There ain’t no place like this left in the country, I don’t believe — and I traveled around a little bit, too.
-John McPhee, The Pine Barrens, 1967
On the third day of the Pine Barrens IL, we visited Franklin Parker Preserve and hiked the Batona Trail. On this trail, we learned lots about fire ecology and got to see the direct effects wildfires cause. On our hike we saw char and burn marks from the Tea Time Hill fires. Our speaker from yesterday, Jason, showed us fenced off areas that scientists from the PPA build so that they can RFID chip snakes and other creatures to track them and study their patterns and habits. This was really interesting because it gave us a chance to see how research is done in the Pinelands.
We walked around one mile to see the Apple Pie Hill fire tower. Local wildfire firefighters came up and spoke to us about wildfire safety and how to ‘harden’ your home. We were then given the chance to climb up the fire tower and watch the Pinelands. The view was absolutely incredible because we could see both Atlantic City and Philadelphia depending on which way you turned on the tower.
We ate a nice lunch with a view of the Pinelands and afterwards took around a four-mile hike. On the hike we saw more effects of fire and some bogs. Our guide, Monica, showed us teaberry plants where the berries taste like toothpaste and the leaves smelled like spearmint. She taught us some small history about how they used to use the berries to make ice cream and toothpaste. On the walk back, we got the chance to chat and catch up and just hang out together. In the end, this was the first day of a true hike (5.6 miles in total) that we got to experience and most of us really enjoyed it. Highlight of day was definitely being able to climb the fire tower!!
