This weekend, I headed to southern NJ to visit my friend Bryan (from several
Solitude TRs), who comes east to spend a couple months each summer at his SO's house in Port Republic, ten miles as the crow flies north of Atlantic City. Only 90 minutes from me but a completely different kettle of fish from northern NJ with its flat landscape, conservative political bent, and RV parks, along with beautiful inlets, rivers, and marinas everywhere. If I'd been dropped in blindfolded, I might've guessed that I'm in rural Florida.
It's home to New Jersey's Pinelands, aka the Pine Barrens (explanation for the two terms is
here), known for its cranberry bogs, sand pits, and pitch pine trees. Pine Barrens is also the name of a beloved
Sopranos episode whose infamous forest scenes were filmed in NY's Harriman State Park after my hometown South Mountain Reservation turned them down for a shooting permit. Per Wikipedia:
this is a fairly rare instance where the show did not depict an environment similar to the one suggested, as neither Harriman State Park nor South Mountain Reservation are ecologically or visually similar to the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Anyway, we went on a fun two-hour offroad ride in nearby Batsto State Park amongst the fragrant pines mixed with oak trees. The soil is mostly sand, which only caused challenges in a few spots.
Some parts were very flat:
The second half of the ride had some nice undulations. Interesting to note on the trail signs that e-bikes are verboten.
Forests fires happen here from time to time, like in this section:
A nice ride that worked us more than we'd expected given its mostly flat topography.