High Crossing Abandoned Railroad

And pivoting to video

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a Pine Barrens exploration. I went digging around the ruins of Hermann, a glass works town on the Mullica, but due to the foliage I couldn’t find much except a cellar hole and some yucca plants that once fronted the demolished hotel. I’ve seen some recent photos taken during the winter when the leaves are down, so I’ll return in a few months. Apple Pie Hill also has ruins of a sanitarium where a quack was bottling the local water as a healing tonic, and that’s also best viewed in winter, so expect the Pine Bairn to ramp up activities on his journey to become… The Pine Baron.

The last time I was out at High Crossing, I got stuck in a giant washout while trying to film how pleasant it is watching the bed and tracks of the abandoned Jersey Central rail line rise and fall beside you as you drive down the sandy road. This time, I used the go-around. And I had multiple cameras running. I think the phone video on the dashboard, with me narrating, gives the best overall picture. If you don’t feel like watching, this rail line went to a long-gone station on Tuckerton Road, the former stagecoach road that I traveled a few months ago.

What? Multiple cameras? So, I bought a GoPro. I won’t be pivoting completely to video—I hate both ads and YouTube and I’m a writer dammit—but I will be sharing more of them. I have a Vimeo account and I pay for no ads, so you won’t have to endure any. This will be a learning process, and I want to make sure every post has plenty for those who don’t feel like watching video. I also really enjoyed doing Tommy Salami’s one-minute book reviews from The Lounge Pit, and I may even throw them all on TikTok. And make more.

After High Crossing, I drove down Tuckerton Road to Washington Turnpike down the sugar sand path, which is all that remains of the stagecoach road from Camden to Egg Harbor. It was just me and the dirt bikes out there, and there were some big puddles to splash through. I pulled over the for the dirt bikers. As you can see, you need to keep on your toes out there.

That road is one of my favorite drives through the Pines, as you absorb the history as you barrel down the road, much as a stagecoach would. The sand is pretty deep, and Outbacks are notoriously good on sand roads, because the standard tires are much narrower than the wide, studded tires favored by off-roaders for rock crawling and mudding. I haven’t had to release the air pressure, or “air down,” to get anywhere, but I try to keep momentum in the deep places. You can see that when I had to pull over, I went onto the brush so I would have traction to get rolling again.

I also made use of the GoPro with a selfie stick to get a closer look at the rail bed.

At the end of the road is the giant washout that sucked up the Subaru. This was my first return to the site. The washout has only gotten bigger and from what I can see, deeper. But there’s an easy go-around. The Batona trail intersects this road and the rail line at this point, and you often see day hikers and backpackers here. So keep your eyes out if you decide to explore. This road is the first right turn after the Carranza memorial, on the aptly named Carranza Road. Going in that direction will put the rail line on the driver’s side, and ends at a tee with Tuckerton Road. If you make a right turn there, it will point you back to Carranza Road, and it is an easy drive. If you turn left, you follow Tuckerton to Washington Pike, and should have a raised, all wheel drive vehicle to be safe.

The Jersey Devil shirt is by Kim Parkhurst, and you can buy one (or a thylacine shirt, or a Paul Lynde throw pillow) at her shop.

If you’d like to watch me curse out the mud pits and wax poetic about trail blazes, clicky click below.

Upcoming Posts:

The Amazing Bike Trails at Camden County College- you can jump a buried truck!

The Bayshore Oyster Festival and New Jersey’s tall ship, the AJ Meerwald

A revenge tale for Halloween, which is for paid subscribers only, so…