Wharton State Forest, NJ Pine Lands

The NJ Pinelands is a pretty amazing place.  It covers an area greater than 1 million acres and is the largest open space on the eastern seaboard  between Boston, MA and Richmond, VA.  Most of the trees are pitch pine and oak.  The soil is sand with patches of gravel as you'll see below.  Interspersed between the trees you can find streams, ponds, cranberry bogs, and sandy roads.  The water is dark brown from the humic acid leeching out of the decaying vegetation.  The under-storey growth near to the visitor center is quite low because a fire a few years ago burned it back extensively.  You can still see the blackened tree trunks.  The vegetation further north on the trail is thicker and taller because the fire didn't reach that far.

This is a great place to ride, explore and get in distance rather than technical challenge.  The place is as flat as a pancake.

The deer immediately below was bounding not far from the trail.  I've never seen one with a two-tone coat like that.

The forest isn't all peace and tranquility.  I didn't see any trucks but there's evidence of guys having fun in trucks on the sandy roads.  Who wouldn't?  The water table is just a few feet below the surface and frequently the water shows itself in boggy hollows.

The photographs below are from my handlebar-mounted camera taking stills on a 60s cycle.  The first three are from earlier on the trail and the last one is from the more northerly section away from the fire.