Ride - Wharton State Forest, Pine Barrens, NJ

The NJ Pine Barrens is the perfect spot for a decent, long flat ride. The area is also one of the most interesting natural areas on the east of America. The ride today was intended to explore the sandy roads and get a few miles in over a couple of hours.

The turnaround point for todays ride (at around 8.5 miles) was the campground at Lower Forge. This place was also called Washington Forge and was the site of (wait for it) a forge in the early nineteenth century and operated until about 1850. I didn’t realize this about the campsite when I was there and didn’t take the time to look for signs of the old buildings…next time for sure.

A detailed topographical map of the area can be found here

Various sights from the trail heading north from Batsto Lake.

On the trip back to the parking lot at Batsto Lake I hopped back onto the orange trail