'Zombie hoards' haunt run through Dismal Swamp

• Zombie Fest was a fun event to introduce the public to the Triple C Ranch and raise money for its environmental programs.
• The event included a run through the woods of the Dismal Swamp%2C where volunteers dressed as Zombies jumped out at visitors to spook them.
• Zombie Fest also include live music%2C tours of the vegetable and butterfly garden%2C snacks%2C arts-and-crafts projects%2C and a %22petting%22 zoo with chickens%2C ducks%2C goats%2C a ram%2C a pony and Edison the pig.
• The Triple C Ranch is owned and operated by the Edison Wetlands Association and is open to the public on weekends from April to October.

EDISON – For her largest event of the season, Cate Linden, the new program supervisor at the nonprofit Triple C Ranch in the Dismal Swamp, combined Halloween fun and outdoor education with a match that seemed made in heaven: Zombie Fest.

The four-hour event included a Zombie-themed run through some of the ranch's Woodchuck Trail and a harvest celebration. The admission fees and proceeds from the sale of homemade zucchini muffins went to the ranch's environmental education programs and the maintenance of facilities that house the ranch's chickens, ducks, Nigerian dwarf goats, ram and its most famous resident, Edison the pig.

The Edison Wetlands Association's Triple C ranch is probably the most public face of The Dismal Swamp, a nationally designated 1,240-acre wetlands in parts of Edison, Metuchen and South Plainfield. Smaller than the 7,700-acre Great Swamp in Somerset and Morris counties, the Dismal Swamp nonetheless is the largest natural area remaining in Middlesex County and serves as a refuge for more than 175 species of birds, as well as many mammals and reptiles. Threatened species such as the bald eagle, American bittern, red-shouldered hawk and spotted turtle live there. The 40-acre Triple C ranch, named for its previous owner Christopher C. Christensen, was the last remaining farm in northeastern Middlesex County. The ranch has been owned and maintained by the Edison Wetlands Association since 2001.

Linden has been program supervisor since June, but she served as a volunteer at the ranch for 10 years before that. Now as a full-time employee, she organizes outdoor education classes for students of all ages.

"We have classes and tours for kindergarten through college," Linden said. "We also have events for the public like this one (Zombie Fest). We recently had an evening Owl Prowl to introduce people to the owls to the property, but this is the biggest event I've ever done. We have at least 100 people registered to run in the Zombie Run."

She said the run was a mile and a half. Each runner was given two red streamers. As they ran through the woods on the Woodchuck Trail, volunteers dressed up as Zombies rushed out from the woods to steal red streamers from the runners. This was made all the more confusing by the fact that many of the runners had themselves been face-painted to look like Zombies. Runners who kept both their streamers won one prize, and runners who managed to keep one streamer got another prize.

"If you lose both your streamers, too bad. You've been eaten by a Zombie," Linden told the crowd of runners.

The event also included a "petting zoo" with a pony, the goats, the ram and Edison the pig. The chickens in their coop and the ducks in their pen were also crowd pleasers. All the animals were confined, so most visitors couldn't actually touch them, but they enjoyed the animals' antics. Edison squealed, perhaps in frustration at not being able to get out of his pen to greet everyone more closely.

One of the most active groups of volunteers at the Triple C ranch is the G-Arden club, a group of 30 or more middle- and high-school students who are the junior wing of the Edison Garden Club. They maintain a native-species garden at the ranch, filled with plants that date back to pre-Colonial times. Many of these plants attract birds and butterflies. The club also grows vegetables, including zucchini, tomatoes and peppers. Gail Dunn and her 17-year-old-daughter, Julie, began volunteering this year, and they both love it. Dunn is one of the adult advisers to the group.

"I met the G-Arden Club founders, Michele Lawrence-Botto and her husband, Al Botto, at a party this year," Dunn said. "I'd never heard of it it before, but Michele is so passionate about it that it sounded like fun. Some of the kids have been doing it for years. They start as middle schoolers and keep coming back, even after they go to college."

She said that there is a core of about 20 students who are there regularly. The activity fulfills Edison high schools' public service requirement. Produce from the garden is given to the senior center and a food pantry.

Although she has lived here for many years, Dunn said she never knew about the Triple C Ranch before she met the Bottos.

"They have a great vision of what the Triple C can be," Dunn said. "They came here and cleaned out brush. And they had Girl Scouts come and plant an apple orchard on the hill over there. I mean this used to be a place where we'd dump our unwanted furniture. Now it's a wonderful place where you can learn about nature. We have all kinds of animal life here: mice, snakes, frogs in the pond, deer, fox, coyote, beavers. We had a night when people came to see the owls. Who knew we had owls here?"

In addition to the garden and the Zombie run, the afternoon-into-evening event featured live music from The Bobs, Many Dylan, Astronaut Jones and The Adventures of Leonid. There was an EcoTour with Edison Wetlands Association staff through some of the nature trails at 6 p.m. and there were opportunities to paint a pumpkin or decorate a Popsicle-stick scarecrow.

The Triple C Ranch is open to the public April to October 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Members can visit year-round, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For more information, or to schedule a class trip, see the information box.

Staff Writer Pamela MacKenzie: 908-243-6616; pmackenzie@njpressmedia.com.

Recreational activities at the Triple C. Ranch, 206 Tyler Road, Edison, include hiking, bird-watching, star gazing and wildlife photography. The ranch hopes to have horseback riding soon. The public is welcome 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays April through October.

The ranch also hosts events. For more information about the Triple C Ranch or to make a reservation for a class trip EcoTour, call Cate Linden, program supervisor, at 732-321-1300. Birthday parties and other events also are welcome.

For more information about Triple C Ranch, visit TripleCRanch.org.