Batona Trail Map Update

[Dogwood]

I get a laugh at the hullaboo that develops once a path/hike/trail is once labeled with a name. I grew up in the Pineland Nat Reserve doing countless hunting/fishing/1-3 day backpacking, survival trips. No one cares about all those 50 mile hikes. I guess it's because they weren't labeled with a trail name. I might start naming my hikes. Uhh, Dogwood One, Dogwood Two, etc

[chiefiepoo]

I grew up in Evesham twp. Running down to the Pines and driving the dirt road from Atsion to Batstow was a good beer drinking run on a Saturday night. Chatsworth was a place for my scout troop to camp along the Jersey Central RR and hike to Apple Pie Hill in he mid 60's. Pine barrens, cranberry bogs, brown water rivers like the Oswego, Wading, and Mullica were part of a young mans adventure. Happy to see it's being preserved.

[rocketsocks]

I get a laugh at the hullaboo that develops once a path/hike/trail is once labeled with a name. I grew up in the Pineland Nat Reserve doing countless hunting/fishing/1-3 day backpacking, survival trips. No one cares about all those 50 mile hikes. I guess it's because they weren't labeled with a trail name. I might start naming my hikes. Uhh, Dogwood One, Dogwood Two, etc

As you know hiking and making camp on a extended hike in NJ is all but non existent, lest one goes rouge, I offer no comment on such practices in this thread. The Batona trail is a diamond in the rough in my book.

[Another Kevin]

here is the new re-route http://connect.garmin.com/activity/254361028
ong-batona http://connect.garmin.com/activity/79924912
batona-buttonwood http://connect.garmin.com/activity/79925335
buttonwooh-bass http://connect.garmin.com/activity/98283232

i plan on hiking it again thanksgiving weekend and mapping it in one file with re-route in it.

Karl,

I'm asking this in public because I'm trying to raise awareness of the project.

Open Street Map is a project that aims to map the world Wikipedia-fashion: anyone can edit (although people do watch for vandalism!) and the idea is to create a map that can be kept up to date by a grassroots effort. It's one of the foundations for the map I do at http://kbk.is-a-geek.net/catskills/test.html. In my opinion, it's the only way to move forward from government topo maps that are forty to fifty years out of date. USGS is not funded at a level that would allow it to produce maps of the quality that was routine in the 1960s, and many advocates for governmental austerity think that even what funding it does get is a waste of taxpayers' money. Fortunately, topography changes but little, and the public most likely can keep man-made features up to date.

Karl, can I get you either to transfer your data for the trail alignment into OpenStreetMap, or send me GPX files so that I can do it? That's how the map keeps getting closer to reality: people going places and sharing their tracks. If you do, I'll be happy to extend the map on kbk.is-a-geek.net into southern New Jersey. Right now, I somewhat arbitrarily chose the northern half of the A-T as its boundaries, which means that it peters out just south of Trenton and just north of the area of interest. I'll even make a PDF map book of the Batona (most likely at 1:24000 or 1:31680 scale) for you.

Feel free to reply by PM if you don't want to discuss it in public. I know that any mention of Wikipedia or any similar project ignites a storm of controversy: some people feel very strongly that sharing data is a good thing, while others say that the fact that the data can never be authoritative is dangerous. Paradoxically, many I know fall into the 'throw the baby out with the bathwater' position - saying both that having the government do it is a waste of the taxpayers' money and that having the public do it is too risky. I think that many give the rote answer that for-profit business will step forward and fill the hole; but that leaves us hikers as a niche market who cannot pay for the necessary effort. (Look at the failure of Venture Outside maps for a case in point.)

But I'm straying too far into politics. I simply want to see someone able to produce good, up-to-date hiking maps, suitable for both mobile devices and paper. Right now, the only way I can get them in some of the places I go is to do them myself with the aid of the public. Contribute if you like. Don't if you don't want to. Think of it as trail magic.

[kayak karl]

It was there in the 60's. First time I hiked it was 72. I know you don't care, but I take pride in the Pine Barrens and help educate kids on taking care of it. This was the first map I've seen over a topo

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[Another Kevin]

It was there in the 60's. First time I hiked it was 72. I know you don't care, but I take pride in the Pine Barrens and help educate kids on taking care of it. This was the first map I've seen over a topo

I'm very confused. I'm asking if I can help promote it with better (or at least alternative) maps, and you reply with 'I know you don't care'?

I hiked it - or maybe a piece of it, I was a boy scout and not paying a lot of attention to where I was - in '70 or so. I'd like to go back there some year. So many projects, so little time...

[kayak karl]

I'm very confused. I'm asking if I can help promote it with better (or at least alternative) maps, and you reply with 'I know you don't care'?

I hiked it - or maybe a piece of it, I was a boy scout and not paying a lot of attention to where I was - in '70 or so. I'd like to go back there some year. So many projects, so little time...

im so sorry. that was a responce to dogwood (he doesn't care about 50 mile trails ) (used my smarterthenme phone) You can use the GPX from garmin. if you want them in a different format PM me.

[kayak karl]

I grew up in Evesham twp. Running down to the Pines and driving the dirt road from Atsion to Batstow was a good beer drinking run on a Saturday night. Chatsworth was a place for my scout troop to camp along the Jersey Central RR and hike to Apple Pie Hill in he mid 60's. Pine barrens, cranberry bogs, brown water rivers like the Oswego, Wading, and Mullica were part of a young mans adventure. Happy to see it's being preserved.

you a Lenape grad too? me, class of 73

[NJ Topher]

I created the map from Kayak Karl's GPX file. Since Karl's hike, the first 4 miles of the trail from the southern trailhead has been rerouting. Does anyone have a file of the reroute?

Regards,

Topher.

[NJ Topher]

Based on Kayak Karl's original GPX trail with some additional information from the NJ DEP and few other sources, we now have a completely up-to-date map of the Batona Trail with all major reroutes. It's attached, along with the GPX for the trail itself.

The map is sized at Super B, 13 x 19. You can print it smaller using Acrobat Reader, setting the paper size to whatever size paper you are using, and selecting "fit".

Enjoy!

[Dogwood]

KK, I'm being misunderstood. I too take pride in the Pinelands. So much so that I call myself a Piney. I've wandered the Pineland Reserve extensively. Seems no one really cared though. I suppose they have had little interest to do so. It's definitely not the case that I don't care about 50 mile long trails. Read my above post again in the context that I find it ironic that one can wander 50 miles in an area over and over yet with no great interest from others until someone puts some blazes up, the route is labeled, and a trail is born. THEN, because the route is labeled folks have something of a label to associate themselves and the hike. It's now a named defined trail. No matter what I'm very happy to see the protections afforded this area.

[somers515]

Hiked the 8.3 miles (16.6 miles round trip) from where the Batona trail crosses Route 72 (near cross streets Sooy Place Road/Cedar Road) to Apple Pie Hill (fire tower) and back today. Called and confirmed with State Police that it was ok to park on the sandy shoulder of Route 72. Although almost entirely flat and easy hiking there were some interesting sections, especially in my opinion, where the trail went close to what I am guessing are old flooded cranberry bogs. This is the Franklin Parker Preserve section of the Batona trail and it was very well maintained trail with very few people on it. Enjoy if you can!

[NJdreamer]

There were about 100 people today hiking near the Batona, at Atsion, with Outdoor Club of South Jersey. That group has various hikes on the Batona. I really enjoy hiking in that area in the winter.