Batsto
 
All I have to say is WOW!!! I parked here and could see Batsto Mansion the history to this place is beyond anything I ever expected. You can look in the windows but you cannot enter anything but I did not need to I was happy just walking down this ghost towns road. Their was roughly 40 something sites within the town here.
 
Their was also trails behind the town one led to a fire tower others led around Batsto Lake.  We did not hit the trails during the day their were signs to be out before dark and day photos of Batsto were very important to me and the fans.
 
My 35 mm camera broke man it upset me a piece broke off inside after we left here we put a temporary fix on it but its a pain you have to fix it everytime with a new roll of film after I wasted two rolls. So I was not smiling at the time was happy however to be in a very big ghost town.
 
We started off at the mansion then went to the farming area which had a tower, barn, farm wagons etc etc we then headed on over to the  black smith area. Their was also a general store and some other structure. The photos and history write up will go into a more in depth history of the structures.
 
We crossed a wood bridge and their was a dam where the lake was draining into the river. I seen logs stacked across the bridge and this was a huge saw mill. Down the road was a village with many homes one was very large. The street had an outhouse and a well.
 
You could envision the Jersey Devil jumping roof to roof these houses were two story boxes with pointed roofs made out of wood. The area they sat had many large trees that grew in all different directions this place was what we worked hard to get to and at. I almost came to the Pine Barrens to visit basically here because of its well known Jersey Devil activity surrounding the river and town.
 
The sun was going down we had to find another ghost town and work on camping so we did take on off only to return at night.
 
The night investigation was much different...we approached the ghost town from the village side. Eventually passing the saw mill, black smith, store, mansion, farm, tower then to the trail head. I must say I felt a very very strong entity near the barn, tower and stables area. I was almost a little slow on going inside the barn area alone felt like something was watching me but I had to get a photo of the farm tools.
 
We hiked up in the woods to hit a trail that would go along the lake it was about two miles in length. Well as we got deeper in the woods Andrew got ahead and I honestly got turned around as well. It seemed some of the trail markers were ripped down and we ended up on the Batona Trail which goes for many miles. We could not find our trail and it was not worth the risk getting lost although I did feel that I found our trail when I went off alone over a hill. It seemed we should have turned left not right but what do I know I was the underdog during the investigation.
 
So Andrew made the call that we are going back I was like whatever if you can find the lake to the left you can find the trail nothing more to it. We started to head back and I heard heavy hooves in the woods. It sounded bipedal did not sound like a deer. It was walking slowly making that hoof sound much like a horse does.
 
I quickly ran up the hill shined my light and something ran across in front of me I seen no deer I seen no Jersey Devil I seen nothing. It did not even run super fast it was just jogging slowly away off to the left. Andrew went looking for it he seen nothing he said oh probably a deer in this case what I heard walking sounded heavy like me and it was smart deer's usually look at your light. This think was walking on the other side of a hill when I ran to it..... it ran stopped like it looked at me then ran again. Andrew tracked it a few hundred feet said he heard it slowly walking away what was it I do not know maybe a deer or maybe the well famed Jersey Devil.
 
We made our way out of Batsto to call it a night it was now Snack time back at camp well I gave Adam some beef Jerky but hey the guy wants to murder me now I am just so evil of a man aren't I being good to my investigators.
 
The next day waking up was very cold not so much in the sleeping back but getting out of it lol. We then of course ate a nice breakfast and visited the ghost town of Friendship.