UK Camino Ingles: Day 1 - The English Way, 8.5 miles

The first two weeks of October this year, my cousin Molly and I walked pilgrimage in England along the seventy-mile route of the newly re-established Camino Ingles, The English Way section from Reading to Southampton. We each had different reasons for making this pilgrimage (more on that later) but for both of us it was an opportunity together to enjoy an official section of the famous Camino de Santiago that eventually would lead us to Santiago de Compostela and the Cathedral of St. James in Galicia, Spain.  If you are interested in the hiking and walking then stay right here but if you are interested in more of the religious history and modern pilgrimage meaning of this new/old route, then you may want to visit my other blog over on Substack, Uphill Road. 

The start of this newest section (as of 2024) 

We were well prepared for all kinds of weather with an emphasis on rain gear for this walk. For the entire seven day hike from Reading to Southampton we experienced rain, fog, mist, drizzle, and a few wonderous hours of sun. One day of the seven was completely clear but off-pavement trails remained muddy and wet throughout. We hiked through the remnants of Hurricane Helene and Milton as well as an Atlantic hurricane that spun itself out over the North Atlantic without touching the U.S. We were advised that we were on the edge of the wet season coming into late fall and winter in this part of England, but that the region had experienced an unusually wet late summer. We were both glad I'd brought my set of hiking poles (in checked baggage) as conditions were slippery and sometimes required careful support in flooded sections. 

Getting our first pilgrim stamp at Reading's Town Hall

We started our journey south from Reading on Monday after having spent Sunday roaming around the city and attending a service at the church of St. James. We also explored the ruins of the Reading Abbey before setting off, including all of its surviving structures that included a grand gateway and a mill race, the Holy Brook, where Benedictine monks operated grain mills.  In its day, the Reading Abbey was one of the largest royal abbeys in England and the largest Benedictine monasteries in Europe. It was founded by Henry I in 1121 (whose father was William the Conqueror) and it hosted royal families several times a year up until the Dissolution of the Abbeys in 1538 under Henry VIII. 

Through the Reading Abbey gatehouse

St. James Church (left) and former pilgrim's rest house (right)

Lady Chapel of St. James

Reading Abbey ruins of the Chapter House

Surviving section of an abbey mill wall over mill race 

The walk began at the Church of St. James and continued through the modern market town of Reading along canal paths through the shopping district and past some beautiful homes along the River Kennet. We were amazed to see that compared to our modern map of the route and an old map describing the extent of the historic Reading Abbey grounds, it was some time before we actually left the original site of what would have been the largest of all monastic communities in Europe in the 1100s.  My cousin who is fluent in French, explained that the great geographical extent of the French Benedictine holdings here and the influence of the French-speaking royal families would have ensured that French was the language of the land in the early Middle Ages. Oh mon Dieu! Je n'en avais aucune idée!

The canalized River Kennet

Homes along River Kennet - recently flooded in September

Canal boats 

The River Kennet, a major tributary of the River Thames, was my first introduction to the chalk streams of England. Flowing over chalk gravels and bedrock, rising from deep aquifers and springs of chalk headlands, these unique river systems flow particularly clear and clean and contain vast assemblages of wetland plant and animals life. 80% of all the world's chalk streams are found in England making these rivers of particularly high conservation value and especially vulnerable to pollution events. (See Notes)  Between rain showers, my cousin and I were able to do a little birding and botany and found our pace slowed considerably when the sun peeked out. 

Birding on the River Kennet

A peek of sun before the next shower 

Our first pub break on the river...

...where we met fishermen and heard their concerns for the river. 

Our stop at the Cunning Man pub was an especially rich break as we got to talk to fishermen about the Kennet and hear their concerns for its health and welfare. We met Mike who was so giving of his time to introduce us to his home stream as he described his life-long dedication to the river and for the protection of its fish and other aquatic life. He spoke of bottom fishing and flyfishing and catching Brown Trout on the fall spawning runs. He loved catching Pike and shared a picture of his largest catch to date, an enormous Barbel that looked almost as big as Mike himself! He was adamant that better care needed to be taken, as water management left to government authorities alone was not enough and often not helpful.  He and other fishermen we met along The Way were 100% in support of the new Camino route that included the river paths so that "people from all over the world can see what we have here and help us get the word out that these are some of the most amazing places they will ever experience for wildlife and fisheries."

Mike and his beloved River Kennet

Onward along chalk gravel river paths...

... to our first glimpses of the extraordinary water meadows complex.

