28 January 08: Whispering Pines

The mighty, mysterious Pine Barrens. It's alleged that the South Jersey Pine Barrens is the largest undeveloped area on the entire east coast, at least in the megalopolitan east coast, between Boston and DC (or Portland, Maine to Richmond, Virginia if your Megalopolis is bigger). The Jersey Devil, sugar sand, Hammonton blueberries, pygmy pitch pines, Jukes and Kallikaks . . . the Pine Barrens glossary reads like the character sheet to a black comedy / horror film. And perhaps it could be . . . the Pine Barrens was the location of one of the more amusing Sopranos episodes. Last July, when the call first went out for the far out Philly Skyline (26 July and 24 July 07), submissions rolled in from Boyertown (Berks County), Council Rock High School (Bucks County) and the Helicopter Museum (Chester County). I finally got out to my personal favorite, Route 476 (PA Turnpike Northeast Extension) near Lansdale in Montgomery County last month (17 December 07). Rob in York wrote in to suggest that a fire tower on Apple Pie Hill in the Pine Barrens might beat that. The very same day, CDoc said the same, and last week a photo of that very tower appeared on his site The Necessity for Ruins. Watching the winter sun move across the clear sky yesterday, I had an itch to get out, way out, so I grabbed Pete and we headed east, deep into Burlington County. Peeling off of County Route 532 onto a dirt sugar sand road under the natural strobelight of bright late sunlight and long tree shadows, we could almost hear the Jersey Devil's shriek or picture Valery the Russian stumbling out onto the road, but more accurately it had the vibe of a place "Piney" teenagers come to let loose, drink a few Miller Lites and toss old televisions off the fire tower on the hill. Apparently, record of why it is called "Apple Pie Hill" is lost to history, but there was a doctor named William White who once wanted to build a sanitarium there, getting as far as building the initial infrastructure and a well, but it was never finished. The NJ Pine Barrens and Down Jersey web site has an interesting back story HERE. The pitch pine (Pinus rigida) is a beautiful tree with a thick, chunky bark, soft, long needles, and small, spiky cones. If the Pine Barrens is a foreboding, shadowy place when viewed from a car en route to the shore, it is likewise a solemn and mesmerizing place when viewed from 60 feet up. The millions and millions of trees show no signs of the small towns and townships like Medford and Tabernacle and Chatsworth. The forest canopy of green, pine green, or yellow-green, depending on the direction of the sun, stretches to the horizon, where on clear days the Atlantic City skyline peers at you from the south and the Philly Skyline from the west. The former is above, the latter is just below, a double shot of Philly Skyline Pine Barrens Skylines. Click both, enlarge both. Looking at a map, I can't tell whether the 476 view or Apple Pie Hill is further out, but they each look to be 32 miles. The 476 view has more to see, what with the highway cut from the hill and the cars and eighteen wheelers whizzing by, but the Pine Barrens view is a more rewarding journey, and you're offered Atlantic City as a bonus. There are 24 photos in this mini-essay of Apple Pie Hill and the Pine Barrens. To launch it, CLICK HERE.

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