Thru-hiking the Batona Trail

Five years ago, I tried to hike the Batona Trail over Thanksgiving but gave up after one night because my gear just wasn't sufficient for cold weather. Now, with better gear and a friend in tow, I tried again.



There were several things that helped me this time:

1. Better gear. Most importantly, a better sleeping pad. 
2. Improved trail signs. We only wandered off course when we weren't paying attention.
3. The new Southern Ocean County Park and Ride, which allows for a much earlier hiking start on day 1 when coming from NYC.

We took a bus from Port Authority to the SOCPaR Wednesday morning, then a taxi to the southern trailhead. The first day was a longish one - and on top of the Batona trail itself, there was slightly more than a mile on the spur trail to the first campsite, Buttonwood Hill Camp. The third day is also long, with days two and four being short (if you stay at Lower Forge and Brendan T. Byrne.)

It was sunnier on day two, albeit windy. (Our trip had been predicated on the weather being decent; of course it would be cold, but we had agreed to cancel if it was rainy or nasty. We lucked out here.)

Lower Forge Camp is slightly closer to the main trail than the first camp. One could push on to Batona Camp, but then day three becomes long instead; it's a toss-up. I wouldn't do the entire hike in less than four days in the winter, personally, because of limited daylight. Three could be reasonable in summer.

On day three, we saw Apple Pie Hill and its fire tower, as well as some nice lakes. Access to the fire tower is limited to when it is staffed, so we expected to be shut out, but to our surprise it was open. This is the view. You can see how flat the landscape is!

We found the Franklin Parker "reroute" (it's been there since 2012 but still isn't on the official map!) confusing. Not confusing to follow, because of the good signage, but we just couldn't match up what we saw with what was indicated on the map. The map shows you walking by one lake, but we passed three. Very pretty, to be sure, but perplexing.

The third night at Brendan T. Byrne was the coldest, and also the only night we didn't have the entire campground to ourselves.

The above photo of Pakim Pond, which we passed on the last day, is a little misleading. The pond is probably very pretty at times! But the water level was low, making the shore rather unattractive. We also climbed our second fire tower, Lebanon, which is unstaffed but open.

From there we pushed a little fast, since we had an appointment with a Lyft at the northern trailhead. But we made it to mile 52.7 with about ten minutes to spare. Our Lyft took us to the Tom's River Park and Ride, and from there we caught a completely full bus back to the city.

It was a nice hike! If you want to do the same route, we used this trail guide, which was very helpful, and the guidance of the Facebook group dedicated to the trail.