We entered the vast plains of water meadows, the braiding of grass and hay meadow with woodlands and wetlands all along the river. Here we experienced more rain, coming now in bands of heavy clouds with breaks of sun and blue sky. Experiencing chalk stream water meadows was another first for me and while at home I would have described these places simply as floodplain, I learned they are far more than this. 

Impatiens glandulifera - a large non-native invasive Touch-Me-Not

It was walking through the first of many nature reserves on this trip that my cousin's Merlin App began to pick up new bird species fast and furious. We were experiencing globally important wetlands that developed alongside Southwest England's Medieval water management systems of old sluiceways, ditches, trenches, hatchways, and mazes of agricultural fields. With the tenaciousness of the river's persistent wetlands, these combined ecosystems form complex semi-wild landscapes of wet meadow and woods.  Another hour was spent listening and watching the water meadows for birds, investigating new plant communities (and seeing large swaths of invasive Himalayan Touch-Me-Nots), admiring grazing heritage livestock, new species (for us) of migrating waterfowl, and hopeful sightings of semi-aquatic mammals like water voles (muskrat-size) and otter. Was that thing long and slender or chunky and short? 

Thatch-roofed parish house of St. Mary's Church, Sulhamstead

St. Mary's Church - our final stop for Day 1

Our final destination for the day was to stop at St. Mary's Church, Sulhamstead Abbots, and while it was closed in preparation for a funeral the next day, a family member of the deceased asked us to please come back in the morning to visit when the church would be open before the afternoon service. It felt a little awkward to accept the invitation, but it was made clear that "he would have loved to meet you walking the St. James Way - the old pilgrim's route - as this church was surely a stop for rest along the way."  We agreed to return and pay our respects in the morning and with that our ride arrived to take us to our first and second night's lodging in a B&B a few miles off the trail in an old Methodist Church.

The Chapel B&B 

Notes: 

The history of the Reading Abbey includes some incredible work being done to save what is left and what is underground within the abbey quarter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Abbey

Reading Abbey - A Short History from the Reading Museum  https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/blog/short-history-reading-readings-royal-abbey

History of the Abbey Quarter - Reading Museum

 https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/your-visit/abbey-quarter/history-abbey-quarter

River Kennet, our first chalk river (note the description of the 2013 insect kill - two teaspoons of ant poison!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Kennet

River Kennet conservation sheet (and 2013 insect kill), Marlborough College 

https://www.marlboroughcollege.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/River-Kennet-Helena-C.pdf

Water Meadows - Medieval water management systems with modern conservation importance

 https://circularwaterstories.org/analysis/harnam-water-meadows/

The Salisbury Water Meadow Trust https://www.salisburywatermeadows.org.uk/history/

The Chapel B&B was a lovely place to stay, and if I ever go back, will surely basecamp from here to explore more of the Southwest England region. http://www.bnbhampshire.co.uk/

NJ Maurice River Bluffs Preserve

The Maurice (pronounced MAW-riss) River has a section declared a New Jersey Wild and Scenic River on which the Maurice River Bluffs Nature Preserve is located.  The river meanders back and forth once it leaves the pinelands town of Millville and flows past the preserve onwards through tidal marshes to its mouth on the Delaware Bay. 

Tidal guts filling with a flood tide

Named for the Prince Maurice, a Dutch trading ship that was attacked in port and sunk in the river by Lenni Lenape in 1657, this river - like many rivers in the Pine Barrens region - is recovering from centuries of industrialization and degradation. As we hiked nearly five miles of trails that looped through the preserve I was amazed at how hilly it was. For Southern New Jersey hills like this are rare! 

Hilly terrain! 

The Pits (an old sand quarry)

The hilly terrain combines ancient sand dunes and the pits and piles of the old sand quarry. I grew up near a great sand quarry we called "The Pits" that had also reverted to forest and grasslands so I was pretty excited to wander for hours through an almost familiar landscape from my childhood. The dappled and scented pine woods and old sand roads brought back lots of fond memories. "The Pits" made me a young naturalist and though its now sixty-four years later, I still found myself on hands and knees chasing Velvet Ants and lifting slabs of pine bark to check for Milksnakes and Corn Snakes.  

