A Morning Walk in Black Run Nature Preserve

We often talk about how much we love where we live and how happy we are to be near to our families, but just wish that place also had more natural open space around it."This town, but surrounded by mountains.""This town and proximity to Philly, but IN the Pine Barrens.""This house, but restored and sitting on a lake.""All of our families within a 1-hour drive but in California.""All of our families within a 1-hour drive but in Golden, Colorado.""All of our families within a 1-hour drive but also near Zion National Park."But then again, it's all about finding beauty and happiness wherever you are, and so we make an effort to venture out to those still wild places closest to Collingswood.Today we made our first trip to Black Run Nature Preserve, just a 25-minute drive but a world away from the suburban sprawl that surrounds it. We'll be heading back as much as possible, in all seasons.Black Run is 1,300 acres of preserved land in Evesham Township, between Marlton Lakes and Kings Grant. We can't say it better than this, from the website: "It is an ecological wonder of Pine Barrens forest, wetlands, streams and old cranberry bogs, and hosts a variety of threatened and endangered plant and animal species." On this particular trip, which as usual started WAY later than expected with Mae and Buddy in tow and lunchtime too close, we mostly stuck to the 5k trail.We had a bit of trouble / a total lack of patience with the interactive map on the website. What we really wanted was a good printed map and to NOT be on our phones, so we didn't want to go too far off of the blue marker-lined trail. (Which were SO well kept, by the way.)Here are some photos from the walk: