Pine Barrens River Ramble

From the Batsto parking area on County Route 542, bicycling is a great way to experience the beauty, the mystery and the history of the 1.1 million acres of the Pinelands National Reserve. The Pine Barrens River Ramble is an easy riding, 42.6-mile loop (with no hills) passing through this unique ecological area. You’ll pass through pristine pine and oak forests, blueberry fields and cranberry bogs, meandering cedar-colored streams and three major rivers: the Batsto, the Mullica and the Wading.

But natural beauty is not the only point of interest here. A full quarter century before the Industrial Revolution began in this country, a thriving iron industry had been established in remote

sections of the Pine Barrens. Thousands of colonial Americans worked day and night at some 30-odd forge and furnace sites spread out along the major rivers of southern New Jersey.

Chief among these is historic Batsto Village where the Pine Barrens River Ramble tour begins. Batsto is a restored 19th century community offering an ironmaster’s mansion, gristmill, sawmill, general store and post office. From here you can also shorten the tour to 29.3 miles by turning left from County Route 652 onto County Route 542 and heading back toward Batsto Village.

If you want to test your riding legs, an extended tour can be taken by starting at, or detouring to, Chatsworth, the so-called capital of the Pines.

File Formats

KML (14k)
Use to view tour guide routes in a mapping application on a desktop computer, mobile device or GPS device.
Geospatial PDF (473k)
Use to view your current location along the tour guide routes using a GPS enabled mobile device.
PDF (867k)
Use to view or print the tour guide routes in a brochure format.

Instructions for using these files formats is available.