Sori - Ebony Spleenwort

The preserve protects an important ecological link between the pine barrens and the estuary.  It hosts abundant bird life which on a day like this in early fall with a north to south breeze, is filled to the brim with hundreds of small, nocturnal migratory birds who are spending their daylight hours resting, feeding, and preening. Resident eagles screeched and cackled from their perch trees near the river.  A Muskrat cruised along a sandy pebble beach while a Red Fox and her kit ducked into the cement ruins of the old Cargill granary complex. It was a very busy wildlife place for a day hike!

An understory of Ebony Spleenwort

My dog must have thought I was nuts with the number of times I dropped down to my knees to examine something small. Each time I did, Amos dropped his nose to the ground to sniff the place I found so interesting. I saved him from being stung by any number of wingless wasps, Velvet Ants, as he nosed into my attempts to get a close-up picture before one would scurry angrily away.  I dropped down to examine the filaments on patches of Powdered Ruffle Lichen and there was his nose. I squatted down to study the beautiful translucent pattern of Spotted Horsemint in early morning light and there was Amos looking at me from the opposite side of the flower. Such a helper. 

Powdered Curly Lichen

Virginia Pine

The old bluffs, ancient remnants of a Pleistocene landscape, dropped off at the river which was quickly filling with a King Tide made higher still with a wind that shifted onshore and and a surge of rising sea from the Atlantic. This King Tide, however, was forecast to cause extensive flooding along the marsh roads today with notable erosion inland along tidal rivers.  As I stood at the ruins of the old Cargill dock, a chunk of sandbank ker-plopped into the river sending a swirl of yellow sediment upstream with the rising tide. It seemed most of the small bluff, no more than fifteen to twenty feet at its highest above the river, was held in place by interwoven roots of American Holly, Virginia Pine, and Black Oak. In places where trees were scarce, the bluffs were actively eroding. 

Speckled Blister Lichen - common on American Holly

Velvet Ant 

We came upon a small spring, a natural artesian well squirting just a little water up through a pipe. This water comes directly from the large Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer lying just beneath the Pine Barrens region. It is recharged by rainfall and snowmelt but having little of either on this end-of-summer day, the water pressure was almost nil. Amos took a few sips from the burbling pipe and seemed quite satisfied. As far as the Eastern Coastal Plain extends in New Jersey, sixty eight miles in all, the water from this shallow but expansive aquifer is rated as the most pristine. The aquifer is stored above a large lens of Miocene-era filter sands and clay that extends from Sandy Hook NJ to inland of Cape May and Vineland, NJ. The same layer of sand is exposed along Maryland's Western Shore on the Chesapeake at Calvert Cliffs and the bluff system there (minus the aquifer) and is full of marine fossils. 

Spotted Horsemint

Not as old as the subterranean sands beneath our feet but much older than the 1950s-era sand quarry is the ruin of the Wheaton Manion along the old sand road on the main trail.  Built by the Wheaton family in the 1700s, the burnt out stone walls are all that remains of the Wheaton Estate which would have had a clear view of the river and the family's docks that serviced the transport of produce to markets and sand to their glass-making factories in town. The last Wheaton family member to own the mansion and estate donated the entire property of 500 acres to the Nature Conservancy in the 1980s and in the early 2000s the old place was torched by vandals. Stories are still shared of Mrs. Wheaton cooking homemade meals for invited troops stationed at the nearby Millville Army Airfield during WWII. 

The Wheaton Mansion

The Wheaton Family as well as other regional families of wealth no doubt took inspiration from the Carnegie and Rockefeller families who gifted estates, ranches, and forests to public management from the 1920s through the early 2000s. Acadia National Park, Katahdin Woods and Water National Monument  The Grand Teton National Park  and the National Park Foundation  have all been possible thanks to family legacy gifts and philanthropic funding. Its an important part of our national parks history. On regional and local levels generational properties are often gifted as local parks and to conservation organizations as legacy landscapes. Legacy-inspired conservation is instrumental in safeguarding many local natural areas for ecological protection and community green space, and this preserve is a prime example of that.

Spotted Knapweed

I imagine that the Wheaton family would approve of the old mansion ruin being used as it is these past several years as a roost for vultures and owls who build their stick nests (or no nest at all) in the open alcoves of the stacked brick fireplaces. A sign is posted on a split rail fence "Sensitive Wildlife Area - Do Not Enter" to keep us humans from bothering the big birds in their big, fancy birdhouse mansion. 

