Hike #875; Moore's Beach to Woodbine

Hike #875; Moore's Beach to Woodbine

8/23/15 Moore's Beach to Woodbine with Gregg Hudis, James Quinn, Sean Patrick Reardon, Marissa Barradale, Wilma Vargas, Carl Manzi, Michelle Flackalacka, Jason Kumpas, and Dan Asnis.

The group at Moore's Beach

Our next hike would be a point to point between two south Jersey locales, part of which would fit into the Metrotrails Jersey Perimeter series I've been slowing closing in on completing.

I'd been finishing many of the large missing pieces over the past couple of years, but along the way I often miss out on little spots that didn't quite fit in with the rest of the point to point ones. On the Delaware Bay particularly, there are tons of out and back roads that would not lend themselves well to the hikes, so instead I put those together as point to point ones where portions of it are perimeter, but the rest is other stuff that I'd been meaning to get to one way or another. Actually, it makes for a much more interesting hike in the long run, rather than just following back roads on the bay the entire day.

I put together a route beginning at Moore's Beach on the Delaware Bay, and ending at Woodbine on a rail trail that used to be part of the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines. Between the beach, backroads, and rail trail were Eldora Nature Preserve and Belleplain State Forest to add some diversity to the mix.

Perimeter completed so far

We met in the morning at a bar and restaurant south of town directly on the Woodbine Rail Trail, which we'd finish on, then shuttled to our starting point at Moore's Beach.

Moore's Beach was another of these little bay towns that have completely disappeared. At one time, the area was known as Robbinson's, and there were as many as thirty homes out on it. By the beginning of the 1990s, there were apparently only a couple of them left, and all were gone as per aerial images by 1995.

This was another area where reportedly the state didn't want to pay to rebuild, but here the citizens left on their own will.

The road to reach Moore's Beach has been rebuilt and maintained, but there is really nothing else to see immediately upon arrival in terms of development. To the east of us, I could see some of the remains of former piers, and to the east there was really nothing. If there were once thirty homes here, there most certainly must have been something west of us. There was an estuary outlet immediately to the west, and with tide at a low point we could wade across to explore the beach section that way.

Moore's Beach

At first, the beach was really pretty and easy to walk on. We waded across the outlet channel, which only got to less than knee deep, and followed another section of beach. This immediately became very muddy and unpleasant to walk through. I forged on through with everyone following me. James aptly named this "Diarrhea Beach" because of it's dark and squishy surface. It was certainly not very welcoming. I made my way up to more light colored sand where I should have been to begin with quickly.

Diarrhea beach

Since the tide was low, I was trying to follow too close to the water, which would eventually have meant us getting stuck. This isn't like ocean beaches, where it's just sand and we can walk at low tide area. This is just muck, and the waves of the water seem to roll in with a thickness that looks like some other worldly fluid, not water. It also has a black sort of soot that washes up with it in places that doesn't look so welcoming.

I made my way from the water's edge a little further in to the more regular looking beach and continued to follow this tide level spot to the west as best I could.

Moore's Beach messy sand

I got to follow this for a good while, but it was limited to where the next inlet. The inlet was known as Riggin Ditch. We got just about to where it entered, but the beach section turned out toward the waterfront and was a mess of weeds. I still pushed on for about as far as I could go out that way. I recall Carl was out there pretty close to where I was followed by Gregg.

Once we were close to Riggin Ditch, I began to turn back. Everyone else cut it short at about this time rather than follow me all the way. We headed back, this time staying up on the better, more solid sand and came to the other inlet we had waded across before. The water was coming in rather fast, and visibly so. The time was coming up. It was a good thing we did this when we did or crossing might have been rather impossible. I waded across and got myself completely in, which was very refreshing. Everyone else waded okay, and Red Sean carried his girlfriend Marissa over.

Moore's Beach inlet

Once we were on the other side, keeping to the beach was quite a pleasure. It looked just like any other oceanfront beach for a short while, with pristine looking sand and a bay so wide that it doesn't immediately look like there is land not so far off. I enjoyed staying in the water for as long as I could until everyone was across the inlet, then we continued on the beach heading past the road access where we started to the east.

Moore's Beach

The beach was widest near our starting point, then got a bit narrower. The almost white sands were a wider swath than on the other side of the inlet. I figure this part of the island was the one that was inhabited for the longest.

As we walked, we soon came to the ruins of where homes used to be. There were cinder blocks lining the waterfront and some old bits of foundations. Out in the water, vertical beams that would have supported either the homes or the docks that went with them still stuck up in places.

Moore's Beach ruins

We walked around these bits of ruins and continued along the waterfront. The beach became a swath of sand inland a bit, but the tide line was nothing but a littered mess of cinder blocks and bricks right down to the breaking waves. We continued to walk along the waterfront and past former house sites to the inlet at West Creek. West Creek, which we've crossed in other places, is very very wide at this point, actually a miniature bay itself. I got in the water at this point to cool off again. There were some guys in a boat running back and forth through the bay a bit. I swam around a bit again.

Moore's Beach at West Creek

We turned around here to head back in the direction we'd come, to the little parking area to head inland. Sean entertained us by putting on a giant horse head mask. This was the end of pretty much all beaches on the entire Jersey Perimeter for me. There might be tiny bits we'll hit on the Forked River to Waretown and Great Bay Boulevard, but I'm not sure yet. This was just another bit missing piece from another area that closed in more gaps. Jason Kumpas and I went in for another dip. Very refreshing.

Once we got back to the parking area, we headed onto Moore's Beach Road inland.

Moore's Beach Road

The road was a gravel surface, out over the estuaries like what seemed at this time like so many of them. The road passed through this open swath, then through periods of higher vegetation and past a couple of ponds. This area was also very depressed like many of the others we'd come across, with another abandoned house pretty soon as we headed inland. We continued further and the road turned from the higher vegetation to the scrubby trees, then to more regular woods.

Abandoned

Yet another abandoned house, this one with a garage, was found to the right as we continued from here. These houses were abandoned for quite a long time it seemed. This one had no no trespassing signs, a beware of dog sign, and the roof partially collapsed. I of course wanted to have a better look at it.

The place was abandoned rather abruptly it would seem. It was still completely full of stuff, but being so exposed to the elements had caused pretty much the entire floor to collapse into the crawl spaces underneath.

Abandoned

I looked around for a bit and continued on. The road wasn't completely uninhabited. There were homes on it, but still not as many as there once were. We continued on Moore's Beach Road to it's intersection with Rt 47 and turned right. This concluded our new perimeter stuff for the day. The rest of it would be doubling back on stuff we'd done before, but then some new stuff.

Tomatoes!

The road walk was not too bad, and it was actually kind of relaxing. It went by pretty fast. Along the way, there was a farm stand on the north side of the highway selling freshly picked stuff. I couldn't resist but patronize because it was so fresh and for cheap. A little basket of grape tomatoes just picked was only a dollar. I got that as well as three ears of sweet corn. Both were absolutely delicious. Some of the others got some stuff too. They made the whole road walk portion worth it.

We continued over West Creek, and on the other side turned left into Eldora Nature Preserve. We had already done the entire outer loop of this preserve as a side trip during one of our past Jersey Perimeter hikes, but this time my goal was to use it as a through route, and revisit the best of what the preserve had to offer. So, we headed on in to the woods and then went to see the lovely board walk overlook on the West Creek.

Boardwalk platform in Eldora Nature Preserve

We headed north from this point on the westernmost trail in the preserve. I could see on maps that Nature Conservancy land extends to the north almost, but maybe not quite to to Rt 550, Paper Mill Road. I wanted to go through this way. That meant when we got to the north part of Eldora Nature Preserve, we would have to go off trail and make our way through, maybe in fields.

The first bit of off trail was pretty easy. There was limited vegetation on the forest floor, so we just wandered through. Then, when we got to fields I thought we'd easily be able to walk through, there were fences around it. Tall ones to keep deer out. We had to keep to the woods, which was shown as the public land anyway.

As we walked, a four wheel drive truck or SUV passed by us along the fields just to the east. I don't know if they saw us or not. They might not have even been looking in there. We just kept to the woods until that fence ended beyond a line of trees, and we could get to the field. We hurriedly made our way along the edge and out to Paper Mill Road where we turned briefly left, then into the parking area where Ponds Trail starts.

The first pond we reached was Pickle Factory Pond. It was brutally hot, and there was an access point for boats or something, so I went in for a swim. It was great. Not everyone wanted to get in at this point, but I just wanted to relax knowing that we were done with anything that seemed like it would be tough. We'd be on pleasant trails for most of the remainder of the hike.

