Little Known Jawns Part 2: Villas Haunts

I don’t even know how to write about this place. This little-known jawn is so local, I don’t even know how to tell you where to go. I mean, if you look on a map, it’s the green spot bordered by Fulling Mill Road to the north, the Villas to the west, and the Cape May Airport to the east. Part of it, at least, is officially the New Jersey Audubon Fulling Mill Preserve, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen a boundary sign to indicate whether I was in or out of the preserve. Access is from various sites, most of them posted in one way or another, with some form of warning about trespassing. In any case, proceed at your own risk.

To help paint the situation with a rosy hue, I’ve provided two photos of my kids and their friends frolicking in said jawn a good eight years ago or so…so, you know, it’s super kid friendly.* *I mean, once you get past the fact that there’s a shooting range embedded right in the middle of the natural area, so yeah, once you’re okay with the sound of gunfire, it’s all unicorns and kittens. Well, and there are the ATVs and dirt bikes, but honestly, in most of my experiences these are only heard in the distance, or in the rare case that our paths crossed, were fleeting interruptions. Because, really, back on those trails, there is magic. There’s the Fulling Mill Stream that babbles crystal clear water reminiscent of the Pine Barrens farther north. There are climbing trees, and giant jumping puddles; there are groves of hollies and groves of cedars, each with their own aesthetic and vibe worthy of plopping down and contemplating life for a while.

Often, in doing so, I’ve been greeted by an assortment of birds that seem to love this stretch of woods. I’ve seen many a turkey gobbling along as the trail turns onto a fence line; for whatever reason those turkeys seem to be in the alley between the fence and the woods more often than not. The fence borders the Cape May County Airport property, and on numerous occasions I’ve come out to the fence, after meandering through the woods, and found the field on the other side littered with Northern Flickers, woodpeckers foraging on the ground rather than on a tree; or two American Kestrels, our smallest falcons, hunting the airport property, oblivious, or simply ambivalent, to my presence on the other side of the fence. Skinks and fence lizards live here too, and from time to time I’ve detected them scampering through leaf litter on the sides of the trails. This area is also clearly visited by humans, and the closer you are to the entrances from the ends of several streets in the Villas, the more anthropogenic effects you’ll find.

Entering from Texas, Arizona or Nevada Avenues are trails into the woods adjacent to private properties, and often you’ll find a small clearing with some plastic chairs and other accouterments, indicating a regular hangout spot. If you look at an aerial map (Google Maps works) you can see an obvious road through the woods that starts at MUA Road (Lower Township Municipal Utilities) to the south, just before reaching the MUA buildings, and heads northeast through the woods. This dirt road, a fire access road, continues northeast, eventually ending at Star Avenue. That road, above all others, is probably the best access into the natural area, with several trails running east of it. You can drive the fire lane, and I’ve parked there (came back to a flat tire once, no foul play suspected) and hiked in several times, as well as parked at the end of the aforementioned streets and hiked in from those as well.

Starting at the south end of the fire lane, the trails will take you behind the MUA and into a mix of forested and field habitat until you reach the airport fence. Working north, the habitat gets more wooded, and by using your phone’s GPS and maps, you can pretty much meander around to the east and then north of the Bayshore Sportsman’s Club. I try to steer clear of it, mostly because I find the sound of gunfire to be, well, jarring, but if that’s your white noise du jour, don’t let me stop you from venturing closer. The real dense forest, though, is north of the gun club and takes you through some beautiful stands of wet woods as well as some higher ground with mixed coniferous and deciduous forest. It’s a beautiful thing, I think, to be so close to so much civilization, and yet to be able to escape into a dark woods; to flip logs for salamanders and snakes, to find frogs and toads in a clear running stream, to climb a tree, or even an old abandoned tree stand if you’re lucky, and to sit with your thoughts and breathe in the natural beauty of a special place, hiding in plain sight, but definitely overlooked by most of the folks visiting Cape May each summer.

I think of my kids and their friends, just eight years ago, playing and splashing in Fulling Mill Creek; laughing as they ran up fallen tree trunks, and challenging each other to climb the scary old tree stand. Despite all the screen time that makes up their day, these kids are still happiest when let loose in the woods, and I’m grateful to have had this magical place in my quiver of options for getting them out into the wilds of Cape May.