Hike #693; Oceanville to Atlantic City

 Hike #693; Oceanville to Atlantic City

4/7/13 Oceanville to Atlantic City with Brandon Jermyn, Cory Salveson, Carol Van Giezen, and Stephen Argentina

Entering Atlantic City

Our next hike would be an interesting route, the next in the series to hike the entire perimeter of NJ. We would meet at the Absecon Train Station and shuttle a short distance north to Oceanville where we left off the previous time. I couldn't believe that not more people signed up for this one, but oh well. It's just surprising when so many had arrived on the previous few hikes. A small group actually is a relief.

The plan was to hike to AC, then take a train back to Absecon which would simplify transportation despite the fact we did a car shuttle anyway.

We started at Oceanville, at the Leeds strip mall where we left off the last time beyond Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. We walked from there down Great Creek Road past Lily Lake and into the wildlife refuge. When we got to where we came out last time, we went straight on a sand road. A trail led up steps off to the right of this, and we passed a "trail closed" sign facing the opposite direction. Well, this meant the trail behind us was closed, so we kept on going.

Beyond, there was a nice little wild discovery area with a xylophone we tried to play, and a bunch of other stuff intended for kids. We fooled around a bit before heading out and over to the visitor's center, which was also nice.
The visitor's center had a lot to see, but for some reason not much really stands out to me in these places any more. There was a lot on shore birds and such, but I've ready about them to no end. I was more interested in contiguous tracts, plant diversity, and ocean activity in regards to how it formed the tuft like estuarine borders and brackish marsh lands. I could never find anything on that, and I don't often find anything that delves into any of that beyond birds, fish, and small mammals.

We left there, and descended through the grassland trail with nice views of Barnegat Bay and Atlantic City. We crossed a sand road, then made our way onto Leeds Eco Trail. There was a long dead end boardwalk out onto the westlands. One could tell how the trail used to make a loop, but was now an out and back in both directions due to the destruction of a connecting section in the middle. Regardless, the boardwalk had great views. It was made of treks material with people's names in every other one, apparently benefactors.

We backtracked and followed the wooded section of the Eco Trail, and out to the dead end on the other side with different estuarine views.

Rather than head back to the roads, we bushwhacked off of this and out to an abandoned road called Somers Landing Road. We were able to follow that parallel with the Galloway National Golf Course, out to the development near to Rt 9, then along Snake Road to Somerstown Lane. We reached Rt 9 and headed south, but bushwhacked along some sections of golf course land, and on golf cart lanes for a little while. We saw many new flowers of spring here, though Stephen trampled many of them like a hoodlum.

We pretty much stayed on Rt 9 south, but cut over to golf course lanes at times, and then headed off to the west of the highway to follow the less busy Old Shore Road at one point. When that road once again merged with 9, we crossed and headed into the woods on another old sand road. It seemed to disappear further back, and we bushwhacked to the south and ended up in Galloway Township Park, shown as Atlantic County Open Space.

Stephen took the plush hamburger off of my pack and seemed to have lost it in the woods, which he felt terrible about later. He hung it on a tree and couldn't find it.

There was a baseball game or cricket or something going on, and we turned left out toward the bay. We entered a section of woods on a vague roadway, then came out at the end of the fields and a section of small pine woods where there was an interesting wooden shelter building. It didn't appear to be often used. From there, something referred to as the Shell Road headed out onto the waterfront. We did a short out and back hike on this section to take in yet more views of Atlantic City from afar. This was a great section to visit. It was stunningly beautiful.

Cory took a lovely video of the wetland grasses swaying in the breeze, in contrast with the skyscrapers of Atlantic City, and then a panoramic view out over the estuarine wetlands, and shell road, then to me, where he demanded "do your John Mayer impersonation!". Quite silly.

We headed back out of the park and emerged on Rt 9 for a little while longer, then turned left onto Kesler Ave. We then followed Sooy to Wielers to 4th Street south to Faunce Landing. The back street walk here seemed to go by fast, and Faunce Landing where there was a boat launch had some great views of the Absecon Creek outlet and Atlantic City beyond, with sometimes historic buildings on the higher shores around us. We took a walk out onto the docks to have a closer look at everything before moving on.

We took Faunce Landing Road west to a left on Shore Road, then left again heading east on Natalie Terrace to Euclid Drive. On Euclid, there was a boat area on Absecon Creek, and countless friendly begging ducks looking for hand outs. They were all Mallards except for one odd white one. We gave them some snacks and enjoyed the time, but as we left Stephen tried to scare them off, and some lady got out of her car and hollered at  him for it. Poor Stephen was in quite the mood, stamping flowers, stealing cheeseburgers, and scaring ducks!

We emerged back on Shore Road in Absecon and headed south into town, close to the station where we'd parked. We crossed over Rt 30 and headed south on the eastbound lane or close to it. I had hoped we could follow pathways I'd seen from areal images parallel with the commuter tracks, but it was heavily fenced off and signed. We'd have to make due with the road, which was a disappointment. We didn't stay right on it, but followed along the edge of Home Depot, and earlier the rail bridge area.

After passing the Home Depot and some retention ponds, we could see the old abandoned Pleasantville Drive in Movie theater. It's screen was partially destroyed, I assume by the storm. We continued on out along the road, which gave us a wide enough shoulder to walk, but it was very very obvious that not many people ever try to walk what we were walking.

