Hike #1020; Brendan T. Byrne Loop

Hike #1020; Brendan T. Byrne Loop

3/11/17 Brendan T. Byrne State Forest Loop with Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Jennifer Berndt, Rob Gearheardt, Cory Clark, Sy P. Deunom, Ellie Zabeth, Brittany Audrey, and Dan Asnis.

Our next hike would be a large Pine Barrens loop in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, and the northern terminus of the Batona Trail.
The previous week we “tied up” some of the historic Lackawanna Railroad up to Scranton, and I find some fulfillment in the completing of the many series I’ve been working on forever.
The first time I’d hiked the Batona Trail (named from the BAck TO NAture Club of Philadelphia) was in 2002, and I’d done only a couple of hikes on it since.

Batona Trail

We last left off rather recently on a winter hike to the camp grounds at Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, a loop with the Batona Trail, woods roads, and former Central Railroad of NJ. I planned this hike at about the same time to be the follow up for the northern terminus of the Batona Trail.

Pakim Pond

I had to come up with something good because honestly Batona Trail can be quite boring. There’s not a lot to the Pine Barrens when it comes down to it. It’s easy hiking, and a lot of the same stuff, so I wanted to make sure there was something special along the way for these.
This particular hike had a good opportunity for an extended lunch stop at Billy Boy’s Four Mile Tavern, which was near Four Mile Circle and just past the halfway point of the hike. We would get there to have some food in mid afternoon for a break.
We met at the camping area where we’d passed through the previous time, and then walked the sand road south to the Batona Trail where it crossed. We then took it north to cross over the sand road at Pakim Pond. The trail went north around the outside of the pond with some nice boardwalks and such. It was actually quite a bit more scenic than I’d anticipated it would be.
The Brendan Byrne State Forest section had a bit more elevation as well than anticipated. It was higher rolling hills because it was further north in I suppose the more outer coastal plain than what I’d hiked in Wharton State Forest.
Batona Trail ran concurrently for a time with the red blazed Cranberry Trail, then turned away to the south. We crossed a road and went through some nicely undulating terrain. We crossed a few sand roads, and Lerch was able to meet up with us, along with Martin to the east of the Lebanon Fire Tower.
The forest used to be known as Lebanon State Forest, for a former glass works that had operated there. It was renamed for the former Governor.

Lebanon Tower

I was also surprised that the tower was so accessible. No fences around it, no cameras, and it was right by the road. With all of the negative publicity that faces the Apple Pie Hill Tower, I thought for sure that this one would be a disappointment, but it wasn’t.

In Lebanon Tower.

We climbed the tower, took in the views, and made our way back down. It was a nice spot for a little break. The trash can was totally loaded with Wawa iced tea bottles, so we joked that it was Dan’s garbage can. Dan wouldn’t join us until later, when we got to the lunch stop.
We took the trail to the north from here, in an area that had been heavily used by ATVs. It was still good and clear. We crossed one road, which the trail ran along briefly and passed a large sand pit, and then soon after crossed over Rt 70. The trail went by Deep Hollow Pond and Bispham’s Mill Creek on a surprisingly steel ledge for south Jersey.

Lebanon Tower

The trail reached another sort of woods road after a bit of the creek stuff, and turned left on a very pleasant surface. Lerch and I were up front, and I was starting to feel a bit more relaxed.

Deep Hollow Pond

We crossed over Rt 646 and wandered through more woods. The meandering trail passed through mostly level woods for a bit more, and we crossed over the sand road we would be using to start heading back shortly.

Batona Trail along the creek

There was still a bit of snow on the ground in places, but nothing we really had to walk in. The trail retained no ice.
We soon came out to the intersection of a sand road and Rt 644. The trail turned right on the sand road only a short distance to a parking area and kiosk, the northwestern terminus of the Batona Trail, in an area known as Ong’s Hat.
The name “Ong’s Hat” is said to have been a corruption of “Ong’s Hut”. Ong was a popular surname in the area of south Jersey, and it was said to be named for local farmer Jacob Ong who had an overnight hut there. There are of course stories of a man named Ong, either at a lover or something, who threw his hat into a tree where it got lodged.

Ong's Hat rack

Whatever the story, no one really lives in Ong’s Hat today, it’s just an interesting place name. The park staff has even hung a “hat rack” on the tree that reads “Ong’s Hat Rack”.
From here, we had to walk up the road a bit further to the north, and then turned right on another sand road heading east. The sand road took us to Four Mile Circle. We turned to the right at the circle, and then left briefly to get onto Rt 72. We walked it only a short distance to get to the front of Billy Boy’s Four Mile Tavern, our lunch stop.
The place looked like a hole in the wall as per reviews on line, but I couldn’t resist the charm that it looked like it would have.

Billy Boy's Four Mile Tavern

We actually had a really good time with it. We were seated in the back right of the place, which had a pool table and some other games. We had to wait a while for the food, but it wasn’t really too long. It was just a nice and relaxing hang out.
I think I tried some sort of IPA with the burger I got. IPAs are good, but kind of bitter to be drinking on their own I think. I really love them with meals though. While there, the guys discovered some sort of rare bowling game against the wall that you just never see any more, so the bartender turned it on for everyone.
After we were all finished with our food, it took forever to get the checks. Every time we said we were ready, someone ordered another drink, or were coerced to order one.

Uncommon bowling game

We finally did get out of there, and Jen cut out early here.
Dan also met up with us at this point; somehow, he made his way to some other nearly identical circle in the Pine Barrens that also had a Wawa, a liquor store, and a hole in the wall bar! Somehow, he managed to leave that place which was like forty or so minutes away and meet up with us at the correct place.
We headed down Rt 72 briefly, then cut into the woods directly to get shortly to another old sand road. The sand road soon turned to the north for a bit, and when we got near the ranger station, we got on the red blazed Cranberry Trail.

Cranberry Trail

Despite having the long lunch break, the terrain was so easy that we were making up time with absolutely no problem.

Nature Trail

The trail was wider, like a sand road, and it did follow a couple of them briefly, but overall was just a nice and relaxing return path without the undulating terrain of the route out.
Brittany powered ahead of everyone for the majority of the end, and I waited up to make sure that everyone was making the correct turns.
When we reached Batona Trail again, with which it runs concurrently, we continued with it. Batona Trail went left at Pakim Pond, but we continued right to reach the sand road. We followed the sand road toward the campgrounds east for a bit, and then took to the blue blazed Nature Trail that loops to the south of the road for a bit longer.
When we got back out to the road, we walked it a bit further, then turned right into the camp grounds road. We stopped for a break at the restroom before heading back to the parking lot where our cars were.
Rather than just take off, and even though there was very little remaining daylight, Lerch talked most of us into going ot see an abandoned industrial site nearby, and had us crawling through ruins I could barely squeeze through (had to remove my jacket). It was a nice little bit of excitement before the end.
The next day it was a return to the craziness of work however, where things continued to decline. The only good thing was the April schedule put me on working Easter Sunday as the only one for that month, and I’d be off Good Friday. That made for a much simpler planning for the hikes, so at least there was that.