Batona Trail
The Batona Trail is a hiking trail through New Jersey's Pine Barrens. The trail is one of the longest in the state, behind the Delaware and Raritan Canal Trail, the section of the Appalachian Trail within the state, the Liberty-Water Gap Trail, and the completed section of the Highlands Trail in the state. The Batona Trail begins in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest at the ghost town of Ong's Hat and traverses Franklin Parker Preserve, Wharton State Forest and Bass River State Forest. The trail was built in 1961 by the Batona Hiking Club, which began informally in 1928 when Philadelphians began meeting regularly to hike. It takes about three days to hike the whole trail.
History
In 1960, Dale Knapschafer suggested a trail be built linking Wharton and Lebanon State Forests. The next year, Batona Hiking Club president Morris Bardock contacted the Department of Conservation and Economic Development in New Jersey for permission to construct such a trail. After receiving permission from the state, Morris Bardock and Walter Korszniak made exploratory trips to figure out a route in the winter and spring of 1961 for the future trail. Through the help of volunteers, the first of the trail was completed over the summer, and the final pink blaze was painted on a tree near New Jersey Route 70 in Lebanon State Forest on September 16, 1961. Bardock chose pink blazes for the Batona Trail. The trail originally connected Carpenter Spring in Lebanon State Forest and Batsto Village in Wharton State Forest. At this time Batsto was being developed by the state and continued to be inhabited by a few people. More recently, the trail has been extended.In 2012, the trail was rerouted in two areas. The first was in Bass River State Forest, which is the southernmost part of the trail. The second area is around Chatsworth. Both of the rerouted sections go through quieter areas and bypass paved roads and power lines where the trail originally ran. The Chatsworth section puts the trail through the northern section of the . Both of these reroutes have added about to the overall trail length.
Flora and fauna
Although the Pine Barrens, as the name suggests, are mainly flat pine forests, there is a large variety of plants and animals along the trail. The pines include, primarily, pitch pine, and shortleaf pine. White pine and loblolly pine typically occur only where deliberately planted, and Virginia pine is sporadic, usually in atypical areas. The most common vegetation community type in uplands is Pine/Oak Forest, composed of the typical pines and various oaks, with an understory of ericaceous shrubs, mainly huckleberries. The wetlands are typically stood of Atlantic white cedar, or mixed hardwood swamps mainly composed of red maple, black gum, gray birch, swamp magnolia, and highbush blueberry. Another very common wetland forest is the Pitch Pine Lowland, which is dominated by pitch pine, but may include a wide variety of other wetland species. Another common tree seen along the trail is the sassafras.There are a number of wild edibles, such as berries from bearberry, teaberry, huckleberry, blackberry, cranberry, and blueberry ; young shoots from briers ; and acorns from oaks. There is a diverse range of other plants, including a wide variety of shrubs, grasses, sedges, rushes, ferns, mosses, and herbaceous wildflowers. Notable plants that may be seen along the trail include wild orchids; carnivorous plants such as the sundews, the pitcher plant, and the bladderworts ; and the prickly pear cactus.
39 species of mammals, 229 bird species, 59 reptile and amphibian species, and 91 fish species have been reported within the broad area of the Pinelands National Reserve. The number of native species, however, found in truly characteristic Pine Barrens, is much lower. Possums, chipmunks, squirrels, beavers, muskrats, mice, foxes, raccoons, weasels, mink, river otters, and white-tailed deer are some of the more common mammals seen in the Pinelands. Commonly seen amphibians include the green frog, leopard frog, carpenter frog, and the Fowler's toad. Common reptiles include the northern water snake, pine snake, hognose snake, eastern garter snake, northern fence lizard, eastern painted turtle, red-bellied turtle, spotted turtle, musk turtle, and snapping turtle. The only venomous snake in the New Jersey Pine Barrens is the timber rattlesnake, which is a state-listed endangered species. The Pine Barrens tree frog, a state-listed threatened species, has a population here that is disconnected from other populations in the Carolinas and the Florida Panhandle.
The Pine Barrens location makes it the fringe of both northern and southern species, such as the yellow fringed orchid.