Broken bones

Sometimes I find bones in the woods! I thought this was a femur at first glance, but upon closer inspection, I’m not really sure what it is… maybe a tibia? Probably from a deer or something.

Claws

Some fishermen use crabs as fishing bait, because crabs are tasty, and some fish think so too.

But if you don’t want your bait to scare off your prey, you need to remove your bait’s threatening defensive equipment.

As such, the fishing area around Barnegat Light is littered with discarded crab claws. They’re small, only an inch or two long.

(Poor little crabs.)

Fungus on a log

Sometimes I just get fascinated by fungus on a log.

Campbell’s Pond pumping station 3

More Campbell’s Pond pumping station.

I was pretty intrigued by how to treat this shot. It would’ve been a perfect opportunity for HDR imaging… if my camera shot RAW, and if I had the software to process HDR, and if I’d had a tripod with me.

I ended up cutting and pasting and compositing these two images by hand, which required INCREDIBLE PATIENCE (I am not patient). If you get close to the final image, it doesn’t hold up at all at full resolution. But seriously, who cares?

Campbell’s Pond pumping station 2

The Campbell’s Pond pumping station has been neglected and gutted by fires for at least half a century, as far as I can tell.

Maybe these springs used to help support the roof; the springs are down, but the roof is still up (barely).

…For legal purposes, I only admit to having entered the pumping station once, in June, when the door was wide open. Currently, there’s a pesky fence around most of the building, so any goofball who breached this shiny new fence would not be able to use the innocent “but the door was open” excuse. Therefore, I must have taken these pictures in June.

Nike Road: Part 1

This is approximately where the Nike missiles in the Watchung Reservation used to be controlled!

You may recall when I wrote about the Nike missile launch site, which used to be located where the Watchung Stables are now. If you don’t (don’t feel bad, I don’t expect you to), here’s a recap.

In 1957, during the Cold War, the U.S. army declared that it would construct a Nike missile base on the Watchung Reservation. Despite locals’ loud protests, the base (NY-73) was completed in 1958.

The base consisted of two parts: the launcher (now the Watchung Stables), where missiles were assembled, tested, and stored in three underground magazines (each of which could hold ten Nike Ajax missiles); and the control area (near the present Governor Livingston High School), officially known as the Missile Tracking Radar Station.

For reasons apparently unknown, the battery started shutting down in 1962, less than four years after they opened it. (It was officially deactivated in 1963.)

While there are reportedly no signs left of the launcher near the Watchung Stables, a little bit of barbed wire and a concrete slab still mark the former control area.

 

The interesting part of this is the long, winding, abandoned maintenance road that leads from Glenside Avenue to Governor Livingston High School.

 

When I visited the control-area road, there were a lot of fallen trees blocking the road, presumably left from Hurricane Irene (August 2011) and the Halloween Blizzard (October 2011). Since the road is currently impassible to vehicular traffic, and nobody has bothered to move the logs for 5-8 months, I suspect the road doesn’t get a lot of traffic.

 

I did see more joggers and pedestrians than I expected. So the road DOES get used.

 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Nike Road adventure tomorrow!

 

References:

Alpert, S. (n.d.). “New Jersey Roads – Nikesite Rd., Union Co.” Alps’ Roads. http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/nj/nikesite/.

Alpert, S. (n.d.). “New Jersey Roads – I-78.” Alps’ Roads. http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/nj/i-78/.

Bender, D.E. (n.d.). “Nike Battery NY-73: Summit, NJ.” Nike Missiles and Missile Sites. http://alpha.fdu.edu/~bender/NY73.html.

Harpster, F. (2009). “Missiles in Mountainside: Nike Battery NY-73.” From the Hetfield House (newsletter). http://www.mountainsidehistory.org/files/HHnewsletter09final.pdf (PDF).

LostinJersey Blog. (2009). “Summit Nike base.” http://lostinjersey.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/summit-nike-base/.

Troeger, V.B. (2005). Images of America: Berkeley Heights Revisited. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, SC. ISBN 0738537527.

Wikipedia. (2012). “Interstate 78 in New Jersey.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_78_in_New_Jersey#History.

Dem bones

This skeletal remnant has been lying near/in a trail on the Watchung Reservation for at least a few months, since the last time I came through this way.

The ribs and tibia make it something bigger than a rabbit, but the molars are reasonably small. The spot is also surrounded by gray fur. A dog, maybe, hit by a car on the nearby Glenside Avenue and rolled over here to die? I sure hope not. 😦

I’m not sure why I’m more upset at the idea of a dog dying here than, say, a badger dying here.

Abandoned chorister

Just, y’know, a choir boy on the side of the road.

At the church I used to go to, this is almost identically the outfit that the kindergarten choir had to wear, right down to the big black bow. We always pitied them.

Cherry Coke

I thought this can had a very nice graphic element to it. And then I realized it’d be a perfect opportunity to practice split toning, which is where you tint the shadows of your image one color, and tint the highlights a different color.

…actually, no, I take that back, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE EMOTION. This image just GRIPS you, doesn’t it? Don’t lie, I know you’re crying. With emotion.

Pond in the ruins

I think this circular pond used to be the foundation of some structure, but it sure isn’t anymore.

It was in an area where I probably wasn’t supposed to be, near the remains of the Rahway Valley Railroad), and I can’t really find any information on this particular landmark.

FYI, this is what it looks like from above:

 

It’s also apparently in Springfield. I thought I was still in Summit until I checked a map just now.