Good Morning all,

As I mentioned to you yesterday, I am in a week long training class up in Bushkill,PA and even though I haven’t had a chance to check any of the local hiking trails or campgrounds this trip I just wanted to let you know that if you ever get a chance to check out this area it is absolutely beautiful and well worth the trip.

Bushkill Falls itself is very, very pretty and picturesque. There are trails there for every hiking skill level and some of the prettiest waterfalls within a 1,000 miles.

The Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area is literally right around the corner too, so if you exhaust the trails at Bushkill there are still hundreds of miles of trails you can enjoy at the Gap.

‘Till Next Time…Remember “There Ain’t No Better Camping Then New Jersey Camping!”

Eric

Good Morning all,

Well it was a relatively quiet weekend when it comes to camping related stuff…I did run around like a chicken without a head for kids soccer games, popcorn selling (Cub Scouts) and other stuff and unfortunately this week I am away on business getting some training.

The only fortunate thing is the training is being held in the Beautiful Bushkill, PA right near the Delaware Water Gap and Bushkill falls so hopefully I will get the opportunity to do a little hiking at some point.

‘Till Next Time…Remember “There Ain’t No Better Camping Then New Jersey Camping!”

Eric

Good Morning all,

Okay I’m feeling a little bit more like a human being so I figure it’s time to share the details on my trip to Stokes.

We decided to pull our kids out of school a little early to make sure we could make the 2.5 hour trip and arrive before the major traffic and darkness.

So I took the day off and spent the morning packing up my wife’s blazer and running last minute errands. We are all supposed to meet at the one school and leave right from there. My wife got my kids from school at 1:30 and they changed, went to the bathroom and we’re in the blazer ready to go at 1:55 with the meeting place about a 4 minute drive…things are running smooth as silk!

NOT!

The blazer’s battery decided to die and I can’t get the stupid thing started. I figure I can probably jump it but then would have to jump it everytime we wanted to use it during the trip. So I get on the phone call one of the other guys and tell him what’s going on and that I need some room in his pickup for my cooler, my big plastic box of cooking supplies and my big old two burner stove.

While i’m waiting on him to arrive I empty out the blazer and shove everything into my little Hyundai Elantra. He shows up and takes my stuff and off we go with a quick stop at the gast station.

Off we go!

It’s a pretty smooth trip until we get onto Rt. 80. It seems that there was some sort of a Hazardous Materials spill and it had all 3 lanes closed off. So after sitting dead stop for an hour one of the other guys grabs an old fashioned road map and takes us through some backwoods county roads and we finally get there after almost 4 hours on the road!

We get checked while all 8 of the kids are relieving themselves into the woods (can you imagine 8 kids between 6 and 10 not going to the bathroom for almost 4 hours!) and off we go to our lean-to’s. The lean-to’s at Stokes are really mini-cabins with 4 walls, a floor, a ceiling and a wood burning stove but they were absolutely perfect for this weekend. The three of them were about 50 yards apart and I ended up grabbing the central one that become our center of activities for the weekend.

We spent about an hour unpacking and setting up and started cooking dinner. We decided on a nice easy dinner of burgers, dogs and mac and cheese which made all the kids extremely happy. We spent the remainder of the evening just basically hanging out around the campfire and telling stories and just enjoying being just the guys which of course means there was lots of burping and farting going on!

Saturday morning we were up around 7 and cooks eggs and sausage with bagels and pop tarts which again all the kids loved! Some of the kids had never had scrambled eggs cooked “camping style” before which just means the eggs were cooked over the campfire in the same cast iron skillet that we cooked the sausage in using the sausage grease. They loved it!

After cleaning up and goofing off for awhile we headed out. There is a 9 mile section of the Appalachian Trail that goes through Stokes and we decided to hike about half of it. We dropped off one car at the bottom and took the other 2 cars up to the top of Sunrise Mountain so that we were only hiking downhill and would be able to retrieve the two vehicles later.

After only about a half mile of the journey it became very apparent that my younger son was not going to be able to make the journey. The combination of the height, the downhill angle and the terrain itself were too much for him. So we left my older son with the group and he and I cut through the forest and back to the main road for an easier decent. Little did we know that it was actually a 7 mile walk on the road instead of a 4 mile walk on the trail. It took us about 90 minutes but we eventually made it back to the car and actually beat the rest of the group!

We then headed back to the campgrounds and cooked crab, little neck clams, a couple of rib-eyes and a huge 5 pound beef tenderloin for dinner. We somewhat cleaned up and just spent the remainder of the evening enjoying the beautiful scenery and the comaraderie.

Sunday morning we were up again around 7 and had eggs, bacon and the remaining bagels and pop-tarts for breakfast. We kind of just putzed around the campground till about 11 with the plan of taking a short non-vertical 1.5 mile hike and then heading home.

On our way out we stopped at the rangers station and actually booked two of the 8 person cabins on the lake for next years trip after checking them out. At this point everybody was starting to wind down and we ended up deciding against the hike and headed home.

This has got to be one of the best camping trips I have been on in awhile! Good friends, good food and lots and lots of good fun. I’m already looking forward to next years trip and it’s still 11 months away!

