Hike #1008; Monmouth Junction to Mercer Mall

Hike #1008; Monmouth Junction to Mercer Mall

1/26/17 Monmouth Junction to Mercer Mall with James Quinn, Sue Bennett, Shayna Michaels, Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), and Dan Asnis

This next trip would be another point to point night hike in Mercer County, this time tracing some of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, but also some historic railroad routes and more.
I had been looking at the maps on how to do some more interesting hikes in the area convenient to my work, but high quality. I had already posted the most easy to put together ones thinking I wouldn’t be at Washington’s Crossing too long, but now it’s been over three months.

Northumberland Way

I knew I wanted to use some of the canal I’d not incorporated into night hikes, but also different stuff. I knew about the old Camden and Amboy Railroad route, because I’d hiked it before, and so I looked at that, plus a section of it I’d never hiked, and put it together.
It’s always easy to come up with the first twelve or thirteen miles of a hike with an end point, but then to figure out that bit for where to start to make it end up at fifteen is the most difficult part. It can also be some of the most fun part. My challenge this time put me somewhere I’d not explored, but looked interesting.
I had found a development road, built but long unfinished, called Northumberland Way, near Monmouth Junction. I found some nearby on street parking that could be used for the start. This would put me at about exactly where I wanted to be mileage wise.

Northumberland Way pond

We met at the Mercer Mall at 3:45. I was surprised to see anyone showed up. My Meetup.com Metrotrails page is not working properly on my new(ish) cell phone I’d hooked up, so it’s tough to check RSVPs and questions, and I can’t respond to them. James, Shayna, and Sue all showed up at the start, and Lerch and Dan would be meeting a bit late.
I’d been having an awful week and needed to be out so badly. The realization hit me hard that I’d been wronged at work, to a great extent, and that over two hours of my life was stolen every day as a result. I had been checking my work e mails three times a day during the week because Labor Relations told me I should be hearing from them by the end of it, and I’d gotten nothing. Keys to the car I usually drive went missing and it’s believed my former boss stole them to keep me from driving, and I started taking my own car to save time, and save the negative feeling I got showing up at my own work place an hour later than everyone else had left with no compensation.
To make matters worse, my co workers think I’m with them as a punishment for something I’d done, not because I reported something else. It was weighing heavily on me, and I nearly had a nervous break down. I could barely move for a short time.
Just when I regained composure and went back for break, I was stopped from checking my e mail. Apparently one of the higher ups said I’m not to check my work e mail there any more, that if I want to do that it has to be from the boss’s computer, and after work hours. The guys told me I’m in enough trouble already and my truck is at the shop too often. Mind you, I was driving the dump truck the day before that, not the one sitting there, and before that I had to paint signs that were in the shop. I work very consistently.
Nothing mattered. My work ethic is not recognized, and I am constantly under the gun. I could work without breaks all day every day, and it wouldn’t matter.
My head was reeling. I stopped taking all breaks whatsoever. I remain out to work through the entire day with no contact from anyone. If I were to complain about any unfair treatment, I will be labeled a problem employee that can be happy nowhere.
I posted this hike, and only one RSVP remained, Dan for a late meetup, by the time I left for work. I felt defeated.

Northumberland Road

When everyone else signed up through the day, it was a much nicer feeling to have.
As soon as I arrived at Mercer Mall, I felt more like myself again. Sue brought me a very generous gift of a book on Easton PA history prepared by her daughter’s Lafayette College class. She also gave me a Highlands Trail tee shirt, identical to one I owned before the fire, which belonged to her father, Al Kent, one of my personal park and recreation heroes (she also gave me his trail work denim jacket, which I’ve worn several times as my regular jacket I keep in my car). Shayna was there with her little dogs Cody and Gracie. James arrived soon and I got to talk ridiculous stuff with him. Things improved very quickly.
We parked on Executive Drive near the intersection with Cornwall Drive in Monmouth Junction. From there, a short walk on Cornwall Drive led to the unfinished old development road. We turned left to start following it south.

Dean Family Cemetery

The wind was strong, which made it a bit uncomfortable, but after walking a bit further and trees were closer to the road it was more bearable.
The road seemed to go on for quite a while. There was a sort of ATV path along the left side of it we used as a break from the pavement. It really looks post apocalyptic to see a road like this completely vacant. It came to an abrupt end, where we turned left to follow a sort of farm road to the south. As we walked, Lerch called me to meet up. He was at Monmouth Junction itself near the tracks. I let him know where we were, and as soon as I looked up, I spotted in the corner of my eye an abandoned cemetery.

Dean Family Cemetery

Most of the tomb stones were the bright white old marble material, but there were a few old brownstone ones. One in particular I found dated back to 1816. This was a really cool find. I wasn’t expecting to find anything like it.

We checked out a lot of the graves, and made our way to a gate on the south side that read “Dean’s Cemetery”. The nearby road was Deans Pond Road. It probably is a private family cemetery. I only noted two last names on any of the graves in there, and I don’t remember what the one other than Dean was.
We followed the muddy farm road to the south, and soon reached Dean’s Pond Road, another dirt road. We turned right on it, but to the left it was weird to see that the road went right along the Amtrack tracks quite closely. I find it surprising because the trains move so incredibly fast on this line.

Graves at Dean Cemetery

We followed the road to the right, and soon Lerch’s tall figure came into view heading toward us. He’d only missed a little bit at he start, but that included the cemetery.
We got up to Major Road, and I considered going to the right, then the left to reach a trail section that soon joins the old Camden and Amboy Railroad bed at Monmouth Junction. That was the way I was almost sure we’d do, but I knew the older rail line broke away from the current one not too far from where we were. It couldn’t hurt to walk just a short distance left on Major Road and peer down into the woods for it.
When the woods didn’t look too bad, and it meant eliminating a crummy road walk up to the north a bit, we headed down hill through weeds to reach an ATV path. A quick turn to the left, then a brief bushwhack to the north side of Terhune Run led us to where we could see the old railroad right of way.
It appeared that the rail bed was now the water course of the Terhune Run. The current passenger line was just to the south of us, and up on a larger fill. It’s likely that when that was built up the earlier line took on water.

Old wheels!

As we walked the route just a bit to the west, I spotted old wheels! They appeared to be train wheels, but not on a wheel truck. The area is so inaccessible in weeds and along a wet mess that probably no one knows they’re back there!

Rail bed

We continued on the rail bed after hopping the Terhune Run one more time at a low enough crossing area. From there it remained a lot easier, with only a little bit of weeds that got easier as we went west.
Soon, the old rail bed emerged on the paved pathway section, which comes in from a development to the north with a bridge over the Lawrence Brook. We followed along the right of way parallel with Lawrence Brook from here, and eventually came out on Rt 522, but below on a section of paved pathway, which was pretty nice. It was tempting to go to the left, which had a nice prefabricated pedestrian bridge parallel with the road bridge across the Lawrence Brook, but we wanted to go to the right.
It really wasn’t an option with hardly any light left to dash straight across and try to trace the old Camden and Amboy line at this time. I’d seen it once from the other side, and it doesn’t look so inviting for a day hike let alone a night one.

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We turned right on the paved path to parallel with Rt 522 north, then turned left off of it and dashed across when the median in the highway ended. We then hurried south slightly to head into another development on the west side of that highway.
We got on Bard Drive only briefly, then turned left to follow sidewalks through a development. This was a nice little route with ambient light from the buildings, and when we were on high up pads above the wetlands, we could see the tree line and the old railroad right of way quite clearly. We moved on along the sidewalks until the metal fence line ended on the left. We then headed into the woods to see if there was a way of accessing the short bit of railroad bed to where it becomes a trail. Unfortunately, it was fenced in pretty crazily. We opted to just head to the north on more sidewalks.
We turned away from the buildings near a retention pond and followed a line of pines. We eventually emerged on Southridge Drive and turned left.
Soon, we reached New Road and turned left again, but only for a short while. The rail bed is very much developed as a trail through this area, complete with lines and three lanes. Two for opposing bike traffic, one for walkers or joggers.
We followed the trail out to and across South Lane parallel with Heathcote Brook.
From here, we walked along a less improved trail with crushed stone surface for a bit, and soon came upon two guys that had gotten stuck in the mud to the left. At first, I thought they were up to doing some private adult activities, but one of them made sure to show us that they had some sort of bait bucket with them.
The car should never have been back on this rail bed. The center section was fine, but along the sides, even a truck would be done. Rather than stand by, Lerch, James, and I went over and helped them push the thing for a bit. We got it to move a bit, but it still wasn’t going out, and the guy was just flooring it on the gas way too much. I finally asked him if I could try driving. I definitely got it to move more than he had been doing, but before we could spend any more time on it, a tow truck that they’d called showed up.
They thanked us for helping out, and we were on our way. Lerch, James, and I were now way behind Dan, Sue, and Shayna. They had all stopped at a picnic table behind Active Imprents off of Rt 1. Where the railroad once crossed, there is no cross walk or bridge or anything today. It was also far too busy, and there was a median, to make it safe for us to dash across. We turned right behind the businesses on Rt 1, and crossed to the left onto Raymond Road at the next traffic light.
We made the first left onto Deerpark Drive, which was sort of a gamble because I’d never done this before. I figured there would be an informal path to get into Heathcote Park to continue. We made our way down this road and made a right turn at a bend in the road near a corporate center. No one bothered us as we casually walked behind the back of the large buildings and headed to the west. One guy came flying around the corner in his car, and he looked rather freaked out to see anyone walking back there.
At the end of the last lot area, we continued straight over some piles of stuff to the edge of a retention pond. Lerch found some fascination with a chain link fenced building at the one end, but I didn’t really have interest. I continued along the retention pond to the right, and soon enough found an informal connecting trail to Heathcote Park.
The little trail had some planks down to save us from some of the wet areas, and soon we were skirting the edge of some ball fields. We turned to the left here, and continued along the edges of a couple of fields until a side trail led to the left through a swath of woods. This took us along part of Heathcote Brook, and then into the state’s Cook’s Creek Natural Area. We soon regained the railroad right of way we had been following earlier, very close to the highway, and turned right to follow it to the west.
This was a particularly nice section to be walking at night. It was peaceful, and even though I knew we were really close to development, it had more of an illusion of seclusion than where we had just been.
We crossed Ridge Road at an angle and continued on the old railroad bed. I had been here before. This bit was part of a hike we’d done a few years back, and the houses on the left side were in horrible shape. I remember how they looked similar in style to my home that had burnt down. Now, the houses, which had been in bad shape, were renovated and lived in it seemed.
We walked onward, and paralleled now abandoned Princeton Nurseries buildings. I remember it looked like they were still used the last time I was there. It looked almost like we could get in, but we had a long way to go and not the time to be messing around with that sort of thing.
We reached Mapleton Road next, and turned right to follow it for a short distance. There was then a trail access going off to the left. We followed this down hill slightly to a cove on the Delaware and Raritan Canal where there was some sort of an inlet. The railroad would have to have crossed this on a bridge, but no remnant of this remained.

Historic image of the original Camden and Amboy next to the later railroad. Note the sleeper stones rather than ties.

The Camden and Amboy line joined the berm side of the canal just to the south of this point. The railroad line here was just a spur line that went to Rocky Hill. The section of the Camden and Amboy that we were walking was used quite a bit later, at least in part, than other sections, because it was used as part of the industrial spur to get to the quarries at Rocky Hill.
When I realized we were on the wrong side of the cove, we had to go out and around to the other side to cross the pedestrian bridge over the canal closer to Rt 27.

The group by the tree near Rocky Hill

There was a big evergreen with lights on it where we took a short break before continuing on the canal. Lerch climbed up one of the trees in this area while we were taking the break.
Dan met up with us at this point too. He’s very familiar with the canal at this point so it was easy for him to make his way to where we were.

Lerch in a tree

We began following the canal towpath to the southwest at this point, past the dam for Carnegie Lake on the Millstone River.
This dam has nothing to do with the canal, and was not there when the canal was originally built. It’s actually surprising that the lake has not undermined the canal because it’s so high up to it. Almost at the same level.
The section ahead was out in the middle of a causeway. When I’d hiked this section in the past the women dreaded it because if any of them had to pee there was literally no where to go. It was all explosed and visible all the way around.

James and a puppy

Carnegie Lake continues as slack water along the canal even beyond the Millstone River. The Millstone River Aqueduct is an odd spot, because it would originally have been much higher up, but when the lake was constructed it made it almost up to the top of the thing. It’s a concrete thing, so it must have been replaced at some time.
The section of the canal beyond that aqueduct is still along Carnegie Lake, but that slack water section is to the inlet of the Stony Brook. We did turn away from the towpath along one stretch of the lake where there was a good footpath, officially marked and maintained by the parks apparently, parallel with the main path to the right. It was pretty nice because it went right along the lake. Lerch found a boat which he was trying to convince me to take and go for a paddle. I wasn’t into that this time. It seemed risky for certain! We continued on along the canal heading to the west.

James and the puppy

It wasn’t long before we passed beneath the Princeton Branch, the old rail line that still operates Short line passenger service affectionately called a “Dinky”. Most all railroads have eliminated their Dinky lines long ago, but the Princeton one has remained a lucrative business due to the college traffic.
We continued past here, and acros Alexander Street. After that, we were very secluded as the towpath paralleled Institute Woods and the Rogers Reserve. We had hiked this section a couple of times quite recently. I always forget what a long secluded stretch it really is. The only landmarks I can recall are the two bridges at the golf courses, and then where Quaker Road comes in from the right.
I was terribly tired this time. The path was just too relaxing and easy for someone as tired as me, and I was dozing off while walking. A few times I nearly fell into the canal and Sue helped me not to fall over. I’d not gotten nearly enough sleep the night before, nor have I been able to relax.
We finally turned off of the canal and I began to wake up a bit more when we got to Province Line Road. I had to think a little bit to get us through this part. Lerch was already headed back to the cars at this point. He powered ahead.
We followe a walkway after the short bit of Province Line Road across the canal. This took us to Canal View Drive, and we took a path from the corner with Canoe Road to another development road. Rather than walk all the way around, we cut through a hole in the fence as we did on the previous hike this way to the back of the stores. I recall finding a shopping cart and pushing that around for a while from the back.
We made our way to the front where we all parted ways. Fortunately Sue was able to get Lerch and James back to their cars as I recall which allowed me to start heading home. I was so tired I had to stop and power nap both in Flemington and at a gas station closer to Washington.
Fortunately, I made it home alright and to work the next day without incident.