We headed through the scrubby growth and Pine Barrens to the north, and the trail weaved around a lot. We saw a Box Turtle on the way, and passed some heavy ATV use areas. For the most part, this non standard blue blazed trail was pretty easy to follow, and was mostly foot path through the woods. Soon, we came out to Rt 347, East Creek Mill Road, at East Creek Pond. This was an easy boat launch access point, so I went in for yet another dip. I was completely satisfied with the amount of water I could get in on this hike.

We headed into woods again on the white blazed East Creek Trail, to the west side of the pond. I didn't realize it at the time, but this trail weaves around a bit and goes a bit further north than I was counting on before heading back to Lake Nummy.

East Creek Pond

The trail was overall very very nice. It had some board walk areas as it paralleled Savage's Run. The pink blazed Mountain Bike Trail broke off to the left, and it's a good thing we didn't follow that because it appears to be all over the place. We crossed Dean's Branch Road, a couple other woods roads. Eventually, we came out to Meisle Road and crossed to the recreation area at Lake Nummy. Lake Nummy is named for "King Nummy", the last chief of the local tribe of Lenni Lenape Indians. Most of the local tribes moved from the area in the late 1600s, but Nummy stayed to help care for family here.

Lane Nummy

Nummy apparently acted as spokesman for the tribe and sold land to settlers, forcing his people to leave. This is a scenario I've read about time and again among natives working against their tribes for personal gain. Similar was the story of Tackamack just over the NY line, who took the name Jans Clause.

We stopped at the beach and I took one last dip again. We also visited the concession stand and had a nice little break. The beach was tiny compared to Spruce Run, and had far less patrons. Belleplain State Park was formerly the Meisle Cranberry Bog, but was converted to a state park in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

We headed east from here into the woods on Nature Trail, which skirts the north side of Lake Nummy. We followed it only until an access point into the campgrounds to the north. We headed into the grounds, and used the water pump to refill. We continued through the campgrounds out to the Champion Trail, actually a sand road. I think Champion as actually a last name of settlers in the area or something. I know someone with that last name.

Champion Trail took us to the north and to Rt 550, Woodbine Ave. It continued across on the other side to the north. We followed it a short while and soon came to the abandoned right of way of the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines Railroad. To the northwest, the line was a drivable trail, but to the southeast, where we were going, it just looked like an ATV path.

Seashore Line Trail

We began walking the path, straight as an arrow toward Woodbine. It was cool for a bit to follow this old rail line I'd never really been on before. I would hate to do it for an entire hike though. Even this small stretch of it was starting to get boring. Jason Kumpas and I started kicking it into high gear. A power line followed the right of way, which sort of detracted from how nice it could have been.

Seashore Line Trail

Eventually, we reached a sort of dirt cul de sac where the right of way was more formally developed as a trail. Both sides far back were mowed off recently, and the trail itself was a crushed stone aggregate. It saddens me to see this stuff because it would be so much better kept simple like the section we had just walked. Still, we kept following it to the south.

Woodbine Rail Trail

Soon, the right of way came to a swath of land with two bits of Dehirsch Avenue to the left and right. The one to our left also became Rt 550. The trail itself became paved and weaved back and forth a bit on the old railroad grade, then passed under a sort of pavilion thing after we crossed Washington Ave. We had absolutely no shade for a while, so I was glad we were doing this section at this time of day. It'd have been awful in the heat.

We passed through Woodbine continuing to the south on the paved trail, now known as Woodbine Rail Trail.

We passed underneath another rail bridge, this one possibly still used on occasion, and continued on. I once walked a bit of that line just to the south in South Dennis. The trail moved over closer to Rt 550 to avoid businesses like a car dealership built on the right of way, and just beyond we came to the restaurant and parking area where we  had met in the morning. James had gone like a bat out of hell and arrived at the parking area before any of us, and he went back to pick some of the people up so they wouldn't have to stagger along the last mile or so. We then had a splendid dinner at the place that used to be the Bull and Bear Tavern. It was now called Surf Dog Bar and Grill.

I think the itchiness started when at the tavern. During the course of the day, I must have picked up Chiggers. Chiggers are a tiny mite, like a flea, that feeds on flesh by liquefying and consuming it. It itches like crazy. Over the next several days I had some sort of reaction where my feet swelled up terribly and were full of red marks. The chiggers spread all the way up as far as my shoulders, and I could even see some of them to pull them out. Even three weeks later I continue to suffer from these horrible bites!

Apart from the chigger experience, it really was a great  hike, and a nice transition from doing perimeter stuff back to piecing together other potentially more interesting routes. This was the second of only two remaining sections necessary to complete the lower Delaware and Delaware bay region.