The Barrens & Others by F Paul Wilson

Author:F Paul Wilson [Wilson, F Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781452458137
Publisher: F. Paul Wilson
Published: 2012-03-26T08:23:24+00:00

2. The Pine Barrens

Two days later we were ready to make our first foray into the woods.

Creighton was wearing a safari jacket when he picked me up in a slightly battered four-wheel drive Jeep Wrangler.

“This isn’t Africa we’re headed for,” I told him.

“I know. I like the pockets. They hold all sorts of things.”

I glanced in the rear compartment. He was surprisingly well equipped. I noticed a water cooler, a food chest, back packs, and what looked like sleeping bags. I hoped he wasn’t harboring any romantic ideas. I’d just split from one man and I wasn’t looking for another, especially not Jonathan Creighton.

“I promised to help you look around. I didn’t say anything about camping out.”

He laughed. “I’m with you. Holiday Inn is my idea of roughing it. I was never a Boy Scout, but I do believe in being prepared. I’ve already been lost once in there.”

“And we can do without that happening again. Got a compass?”

He nodded. “And maps. Even have a sextant.”

“You actually know how to use one?”

“I learned.”

I dimly remember being bothered then by his having a sextant, and not being quite sure why. Before I could say anything else, he tossed me the keys.

“You’re the Piney. You drive.”

“Still Mr. Macho, I see.”

He laughed. I drove.

It’s easy to get into the Pine Barrens from northern Ocean County. You just get on Route 70 and head west. About half way between the Atlantic Ocean and Philadelphia, say, near a place known as Ongs Hat, you turn left. And wave bye-bye to the Twentieth Century, and civilization as you know it.

How do I describe the Pine Barrens to someone who’s never been through them? First of all, it’s big. You have to fly over it in a small plane to appreciate just how big. It runs through seven counties, takes up one fourth of the state, but since Jersey’s not a big state, that doesn’t tell the story. How does 2,000 square miles sound? Or a million acres? Almost the size of Yosemite National Park. Does that give you an idea of its vastness?

How do I describe what a wilderness this is? Maps will give you a clue. Look at a road map of New Jersey. If you don’t happen to have one handy, imagine an oblong platter of spaghetti; now imagine what it looks like after someone’s devoured most of the spaghetti out of the middle of the lower half, leaving only a few strands crossing the exposed plate. Same thing with a population density map – a big gaping hole in the southern half where the Pine Barrens sits. New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the U.S., averaging a thousand bodies per square mile. But the New York City suburbs in north Jersey teem with forty thousand per square mile. After you account for the crowds along the coast and in the cities and towns along the western interstate corridor, there aren’t too many people left over when you get to the Pine Barrens.

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