Pine Barrens 2008 Trip

[RL7836]

Just wanted to post a quick teaser of the Barrens 2008 Trip w/ a few pics until Steve gets settled and posts the trips 'true' documentary.... For a reference, here's the 2007 Trip Report.

Swarm of D. intermedia ...

There were groups of these plants all over in this water-deprived area. Although we were not able to get pics, we found one area in the Bass River State Park (Lake Absecon) where the D. intermedia was growing on a floating mat of decaying vegetation all through the rushes in 1-2.5 feet of water.

S. purpurea & friends:

I found the veining & coloration on this plant incredible. During our travels we were able to see many striking examples of Pine Barrens purps. Here there are also some D. rotundifolia & D. intermedia. In prior trips, we noticed that it was usually D. intermedia that would grow in some of the more unusual places (logs, stumps, vertical surfaces, etc) - but here, D. rotundifolia also grew in many of these niches. Literally, there were CP's growing everywhere.

Beyond the CP, the incredible diversity of plants & wildlife along w/ beautiful scenery always amazes me ....

[elgecko]

Looks like Ron has the trip covered. That was the only CP's that we saw......J/K


I'll get some pics posted after I get A/C back up and running. The wife told me it stopped working on Friday night when I talked to her.
After troubleshooting a bit last night I have it narrowed down. Could be a very easy fix, or a bit more involved.

[BarryRice]

Hey RL7836,

I'm not sure, but in your photograph of Sarracenia purpurea, it surely looks to me like there is some Utricularia in the algal muck on the shoreline.

Anyone else see the green shoots I am talking about?

Barry

[elgecko]

Barry,
There was lots of aquatic Utric at this location. Much of it on the paddle when you removed it from the water. LOL





Now more pics from the trip.......


I headed out for Bass River State Forest in the Pine Barrens Thursday after work. I hoped to leave early and do some Geocaching all evening on the way there. (www.geocaching.com/about/ for those who do not know what this is.) Till I got done watering plants and taking care of other things before I left, it was much later then I wanted. I did find some caches on the way, but not near as many as I wanted.
Friday afternoon I decided to head to Batsto Lake to do some paddling there.



After I was done paddling I did some more caching while driving back to the camp site.
Back at the camp site I hiked around most the lake finding more caches. Then relaxed.

Late Friday night Ron and his wife showed up and set up camp. We hung out talking plants and such for some time before heading off to sleep.
Rich was going to meat us early Saturday morning to show us some sites that he is familiar with.
One of the stops we made was at a location that last year when Rich took Gale and myself, there was hundreds of large D. filiformis everywhere. I was very disappointed that there was nowhere close to the amount of plants and they were smaller then a year ago. The ground they were growing on was very dry compared to last year.



An area that had water last year was a mushy ground and thousands of D. intermedia was growing all over the area. So that made up for the lackluster D. filiformis.





We then went to Webbs Mill Bog.













We were all hungry so Rich took us to a very good Chinese buffet. We all ate till we were stuffed and sat around and talked for a long while enjoying being inside with the A/C.
We headed back to the camp site and talked a bit more before Rich headed home.

Ron his wife and I put our boats into Lake Absegami, which was right where we were camping. I did not take my camera but wished I did. We paddled throw large rush / reed fields that stuck up above the water around 3 feet. It would have been a very neat shot to get us paddling through them. We also noticed that among the floating plant debris, algae, and Sphagnum moss, D. intermedia was growing on these floating mats. Some of the water that it was floating at was over 2 feet deep.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to Tuckerton. We placed our boats on Pohatong Lake and paddled upstream. This was a very neat location to paddle.
After going a half mile upstream we came to drainage pipes where the water -flowed from the other side of the road. I kidded about taking out and putting back in across the road, but we had to get back and both tear down camp by noon.
This will be a place I want to paddle again from across the road we came to. I checked my Garmin Mapsource maps and the other side of the road continues for 2 and a half miles before coming to another road. I’m hoping that this area will be navigable for the distance.





























This picture is upside down…………or is it?





Here we found some duck eggs and Ron suggested that we have some scrambled eggs when we got back to camp………………best eggs I ever had. J/K







Purple U. inflata



Well that’s a quick summary of the good times that we all had on our 2008 Pine Barren trip. I cannot wait till 2009 for the next one.

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures.

[rsivertsen]

Yeah, Barry, it could be some Utrics in the algae, but most of those lumpy things are actually sphagnum pushing their way towards land; it was Sunday, and I was home by then, so I'm not really sure. Still, Utrics seem to be the Rodney Dangerfield of the CP world, and only a few of us "hard-core" CP nuts go out of our way to identify them. These sites contain U. purpurea, (which Steve photographed), U. inflata, U. minor, and U. striata, and some amphibious Utrics such as U. subulata, U. juncea, U. cornuta and perhaps a few others.

Still, it was a good trip, and I enjoyed the company! Glad to hear Ron made it OK in his kayak with his shoulder recovering from some recent surgery!

- Rich

[Brian Barnes]

Hey Guys!
Sounds and looks like a great trip and it looks like the weather held good for everyone....
There's definitely some lovely CP there! Thanks for taking the time to share your adventures and photographs with us.
Indeed, the ground around the Drosera filiformis does look quite dry.
Did anyone notice any early formation of hibernacula as a result of the drier conditions?
Happy Growing,
Brian.

[rsivertsen]

Yeah Brian, the ground was hard and dry as concrete, and I did notice some D. filiformis were forming hibernacula already, early in mid July! They usually form a few weeks later in mid August. - Rich

[rsivertsen]

Steve, Did the pics of the Curly Grass Ferns turn out well enough to post? - Rich