The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: October nineteenth, getting lost in the Pine Barrens.

One point one million acres of sandy pine forest laced by four lazy rivers and pockets of primeval swamp, home to 850 plant species and 350 types of animals, these are wilds not often associated with a populous state like New Jersey. Draped across the 30 miles between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, the Pine Barrens is a surprisingly seductive expanse, a challenging, mysterious place that's withstood centuries of civilization. Pull over on any of the few roads that pierce it and walk two minutes into its silent, resin-scented interior. Carpeted with pine needles, the sandy ground is cushion soft. Sandy paths tempt one to venture deeper, to explore still ponds and cranberry bogs edged by wild sweetpepper bushes and huckleberry thickets, to step across slow streams canopied by white cedar, to canoe down lazy rivers between root- knotted banks.

As the participants in the Blair Witch Project found out, losing one's way in the Pine Barrens is easy, and there are those stories, tall tales about early pirates, rum-running hideaways, Mafia massacres, strange habits of its reclusive residents or the New Jersey Devil, a creature with a dragon's body, snake's tail, horse's head and bat's wings that haunts these wilds.

The Barrens boast tangible history as well, the ghostly remains of 18th- and 19th-century iron smelting and glass making villages. Much of the land is privately owned, but with 3 state forests and a national wilderness reserve at its heart, the Pine Barrens has room for boaters, bikers, campers and hikers who crave peaceful solitude.

The Pine Barrens is one part of Hidden America explored in this issue of National Geographic Traveler, a supporter of our program. You can register for a free sample copy on our home page.

FMI For more information, contact the Pinelands Commission at 609-894- 7300 or www.nj.us/pinelands

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