Pine Barrens Experience 2023

What a week! Today we celebrated our adventures in the Pine Barrens with pancakes and waffles, deftly cooked by Isaac, Vikram, and Vincent. We then had a viewing party for our Jersey Devil videos – they would have been contenders at Sundance! Finally, we debriefed the week, highlighting our favorite sites while also offering...

Today, the group visited Franklin Parker Preserve. We left school at 9 AM and took a 40-minute bus ride to the Chatsworth Lake entrance to the preserve. When we arrived, we were eager to quickly start our hike, as it was very cold and windy. As we were hiking, we saw bridges, blue jays,...

Today, we ventured to the Carranza Memorial and Apple Pie Hill via the Batona Trail. We departed school at 9 am, and after a 40-minute bus ride, we arrived at our first destination, which was the Carranza Memorial.  The monument was built in honor of Emilio Carranza, a Mexican aviator who died in a...

Today we went to the Black Run Preserve. We were lead by Mr. John Volpa, who has been working with MFS’s Pine Barren trips for 10 years and taught us a lot about the history and science behind the Pine Barrens. We hiked about four miles, stopping frequently to learn new facts about the...

We started the day at 9:00 am with a 52-minute bus ride to Batsto Village. Once we arrived we hiked the four mile Batsto Lake Trail and followed the white blazes on the trees. Throughout the hike we saw the remains of the controlled fires that were held in the last year. About halfway...

Today we began our adventure by learning all about the Pine Barrens from a variety of perspectives:  historical, cultural, ecological, and, surprisingly, political. We began the day by sorting ourselves into our research, blogging, and video project groups. Each group researched the sites we will visit during this project, and completed a slide deck...