King Tide fills the river

Marsh Fleabane

Slender Goldenrod

Groundsel Tree

The Maurice River's lower half was settled in the mid-1600s with two small port towns, a sawmill, a bloomery forge and furnace, and a handful of farms. By the mid-1800s the river banks were lined with larger industries, fish and shellfish processing plants, produce docks, sand and lumber depots. Railroads connected industrial sites on both sides of the river by the early 1900s.  Millville was thriving as a small industrial center by the time WWII began. To stand on the highest bluff overlooking the river today there is scant evidence of its booming industrial past except at low tide when many old docks and bulkheads emerge from the muck. Some are centuries old. 

Cast-off Blue Crab molt

We finished our exploration of the preserve with one last look at the very full river then made a fast exit up the old sand road for a fifteen minute drive along the length of the Maurice to its mouth at the East Point Lighthouse on the Delaware. The roads were beginning to flood so I parked the truck on a high shoulder and Amos and I waded in for a quick visit just in time to witness the Delaware Bay pouring around and through the large sand-filled erosion socks that encircle the remote point of land on which the second-oldest lighthouse in New Jersey still stands. 

A main carriage road in its day.

We walked in from the flooding bridge

King Tide pours around the erosion barrier

At the lighthouse we met a state wildlife area manager who was checking the lock on a gate while a few fishermen called retreat from the rising waters. There's been a lot of ruckus over the management of the lighthouse and he wasn't in a mood to talk about it except to say he felt that unless the state did something to either raise the structure or move it, it could soon be lost. He pointed out how some of the residents nearby had been raising their homes but in the long run "there's nothing we can do to stop what is happening in front of us. It's out of our hands now." The water was pouring over the road by this time and he signaled to the fishermen it was time to go.  Amos and I walked quickly around the house as water began seeping through the barrier and into the yard. I could hear the two large sump pumps in the basement of the lighthouse cycling on and off. 

East Point Lighthouse, c. 1847

The state land manager hopped into his truck and looked back at the king tide now engulfing the sand berm at the end of the road. "We saw this coming years ago," he said. "Four-hundred yards of beach and dune meadows lost to rising seas, storm surges, nuisance tides, and sinking land. We pretended not to notice." 

The walk out

Amos and I walked back to the truck .The water had risen from ankle deep to half-calf in under thirty minutes and now a strong current was washing over the bridge. On our way up the road, safely back in the truck, we forded several other washed out sections while a state roads crew waited  with barricades ready to set up - signs of our times. 

Notes:

The Wheaton Family continues to promote the arts and nature through their philanthropic work in Milltown and the Pine Barrens region. I visited Maurice River Bluffs early on a Sunday and the WheatonArts Center was not yet open. I have to go back for another visit! 

Documenting King Tides is an important tool for monitoring the combined effect of sinking land, higher sea level, and the highest tides of the year. From North Carolina, to Maryland's Eastern Shore, to New Jersey, the impact of higher King Tides are proving the Mid-Atlantic to be one of the regions most vulnerable to sea level rise in the world. https://mycoast.org/nj/high-water

PA - AT Hike #11: Hunters Run to Whiskey Springs x 2 Out-and-Backs

 PA - AT Hike #11: Hunters Run to Whiskey Springs, 10 miles Out-and-Back

Amos and I continued our PA-AT hiking project with a camp-over at Pine Grove Furnace State Park and two back-to-back days starting at the Hunters Run Trailhead parking area on Rt. 34 heading northbound (NOBO) for 10 miles out-and-back (5 miles straight through). Out-and-backs are a little boring  for me which is why to create (safe) loops, but there are so many very busy highways and shoulder-less roads in this area that it means doubling back. 

Eastern Box Turtle

The weather was cool but a little humid so I packed an extra water bottle for Amos. It was terribly dry, though. We need rain. Up we went across an unnamed knob, crumbling quartzite under our feet. We came across some recently dug out yellow jacket nests pretty early on but these were not on the trail. I venture to say that ole' bear we saw clawing out the hillside a few weeks ago on another nearby slope must have a cousin here. Quite the excavation! I didn't stay to take pictures, but there's a real difference in the way an Eastern Skunk does her neat little dig compared to the crater holes left by a Black Bear!  

Here comes Autumn!

Young understory Hickories, Sassafras, and Spicebush were turning yellow and red beneath the still green - but thinning - canopy of oak. I made note of some small quarry pits and many large charcoal hearths, some stacked up the hill like stair steps. This knob and its surrounding forests must have been cut over several times before the need for charcoal as fuel for the iron furnaces at Pine Grove and Boiling Springs subsided. These aren't old woods, but they aren't all that young either. There were many small stump-sprouted American Chestnuts. I can only imagine what this woods looked like before the blight killed the mature trees. 

