Tall Pines and County Parks

Many years ago, when I taught at a high school, several teachers were selected to be trained for the upcoming new regime of testing.  Well dressed super-teachers led these in-service training workshops in the summer, and we were treated to nice lunches at a place called Ron Jaworski's Eagles Nest.  Which was, apparently, a golf course as well as a restaurant.  Since I don't play golf, I would never have visited it otherwise.  It was a very nice lunch and the setting was beautiful.

Recently, I was searching for good places to hike in the woods that were not so far a drive as my usual favorites and I came across a web site, I think it was South Jersey trails, but I'll have to go check my tablet browsing history.  There were a half dozen parks near me that I had never visited so I wrote down the information and lst week, another hiking buddy and I set off to find them. 

We found two that first day and hiked part of each.  The first one we found was TALL PINES, which is apparently a State Park but administered by the county near Sewell.  It is another one of those golf courses returned to nature.  I hiked one near Cape May called Coxe's Creek.  I like walking on the paved golf cart trails, especially in tick and chigger season.  We were fortunate to meet two other women walking a Lab, and the dogs frolicked togetehr and the women showed us the way back to the parking lot.  You can get lost in that park and there are no trail maps that I have yet been able to find either by calling Camden County Parks or by looking on the internet.  There was a pond and a stream partially hidden behind two mysteriosu mounds of dumped gravel.  The dogs had a nice dip.

The Second park was New Brookly Park on New Brooklyn Road near Winslow Twp.  It has a golf course, a soccer field and a long paved trail paralell to the road, plus a small bridge overlooking the Egg Harbor River watershed, good for bird watching.  There was also a kayak ramp and a small pond.  Not a great place to hike, but good for those other things.  It needed more exploring but finding the parks had taken a LOT of time because neither my hiking buddies nor I can decipher the gps coordinate that I understand I can put in my phone or my gps.  But I have not yet learned how.  So we went for finding the closest road and then looking for an older guy in a pick-up truck.  They are the only people in America who still know where anything is.  Also, old ladies seem to know but they aren't out and about as much as old guys in trucks, so those are the best bet.  Wawa employees don't know where the corner is and gas station attendants don't speak English, so I always look for an old guy in a pick-up truck for accurate information.

There are 21 County Parks and I have visited about 7 of them.  I may go for the whole 21, why not!  I'll let you know later!
Happy Trails!
Jo Ann