Fall Camping in the Pine Barrens

Last Friday Mac and I packed up the car with firewood and camping gear and headed to Brendan T. Byrne State Forest in the Pine Barrens for an overnight camping trip with Mac's friends Jen and Rich. It was kind of a dreary day, and we hit some sprinkles on the way out of town, but by the time we got to our campsite it had stopped raining and because the ground there is so sandy, it was relatively dry at our site. We got there before Rich and Jen and set up our tent and got the campfire going before they had even arrived. It was a beautiful starry night and so enjoyable to sit around the campfire. Jen and Rich made a great gumbo for dinner, some with veggie sausage for me and then we had s'mores around the campfire. It was a lovely evening.

In the morning we made breakfast at our site, enjoyed another campfire, and then packed up our stuff and headed to one of the parking lots where we could pick up a trail and do some hiking. We took about a 6 mile hike, the first half was on an ADA accessible trail, which meant wide, clear paths. The second half was on part of a much longer and much more rustic trail that lead us a little deeper into the woods and felt a little more like hiking. It was a beautiful day to be out and about. After our hike we ended up having a picnic lunch by the lake in the photo above. It was a quick overnight trip, but lots of fun to catch up with Rich and Jen and a great excuse to get some fresh air. Looking forward to doing it again sometime soon.