‘Till Next Time…Remember “There Ain’t No Better Camping Then New Jersey Camping!”

Eric

Good morning all,

I had an absolute blast at Stokes this past weekend…so why has it taken me 4 days to post? Well, I’m glad you asked.

Sunday afternoon after we got back I started feeling lousy and haven’t gotten out of bed since except for a quick trip to the doctors on Tuesday to find out that I have a sinus infection, ear infection and a touch of pneumonia!

Give me a couple of days to start feeling better and I will give you all the details of the wonderful trip!

‘Till Next Time…Remember “There Ain’t No Better Camping Then New Jersey Camping!”

Eric

Good Morning all,

I figured I would share with you all some of my favorite links that are related to camping, NJ and camping in NJ.

Enjoy!

Camping World – Camping Equip’t. / Supplies
Our stores are open hours that are convenient to your schedule, with plenty of parking for RVs of all sizes plus they all have toll-free numbers so you can call ahead to schedule a check-in time for repair or installation by one of our highly trained technicians. –
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Go Camping America – Organizations
A state by state listing of campground members of The National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds. –
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Good Sam Club – Organizations
Supplier of goods and services for the general camping public. –
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New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife – Organizations
The N.J. Division of Fish and Wildlife is a professional environmental agency dedicated to the protection, management and wise use of New Jersey’s fish and wildlife resources. –
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New Jersey State Parks – Organizations
Web site of New Jersey Division of Parks and Forests. –
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New Jersey Tourism – Organizations
New Jersey Tourism website.

Good Morning all,

Just a quick post this morning reminding all my readers that I am still looking for your feedback about what you would or would not like to see on the site.

I have received a couple of comments so far and am in the process of evaluating the changes you have requested but I still want to hear from the rest of you.

What do you like about the site?

What do you not like about the site?

What information do you want to see added?

What do you want to know more about?

Let me know.

‘Till Next Time…Remember “There Ain’t No Better Camping Then New Jersey Camping!”

Eric

Good Morning All,

I just wanted to once again let you all now how excited I am about this weekend camping trip!

I can’t even tell you why I am so excited but I just have this feeling that I am going to have an absolute blast with this group of guys on this particular weekend!

‘Till Next Time…Remember “There Ain’t No Better Camping Then New Jersey Camping!”

Eric

Good Morning All,

I just looked in my calendar for the week and remembered that I have a camping trip coming up this weekend! I’m so psyched!

There is a group of guys that I hang out with on Thursday nights to play horseshoes, throw darts, watch hockey/football and drink some beer.

We decided to go camping with just the guys and our kids. We’re going to Stokes State Forest and have rented two cabins and a lean-to for the weekend. We decided since it’s going to be pretty cold (high’s in the 60′s and low’s in the 40′s) that we should not be in tents due to the young age of some of the kids.

We are bringing about a half-cord of wood with us to heat the cabins as well as have a non-stop campfire.

This should be a fun trip as there will be 15 of us!

‘Till Next Time…Remember “There Ain’t No Better Camping Then New Jersey Camping!”

Eric

Hello all,

Sorry about getting sidetracked with other stuff but I’m back to describing our summer activities.

Our most recent trip (because that’s the only one I can remember right now!) was to the Sea Pirate Campground (http://www.njcampinginfo.com/sea-pirate-campground.html) in West Creek, NJ.

Very nice campground, close to LBI and lots of other local stuff. We were actually there for their annual fall Crabfest and had a blast.

Sites were decent sized, campground is really well maintained and the bathrooms were all kept in the best condition of any campground I have ever seen. Well stocked general store with decent prices and lots of activities planned for the kiddies.

We ended up having dinner at the Crabfest with the owner and her husband and we had a good old time talking with them and learning more about the campground itself. During the Crabfest they had a local band playing which was pretty good and the beer was flowing so everything turned out great.

Friday night once we got all situated we decided we didn’t feel like cooking so we went into town looking for a pizza place to have some dinner at. We ended up stopping at the Grapevine II because it looked nice and boy did we have a good meal! First thing I thought when we walked in was “wow a pizza place with a hostess” and it slowly dawned on me that we weren’t at a pizza place, this was a fairly upscale sit-down restaurant. It turned out to be alot more then we were looking for but was one of the better meals I have had in a long-time. I highly recommend it for anybody in the area.

‘Till Next Time…Remember “There Ain’t No Better Camping Then New Jersey Camping!”

Eric

Good Morning all,

I just found out last night that I am finally going to be able to visit a Cabela’s Store!

I have bought stuff from this camping/hiking/hunting/fishing supplier for years via their catalog and website but I have never actually been to one of theirs stores. You can check out their site at http://www.cabelas.com

There is a store about 2 hours away from my house and I found out last night that in November my 2nd year Webelos son will be going on a camping trip with the local Boy Scout Troop. That trip will be to Hawk Mountain Bird Sanctuary (http://www.hawkmountain.org) and on the way home several of the people going have expressed an interest in stopping at Cabela’s!

I can’t wait!!!

‘Till Next Time…Remember “There Ain’t No Better Camping Then New Jersey Camping!”

Eric