Hike #457; Berlin to Woodcrest

 Hike #457 12/5 and 12/6/9

12/5 and 12/6/9 Berlin-Woodcrest with Jillane Becker, KyleZalinsky, Jason Itell, Jason Kumpas, Dave "Captain Soup" Campbell, Shelly Janes, Irina Kulikovskaya, Christina Manley, and Chris Herbig.

Dolphin Kyle in Berlin NJ

 This next hike would be another two day event, beginning with Carol and Rob Creamer's "Decemberween" party in Berlin, Camden County. Jillane, Kyle Zalinsky, and I carpooled down that way and attended the party with many of Carol and Rob's friends, but also many of our hiker friends including "DJ Ray" Cordts, Chris Herbig, Christina Manley, Larry Butler, Shelly Janes, Eric Pace, Dave "Captain Soup" Campbell, and Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews. We had a good time, then when the morning came we geared up for a hike. Jillane, Kyle, Shelly, Captain Soup, Christina, and Herbig came from the party, and Jason Itell, Jason Kumpas, and Irina Kulikovskaya showed up for just the hike (0-0u). We began by just walking out the door from Carol and Rob's (after some picked up Dunkin Donuts, and Kyle layed on the county in the blue bath robe Jillane and I gave him pretending to be a dolphin) on Dunham Loop (0v,0w). We walked out the road and south on Wickham Drive to Watsontown Road. We headed northwest on that for a ways. Soon, a Camden County park appeared on the right with a paved path. We began following it north along the Great Egg Harbor River, it's headwaters. We passed an old dam site and went through some nice woods (0x-1). We continued to the end of that particular park but continued along the river following a road briefly (2). We crossed Berlin-Cross Keys Road and continued along some of the lakes (3-3b) and then crossed into the Berlin flea market area. We walked all through the area and I bought Jillane a hat. Jason Kumpas got him a scarf (3c-6). After passing a dolphin blanket, Kyle continued with a dolphin joke we had going since the night before, making strange dolphin noises and all. Kyle would often pretend to be a dolphin in all of the hikes to follow. We came out on Clementon Road and crossed into the cemetary across the street (6a-10b).'

Berlin Cemetary

We turned left on Rt 30, White Horse Pike (10c-11c) and followed it to a utility right of way, which we followed north (12-13b) to a sandy disturbed area of pine barren.

Swath of pine barrens near Berlin NJ

We followed an area that appeared to be all dug out to our right, then made our way out to the back of a cemetary area that was where they dumped all of the old decorations from previous holidays. We headed north and crossed over the railroad tracks, very active here. We had to climb over a fence on the opposite side. There was a really swampy area below, but we made our way around it to the left. Irina somehow made her way around to the right.

We came out to Egg Harbor Road and turned left for a bit. Soon, a woods road went in to the right, which we took. The woods road took us to a quarried out sandy area which looked really awesome. We climbed around on the big sand piles a bit and admired the view. I remember thinking how it looked so much like Nevada. From here, we followed an ATV path that took us west to another disturbed area, with a few more trees. An ATV path led south steeply up a hill. We had a somewhat tough time getting up it, but we did.

At the top, we followed a small path along the edge of the quarried area, then out through woods to Bangor Ave next to an industrial site. We followed Bangor Ave west to United States Avenue which had a paved trail along it. I later found out that this was probably an old rail spur that followed the road.

We went down the road on the paved path, then turned left on another side path into a sports complex adjacent to Lindenwold High School. We crossed this property and made our way out to Gibbsboro Road.

I think it was at this intersection that we stopped at a little bakery that sold cream puffs or something. I remember thinking it was odd that there was a store for such an item.

We walked right onto the road briefly and then cut into a section of thick woods to the left. This section was totally off trail. As we walked through the woods, we found a few plastic crates; I knew the ground was getting a bit mushy so I had everyone grab a crate to walk with. This payed off soon, we came to a wet area and used the crate to walk across,the last person collecting them. We then continued to a little party shack that was in the woods near the shore of Linden Lake. There was a house nearby, but don't think we could be seen.

Shelter in a swath of woods in Lindenwold NJ

After hanging out at this little place for a bit, we made our way to an abandoned road, part of Jackson Ave. This road apparently went north at one time across one of the tributaries of Linden Lake, but it was severred by this stream. It was a good thing I had everyone hang onto their crates because we used them to get across the water! The abandoned road got a little weedy and came out on Holly Road. We pileld up our crates and a board at the end of this old road to make a bench which we took a break on. While we were in this area, a guy in a house almost across the street hollered out at us asking what we were doing. We got into a conversation with him about our hike and the group, and he seemed impressed enough to invite us all to a backyard barbecue with his friends! This group of family and friends were watching a football game and eating grilled food which they generously offered us all! We hung out there for a while, and drank their beer and ate thier food, and we thanked them graciously for their kindness. This is another one of those amazing little things that make a day so memorable.

The plan originally was to walk Holly Road and cut into more woodlands, but it was getting too late and I didn't want to chance too much more craziness after all the much and stuff we'd gone through. We continued on to Norcross Road, turned right, then left on North Road to West Road I think, then left on Hilliards Road to a left on Gibbsboro Road. This took us out to White Horse Pike.

We went across onto Front Street, then headed out to Burnt Mill Road. We followed this up to the Woodcrest Mall. Yet another bunch of craziness followed as Kyle stood next to an old woman wearing a fur coat not so unlike his silly bath robe, then he went into an excersize machine store and started using the machines to get the attention of some odd looking blonde woman who looked like a lion her hair was so big....we had some pizza and then continued through the mall. Kyle ran through a department store area, bounding between displays yelling out dolphin sounds, his long blue fuzzy bath robe trailing behind him. It was hilarious.

We came out the north side of the mall, which I believe was a higher level and we had to use escelators. We then crossed Somerdale Road, then took Acorn Lane, Green Ridge Road, and Long Lane I think out to Evesham Road. Across we got on a narrow greenway along a tributary that Irina had known about since she lived close by. It was getting tough to see, but we managed to get through alright. It took us out at a small ball field on Walt Whitman Blvd. Irina then took us down a side street and invited us all into her house which was beautiful. She gave us some food (and I remember some M&Ms) and we hung out for a while before moving on. Some of the group got a ride back from here to get the cars and pick the rest of us up at the end point, which would be Woodcrest Train Station (which wasn't far up Walt Whitman Road to Burnt Mill Road, on the left). This was where we left off on the previous Camden area hike after the first Buckettfest, so I was happy to have reached my goal of connecting these hikes. Jillane was in a bad mood at the end and so Kyle, Jason K, and I hurried on ahead to the station. Rob was good enough to come and pick us up at the end of the hike. I felt bad, but Jason K waited behind to get picked up since there was no more room and some of the others were returning this way anyway.

Kyle went on and on during and after this hike about going to Haddonfield (making fun of me because I wanted to reach the station there), and he began saying he was a dolphin from the Haddonfield Pod.

I remember Jillane saying during the hike "I never want to see a non-dolphin Kyle again!!!". And so for the rest of his life, Kyle was a dolphin from Haddonfield, and like the way we went on saying "YES", the dolphin sound "ECKECKECKECKECK" became a similar affirmative exclamation that would be heard and  seen everywhere.