We saw an abandoned motel, and then when we got to the next traffic light we were able to cross back to the other side. I was very happy with this section because we were able to get out right onto the wetlands. It reminded me of walking along the Raritan Bay years ago, when I started doing the Jersey Shore series. It was different than any places on the shore I'd ever walked, but also similar to other places I'd been. It was so exciting for me.

The excitement was cut short when my foot sank up to my knee at a wet spot. I could barely get my foot out with my shoe on it. That would have been sad! When I was finally able to pull my foot out, the knee down to near ankle were covered in light tan to solid brown mud, but my shoe, which got the deepest was covered in a disgusting black tar type of material. I wondered what sort of horrible toxins there were in that base layer, and what would happen if that were churned up again. I read an environmentalist book in early 2012, some chapters more than once to take in all of the information, and vividly remember the shore chapters. I don't recall there being mention of petroleum by product getting into the bays and estuary bases, but there was a lot about the layers below the Passaic and Hudson. It's such a similar area, I can't help but wonder. Apart from it being disgusting, it was downright alarming.

We continued to walk along the Absecon Bay just a little beyond here until Cory, Carol, and Brandan opted to head back to the road. Only Stephen and I, crazies that we are, continued along the mess, but we too ended up walking closer to the highway, on the difficult slope to the Delilah Road on ramp. We still managed to get beyond this point before the others somehow.

We continued along Rt 30 from here, stopping each time we got to a scenic bridge view. The road was not really something I'd want to walk again, but it was still an amazing experience, seeing the wetlands and the city from the ever changing perspective.

When we got to the second inlet to what is called "Little Bay" to the south, we took another break, then went under the bridge to the other side so we could enter Atlantic City at the more convenient south side for safety reasons. When we finally crossed the main Absecon Bridge, we descended via steps down to a sand lot, at the beginning of Atlantic City. We then headed east along Ohio Avenue across the Venice Lagoon and another second waterway to reach Horace Bryant Park. The second crossing was a nice foot bridge parallel with the road. We turned right into Horace Bryant, an interesting park built directly on top of the Atlantic City Expressway which at this point was in a tunnel beneath us.

We followed the trail from Horace Bryant south past the exit of the tunnel, and parallel with the expressway for a time, but it abruptly dead ended. I thought for sure it'd go through! It didn't show up well on areal images. There was a section of fence we could squeeze under, and so Stephen went and ran ahead to scout out if there was a way, and there wasn't, so he came running back and we had to backtrack. Still, at least we got some nice views of this interior bay section and more of AC.

We had to walk more back streets like Michigan Ave and more of Ohio Ave to get south toward the main part of the city. We didn't bother going out to the beach this time, although it was close, and instead turned left after crossing Bacharach Ave over a parking lot, and then onto Kirkman Blvd to the Atlantic City Convention Center, where the train station is. We headed past the Trump Plaza, and then up to the ticket office. It was an amazing relief to me that I'd completed this goal of finishing the stretch of Jersey perimeter that went around the river outlets before the swimming months as planned. We bought our tickets from a friendly man in the booth, and I think someone commented that if we bought from him we were justifying his job.

We didn't have to wait at the station for very long at all for the next train to arrive. We'd gotten back early, 4:10 I believe. As we sat in the station, I was tired and really wanted to get home, but we had the train ride and the shuttles to do, and Steve and Carol wanted raw clams for dinner (poor steve ended up having crappy raw clams he didn't like, but lucky Carol ended up with more clams, and she liked them!), so it ended up being late.

I've been so tired, and things were finally getting done for me, and I think seeing the Trump Plaza set something off in me, but there was still a lot more to do.

We had just had the largest group ever, the 16 Year Anniversery Warren Railroad hike with 72 participants, the party afterwards, and we had the presentation at Waterloo Village which everyone was very impressed with. Matt Davis and I have been working together very well on our presentations, and I think this was the finest thing we ever put together, partially due to Matt's talent for presentation, and partially just fluke that we were really "on" that night, and I felt I spoke better than usual.

In the next few days I'd have my Board of Recreation meeting, another presentation on the Highlands Trail with Matt at Hunterdon Arboretum, trail work at Marble Hill and further preparation at the grand opening of the Marble Hill properties in just one week.

When I saw Trump Plaza, it was a "symbol" of Atlantic City, and I thought to myself that I'd reached another goal I'd set for the season. I just couldn't bask in the satisfaction because I was so tired. I was actually surprised we reached this point by the time I wanted.

We took the train from AC on back to Absecon where Steve's car was, and he took us to Oyster Creek Inn. There was over a half hour wait just to be seated, but I understood that everyone else wanted something to eat.

While the others were eating dinner, I was just not hungry and feeling knocked out. My contact lenses were burning, and I was stressed about everything coming up. I sat out on the porch watching the bay and mellowing out. It was stunningly beautiful.

I figured out during this time that if I continue with my perimeter of NJ series hikes, in 15 plus mile sections once per month, I would complete hiking the entire perimeter by early 2015. It sounds so far off, but the truth is I've already hiked about 2/3 of the entire perimeter already, and I will be the first man to ever do this. All of this tiresome stuff I keep piling on myself are going to lead to something good. Something, but I have no clue what it is, or what it will pertain to. And so I move on to the next big thing...