Wrinkle-leafed Goldenrod

Flat-topped Goldenrod

Amos tracked his eleventh Eastern Box Turtle of the season - fitting since this is PA-AT Hike #11 and as I documented this gnawed on, grizzled old turtle with a few portraits, my turtle-tracking hound let out a tremendous bay. Something big thrashed downslope so fast that by the time I stood up to see what it was, the big something was gone. A southbound (SOBO) hiker passed us and stopped briefly to pet Amos, though he was in a hurry to make it to Pine Grove Furnace State Park for a campsite and a hot shower. His trail name was Breezy coming from Maine, heading to Georgia. Happy trails, Breezy.

No swamp today

We dropped down off the mountain and into the low vales where our turn-around point would be at a bridge over a stream. We'd come almost three miles with another half mile to go when there was a low, deep rumbling boom that rattled the forest so much so that birds scattered and a rainfall of yellow leaves poured over us. Amos looked bewildered. I'm sure he heard it differently than I did. Is there a quarry blasting on a Sunday? Was there an earthquake? 

No water!

We had a nice late lunch of apple slices, cheese, and crackers sitting on the bridge over the now dry creek that only a few weeks ago, according to hikers leaving notes on the Far Out app, had been roaringly high. This is the same bridge I took Amos' puppy picture on seven years ago. Now he's getting that frosted look around his face and it makes me a little sad. But he's having a great day, good pace, drinking all his water. A very happy hiking hound.

Puppy Amos ...

...and seven years later!

We turned back around and retraced our steps and in the low light of late afternoon stopped in a powerline right of way to admire the yellow Goldenrod and Wing-Stem, purple New York Aster, and clouds of Wood Aster. It was enough of a break in the forest scenery that I stood a long time and watched Skippers and Buckeye butterflies float from patch to patch. Back to Hunters Run, then on to camp, we had a gloriously cool night camping out under a bright moon. Barred Owls called to each other in the deepest night and Amos snored, wrapped up in his sleeping bag, next to me in the truck.

Two out-and-backs for a nice weekend camping trip

The next morning we got up early and did a walk-about in the campground where we met Breezy again, enjoying a hot cup of coffee. Amos was excited to see him so of course he let out an huge AROO at 7am and, well, it was Monday morning so who cares. Breezy was on his way as I was packing up the truck while Amos hid in the woods because he thought we were going home, which he doesn't like to do when camping, but as soon as I said "let's go for another hike" he popped out and jumped in the truck. Today's hike would be hard for him, as it involves the Rock Maze just south of the AT Trailhead at Whiskey Springs Road, so I figured I'd let him tell me when he's had enough.

Entering the Rock Maze

Now, whoever originally planned the route through the Rock Maze did not plan an alternative route so we had to navigate the steep, boulder ridge carefully together and made it just over a mile in when we were faced with a huge five foot drop that brought Amos to a full stop. I remember when he was a puppy seven years ago. I was able to lift  him down and carry him around the really sketchy bits but here he is at 75 pounds and there was no way. 

A mile into the Maze

We wandered in and out of the Maze trying to find an alternative way around the big drop but instead climbed all the way down off the ridge to a smaller boulder field below where hikers had made their own walk arounds. Much better. We descended steeply down a set of switch backs and wandered slowly through the woods to where we turned around yesterday. Another lunch at the bridge and a slow return.

The Drop - Amos Shall Not Pass

I love this section and have hiked up here often just to explore around the boulder field. The massive spires and blocks of quartzite here serve as an established bouldering site for local rock climbing, but the several times I've been here it's never been crowded (like Pole Steeple can be).  The rock type is quartzite but it is pebbly and unconsolidated, the kind of formation that signals its origins as a river delta.  I am never not amazed by how time is represented in the rocks of PA, how I can imagine that there were once shallow inland seas, mighty rivers, and mountains as high as the Rockies where I wander through these beautiful hardwood forested ridges. 

The AT Trailhead on Whiskey Springs Road marks the Western Terminus of the Mason Dixon Trail that runs 200 miles from Chadds Ford PA. My hiking buddy Kim and I completed the MDT in 2016 after three years of section hiking. Across the road is the NOBO trailhead to White Rocks which will be our next section. 

Notes:

South Central Pennsylvania Climbers for the Rocky Ridge Whiskey Springs Boulder Field

Hiking vlogger Wandering Woodsman's  "Rocky Ridge Rock Maze"