On the Road

Traveling stories.

Every time I leave a class at the tracker school I always say to myself that I'm going straight to the woods to tryout what I've learned.  Usually I get back to civilization and work one thing leads to another and days or even weeks go by before I can find the time to work on some skill much less spend a few days in the wilderness.  Of course my circumstance has changed so I thought I'd actually spend some time and concentration trying to find a decent stretch of woods in the New Jersey area.

I dropped a few friends off at the Newark airport and at a Garden State Parkway service station I happened upon a brochure mapping out all kinds of recreational activities around New Jersey.  I found what looked like an interesting spot and hit the road.  

I go to New Jersey maybe once or twice a year.  I've really only found two decent places to camp in the woods.  Now you would think a tourist guide to the wilderness of New Jersey would most likely include fairly accessible main stream places and the spot I decided to explore was described as a fairly easily to get to place.  I arrived at the end of the paved road after dark, maybe 9:30 in the evening and unfortunately the road - despite being listed on a tour guide and everything - turned out to be a typical Pine Barrens road - a totally impassable unmaintained sand and dirt road road with axial busting humps.  I made it maybe a 1/4 mile before stopping at a "ditch" about seven feet long by 6 feet wide, filled with water and tree limbs.  I steeped out of the van to put a stick into the water and the water was at least 6 inches deep.  Not really interested in totaling my van on the maiden trip I turned around.  Foiled again!

On the way out another 4x4 pickup (maybe a f-250) was going in. Looked like teenagers with cell phones.  Strange for a late Monday night, maybe not quite as remote as I thought.  Would not be worth mentioning had it not been for the fact that I waited to see how far down the road they got in a 4x4 only to see them turn around, stop for about 20 min then finally drive past me and leave.  My feeling at the time was that it may have been some kind of neighborhood watch situation...not necessarily a bad thing I thought and decided to find my second choice spot for camping out, New Jersey's last chance 

I woke up the next day to some one pounding on the side of my van...I looked out the window and a small posse of dudes in coveralls were standing outside my van.  I opened the door and one with a florescent orange hat spoke up "what's the problem?" No problem, said I thought I was on state forest property (which I was) and I'd be on my way. 

The 2 pickups were not much concern to me but the Honda civic with the super dark tinted windows rolled all the way up had me a bit concerned about who was hiding in there.  Once I had a word with the farmer dude the first thing he did after talking to me was give some kind of "all clear" hand gesture to the civic.    

"No problem..." I fired up the engine and got going.  Not completely unexpected situation, the east coast is wrapped so tight anymore.  Just too many people, even if one in ten thousand is totally insane thats still a lot of crazies.  Requires the constant negligence of everyone involved all the time.  The New Jersey farmer posse told me "every time someone parks here there's a problem" and I felt at the time like I kew exactly what he meant.  Indeed there was a kind of routine to there actions, one got the feeling that their post apocalypse routine would not look very different.  

Before enlightenment chop wood gather water.  After enlightenment chop wood gather water...

Later, looking at the map over breakfast I noticed a stretch of the Appalachian trail was not too far away so I gave up on NJ and headed to Marysville PA.  Several hours later on a dirt road to the AT trail access I noticed a white sign nailed to a tree "do to recent crime activity camera surveillance."  

Local cops stopped by the second day saying I was making the near by (1/2 mile away) residents nervous.  Apparently there had been some vandalism here and in the next county to the east ("so don't go there either").  The cops themselves were friendly enough, maybe even a bit set back like myself at how difficult it can be to park your car and hang out in the woods in America anymore.  Still too far east I thought, still too crowded and everyone here has been abused and worries.

I really had no idea where I was going next.  Although the cops never said I had to leave when I got in my van to look at my map I realized they were not going until I did.  I figured I'd get on the interstate but when I reached the paved road I looked west, saw the setting sun, felt pulled, and went with it.  West on PA 87.  Next stop, Tuscarora State Forest...peace at last.

Tuscarora SF has 3 mile trail through an old growth hemlock forest.