Ernie L. Oros Preserve at Pin Oak Forest

Ernie L. Oros Preserve, Pin Oak Forest (5/14/2017)

This is the first of two walks we did this morning in Middlesex County, New Jersey, just a couple of blocks away from Rahway State Prison (you can see its famous dome in one of the photos). There were torrential rains yesterday (Saturday), so it was no surprise that many of the trails here today were flooded and impassable. Using this map, we parked on Omar Avenue, at the entrance, and headed into the preserve, attempting to do the trails from east to west. We could find neither the Barn Owl trail nor the White Deer Trail. Pat's Pond trail was underwater. The Dragonfly trail was not passable further than about half-way. Finally, there apparently used to be another way to access the northern part of the Dragonfly trail (it's green on the map), but there is now a fence blocking access to that green connecting trail, which is lined with hay. Still, there is enough exploring and birding here for a nice 90 minute stay.

You can see exactly how far we were able to get, despite the rains, by our track here.

Total distance hiked was 2.2 miles in about 100 minutes.

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