On November 7, 2021, the Northern New Jersey Region of the Porsche Club of America hosted its eighth Pine Barrens “Off-Road” Excursion, sponsored by Paul Miller Porsche. This year, the Schattenbaum Region joined in the fun, and with the combined effort of both Regions, we had our most significant turn out of Cayennes and Macans ever on the event; almost 30% of the teams drove their Porsches.
The event was initiated by Murray & Akemi Kane back in 2013, based on their exposure to Time-Speed-Distance rallies in the area, designed to provide PCA members with Cayennes, Macans, and other four-wheel-drive vehicles with a small sample of life on the wild side, without putting the occupants at risk. I initially received a call from Murray back in 2012 about his idea about putting on an “Off-Road” event in the Pine Barrens. Due to my work schedule, I had Murray contact Fred Cochran, a Raritan Valley Sports Car Club member, putting on rallies in the Pine Barrens for over a decade and with Bob Shore, who took over from Fred has over 60 years of event experience. The rest, as they say, is history.
The “off-road” Excursion utilizes Brendan T. Byrne State Forest (formerly known as Lebanon State Forest) and Wharton State Forest. Wharton State Forest is the largest state forest in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the largest single tract of land in the state park system of New Jersey, encompassing approximately 122,880 acres of the Pinelands northeast of Hammonton. The event also included two local “sandpits,” one on public land and the second pit, much larger, hosted by JJ White Inc./Pine Barrens Native Fruit.
After registration at a local Fire Hall, we kicked off the event by visiting the sand trails of the historic cranberry bogs at Whitesbog Village. When Lebanon State Forest was established, it absorbed the nearby Whitesbog village, a significant cranberry farm for over one hundred and twenty years. At the turn of the 20th century, Whitesbog was the largest cranberry farm in the United States. In 1916 Elizabeth C. White, in collaboration with Dr. Frederick A. Coville, successfully developed the first cultivated blueberry. Today the village has been preserved by the efforts of the Whitesbog Village Trust, and the cranberry bogs and blueberry fields still produce a bountiful harvest each year. Visitors can come and see the semi-restored company town and walk/drive out among the bogs. The Whitesbog General Store carries various food items such as blueberry and cranberry preserves, marmalades, honey, and assorted candies and still processes payments the old-fashioned way by hand. The store also carries many handmade craft items as well as a selection of Pine Barrens-themed books. An annual Blueberry Festival is celebrated here during the summer. Joe Darrington, a descendant of Elizabeth White, still farms the land and hosts our afternoon session in the JJ White “Sand Storage Area,” over 50 acres of fun.
The growth in popularity of this unique trek (possibly the only event of its kind hosted by the Porsche Club of America) seems to come from the unique mix of activities rolled into one event. It combines social activities (a live four-piece Jug Band at lunch), a little bit of history (Whitesbog Village – birthplace of the Blueberry Industry), and an off-road experience (sand trails and sandpits).
This year, due to limited space at our start/lunch location, I unsuccessfully tried to limit the event to 30 vehicles with the help of Dyke Hensen implementing online registration and payment on the Region’s Website, which was a great success. However, I still accepted paper registration from an additional 14 teams, which brought the total of vehicles on the road, including volunteer workers, to 38 vehicles. We hope to open up the event to a larger group of people in 2022 by looking for a larger starting location.
Due to the generosity of the event sponsor Paul Miller Porsche, each individual received T-Shirts, with the event logo printed on the back, and an array of door prizes. Door prizes were given to each entry and volunteers with Pine Barren-specific items. These items included Pine Barren Native Fruits products, Valenzano Wines (Blueberry and Cranberry wines), a special nod to the theme of this year’s event, one bottle of Jersey Devil Port.
In addition, Beer by Pinelands Brewing Company and CD’s by the Accidental Jug Band, and books about the Pine Barrens and other items distribute CD Lines On the Pines. In addition, this year Nitto Tires USA provided several logo merchandise items, which included hats, duffle bags, coffee table books, T-Shirts, and sweatshirts. I look forward to seeing some of the Nitto items at the 2022 event.
A bound set of route instructions, with turn-by-turn instructions for the 80-mile course, was provided to each team. The 99 route instructions provided overall mileage to the hundredth, delta mileage (distance between instructions), notification of the official speed limits, Tulip Diagrams (like those used on Pro-rallies), and a written description of each turn intended to make sure everyone stayed on-course and did not wander off and get lost. After all, there are no street signs in the forest. The 60-page Route Book also included a history of the area and facts about the New Jersey Devil, a mysterious figure that has haunted the area for over 250 years, not the hockey team. Each vehicle received a “goodie bag” that contained light snacks and water for the morning trek and brochures of Historic Whitesbogs Village, Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, and New Jersey Pinelands.
A ‘sweep vehicle’ followed the pack, just in case. But with such a large field of vehicles, individuals were always willing to help those who were a little too adventurous along the deep ‘sugar sand’ trails or in the sandpits we visited.
Once again, as mentioned above, this year’s event featured two sandpits. The first occurred after a short break at Whitesbog Village, after a stop at the old-fashioned General Store and listening to the Accidental Jug Band. The first sandpit included a 15-minute photo op but took longer as most participants chose to take advantage of the hills and rugged terrain. This sandpit had a small pond that some teams could not resist testing their luck, trying to ham it up and make a big splash.
After lunch, we headed over to what I call the “Sand Storage Area” for about 45 minutes of free formatted playtime. Since the main pit is relatively flat, vehicles can get up to speed and maneuver in such a way to produce rooster tails of sand, at times obscuring the vehicles from view; make sure your windows are up!
We want to thank Paul Miller Porsche for their support and sponsorship, making the 2021 event and all of our prior outings possible. If you are interested in getting on the event email list for 2022, please drop Peter Schneider a note at offroad@NNJR-PCA.COM, or keep an eye out for the Region’s event schedule in PORSCHEFORUS, the Region’s publication. Hope to see you next year!
