Age
    76
    Posts
    33

    Default

    I can go weekdays any time in May after Mother's Day (May 8). I would like to hike 3 days, camp out 2 nights, but I don't think I can do that kind of mileage, certainly not a 21-mile day. If we took 2 cars and dropped one off someplace, could we limit the miles to 12-15 per day?

    The other option would be to drive out to the AT and do a section hike for a few days. I haven't hiked on the AT, but that's my ultimate goal.

++ New Posts ++

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •