Hike #1111; Princeton, Kingston, and Rocky Hill Loop

Hike #1111; Princeton, Kingston, and Rocky Hill Loop

3/4/18 Princeton, Kingston, and Rocky Hill Loop with Jennifer Berndt, Craig Craig, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Jennifer Tull, Agnese Drzymala, Aggie’s cousin, Jessica M. Collins, Austin Grimshaw, John Pershouse, Shayna Michaels, Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, and Stephanie M.

Our next hike would be a great loop in the northern Princeton area, showcasing mostly all bits of park lands I’d never explored before. I chose McCaffreys Market, where we’d met for other past Princeton hikes, as a start point, and we’d use different trails out of there.

Grover Park

The amount of parks and trails just around Princeton is staggering. They’ve always been really great hikes, and so I figured the north section was stuff we’d never done before. There were tons of parks, the largest of which were the Herrontown Woods Arboretum and Autumn Hill Reservation. I could put these together with other things that were on my “to do” list including smaller parks, as well as the old Rocky Hill branch railroad bed that served quarries adjacent to the Delaware and Raritan Canal.

Trail off Grover Ave

Grover Park was directly behind McCaffrey’s, which had some short trails in it. It would be a pretty good jump off point.
A lot of people didn’t show, or ran behind, but we still ended up with a reasonable enough showing. The weather worked out in our favor as well, although it was a bit colder than anticipated.
We walked around McCaffreys to the east, and then headed around a fence into Grover Park, which had a paved trail through it as well as some playgrounds and such. We followed the path to a split, then headed out onto Grover Avenue, where we turned to the right (after I accidentally went left first).

Along Snowden Lane

After only a very short bit, there was a sort of obscure trail that went off to the left from Grover Ave to connect to another road called Linwood Circle. We followed this through, then went straight on Linwood Circle to a right turn on Leebrook Lane. We followed this east out to Snowden Lane where we turned to the left.
There was no good walkway the entire way, buts soon one started up. One of the things I love about Princeton is how this, and many other paths, don’t always keep like other sidewalks, right beside the road. They have character, and swing around trees and make turns feeling more like a trail.

Old stone bridge

The pathway along the edge of Snowden Lane disappeared eventually, and the road narrowed somewhat. We crossed over a small brook, a northern fork of another brook known as Harry’s Brook.
Adjacent to the current road bridge was a handsome older bridge with a stone arch. It looked like this was probably improved upon with concrete at one point, but it’s probably a very old stone bridge originally.
To the right of the road just ahead was supposed to be another park I planned to walk into.

Van Dyke Wright Park

The park, on google maps, was shown as Van Dyke Wright Park, and it looked pretty undeveloped. There were no trails that we could see entering it however. After the paved pathway ended, we just had to walk the road past that historic bridge, with almost no shoulder. That’d be the crappiest part of the entire hike, which is pretty good.
We continued until Van Dyke Road came in on the left side. A paved path cut into the woods on the right side, apparently through the northern end of Van Dyke Wright Park. We followed it from here.

View in Barbara Smoyer Park

The trail continued, paved, through the woods, and we turned to the left when we got to an intersection. There were a couple walking the trail also, and ended up going with us a ways.

NO ALIENS!

They asked us a little bit about our group and where we were going, and were quite interested in the distance. Maybe one day they’ll look us up and find us.
The trail led north and into an open area, Barbara Smoyer Park. We followed the paved path to the edge of the parking lot, regrouped, and then continued across and along dugouts or something to the east, then north again. We then passed along the lovely edge of a pond, and wrapped around the east side of it. There was a “no swimming” sign that looked as though it was meant more to keep out space aliens than people. The trail continued north from here.

The pond in Barbara Smoyer Park

We came soon to a small parking area and an old stone building to the right. This was once the farm of Jac and Cornelia Murray Weller, who built the stone building.

Farm of Jac and Cornelia Murray Weller

They also planted many of the Oak and Maple trees we passed along the way to this point.
Jac, a 1936 Princeton graduate, was a Hall of Fame football player, was an author of articles and books on the history of the military, as well as a firearms expert. He was also an honorary Curator of the West Point Gun Museum.
Cornelia ran a real estate business started by her mother, and helped Jac with his writing and working on their beloved farm.
From here, the trails ended and we had to take to the streets, but sidewalks made it alright.

A bit of a road walk

We turned right on the sidewalk along Herrontown Road, then made the first right turn down Caldwell Drive.
We turned left at the end on Bertrand Drive, then went right again on Terhune Road.
Terhune was a dead end road, but apparently didn’t used to be. It led directly into the Gulick Preserve where we picked up Gulick Farm Trail. The preserve was apparently part of a colonial Dutch farm in the area. The area we were hiking was just woods, not a farm at all, so it’s clearly long been overgrown.

Gulick Farm Trail

The woods actually look quite mature, so it’s been a long time since it was in cultivation.
We got to the end of Terhune and entered these woods, but the trail was immediately very wet. Giant puddles were almost impossible to circumnavigate. We went around the first couple, and then another trail went off to the right. This was the longer choice of route, so I decided that would be what we’d follow, and milk as much as we could out of the preserve.

Old pond in Gulick Farm Preserve

We passed by an old farm pond and skirted a section of land that was sort of on the end of the woods backing up to where we could see the houses on Dodds Lane.

Old road in Gulick Farm preserve

The trail turned to the northeast and parallel with what must have been the historic Gulick Farm. It turned back in from the edge of the woods and seemed to turn left. I saw a spot that I figured might have been where we had to cut out, but I didn’t check my phone GPS and we kept to the left. It turned out we went back to where we first turned off of the road upon entering the preserve, and we had to backtrack. At least by doing this, we covered everything there is to see within the Gulick Preserve. We returned to the northeast end.

Kingston Mill

The end of the preserve was an open grassy area with a few scrubby trees. There were no markings on any of these trails, so it was hard to tell exactly where we were supposed to be.
We emerged from the park onto Route 605, River Road, and turned to the right.
We walked down this busier road for a bit, but then cut to the left into the parking area for Princeton Church of Christ and passed by people parking and walking into the church. At the end of the lot, we easily ascended to Rt 27 and turned left.

1798 Kingston Bridge

Rt 27 crossed a modern bridge over the Millstone River, but the earlier bridge was a beautiful stone span below, still in place, in front of the Kingston Mill.
This bridge was built in 1798 to replace the original, which was destroyed by General George Washington and his army to prevent the British from pursuing them. It’s possible some of it might be original, but I can’t be sure. The road used to be the main route between Philadelphia and New York City, and a mile marker in the middle of the bridge is in place.

The distance from this point was forty five miles to Philadelphia, fifty to NYC.
The original route here was the aboriginal Assunpink Trail, a native American route between the Hudson and Delaware Valleys between the present day cities.

Kingston Mill and Carnegie Lake dam beyond

Kingston, NJ was settled in 1683, with it’s first permanent colonial resident being Henry Greenland.
The Assunpink Trail was first turned into a road, and reportedly traded from the native Americans for nothing more than a sow and some piglets.
The first mill in Kingston was constructed in 1755. It was replaced in 1888 with the handsome old mill that still stands on the north side of the bridge today. The road is now cut off at that point, and a staircase (which we used) brings walkers up to Route 27.

Kingston Mill dam and Carnegie Lake beyond

The roadways at the site were continually improved following the Revolution, and in 1807 the route along the Millstone including the bridge became a toll road.
Transportation continued to improve with the completion of the Delaware and Raritan Canal in 1834. Work on the canal actually started in Kingston in 1830 because of it’s good road network. A lock was built on the canal on the opposite side of the river from the mill, and this made it an even more important point of commerce.

Tunnel under Rt 27

While boats waited to lock through, often a time consuming process, those waiting would engage in trade.
The Camden and Amboy Railroad, one of the earliest civilian passenger railroads in the country, was chartered on the exact same day as the Delaware and Raritan Canal. A branch of this line reached Kingston 1839, from which point travelers could reach New Brunswick. A branch line was constructed from this to Rocky Hill in 1864. A terra cotta factory was constructed three miles away in Rocky Hill also, which could be served by both the D&R Canal and the railroad.

Tunnel under 27

The Pennsylvania Railroad took over the Camden and Amboy and operated the line, which killed the business of the canal by the turn of the century, but Kingston was still a hot spot.
In 1913, the main road, previously known as the King’s Highway, was designated as part of the Lincoln Highway, the first paved coast to coast highway. The section of the road over the stone Kingston Bridge is still called Old Lincoln Highway to this day.

Coming out of the tunnel

Just up stream from the historic bridge and mill, we could see the dam for Lake Carnegie.
The lake, built in 1906, was a gift to Princeton University by Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
Prior to the construction of the lake, the Princeton Varsity Rowing team rowed in the still busy Delaware and Raritan Canal, which was far too narrow for the purpose. While sitting for a painting by 1876 Princeton grad Howard Russel Butler, Carnegie was related the story of Princeton’s needs. Carnegie, who had constructed many lochs in his homeland of Scotland, took interest in the project and asked Butler to look into it.

Historic image of the construction of Carnegie Lake Dam

Butler complied and came up with an estimate of $118,000. Starting in 1903, a group of Princeton alumni began purchasing land of local farmers in what would become the bed of the proposed lake. They would then sell the properties to Carnegie.

Washington St. Bridge over Carnegie Lake 1907

Having the alumni purchase the land was done as a strategy to avoid arousing suspicion in local residents, as well as to get Carnegie the properties at the lowest possible prices.

Andrew Carnegie

The level of the Millstone River was raised to such a degree that the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath is much more like a causeway today than before, out onto the lake.

Delaware and Raritan Canal in Kingston

While there are certainly a lot of things one could say about Carnegie, he’s been an historic character I’ve long admired for his generosity, as well as sticking to his guns.
Woodrow Wilson, President of Princeton University at the time of the lake’s completion, tried to secure a second grant from Carnegie, who responded “I already gave you a lake!”.
Carnegie, while generous, would not allow himself to be taken advantage of.

“There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not want to help themselves.” Andrew Carnegie

Old spur to Rocky Hill in Kingston

We continued across the old stone bridge to the other side, and I had a closer look at the old stone dam below the mill, and the view of the Lake Carnegie dam beyond. The river was running extremely high, and water was flowing right around the historic dam spillway to areas below, and passed between trees. There didn’t seem to be any other dams down stream, so this section of the river must simply be very prone to flooding. We continued from here into a parking area, and I spotted a pedestrian tunnel under Rt 27.

Rocky hill rail spur bed

The pedestrian tunnel was full of water, and no one seemed like they wanted to go through, but I knew I could get through it. I didn’t mind getting wet that much. When I got closer to it though, it was easy to just stick close to the right side of the tunnel and not get in the water. I think a few went over the top, but most did end up following me through to the other side. The tunnel is actually the route of the East Coast Greenway, but it hasn’t been kept clear. Not only was it flooded, a tree blocked the trail on the other side.

Old Rocky Hill spur

We climbed up around the fallen trees and through some brush to the towpath of the D&R Canal. Although it was pretty, I’ve already walked this section multiple times, so I wasn’t going to do it again. This time, we headed back to Rt 27, crossed the bridge, and then turned to the left onto the old right of way of the Rocky Hill branch of he Pennsylvania Railroad to follow it to the east. The first section of this was called John W. Flemer Preserve. One wouldn’t even know there was a railroad at this spot at first.

Rocky Hill spur rails in Kingston

On the opposite side of Rt 27 there is actually a small section of rails still in place, but that’s about it.
This was a good, long and relaxing section. Most of the people visiting the area were keeping to the canal towpath side, which made this part a little more pleasant. Occasionally, we came to where there would be a railroad tie or two coming through the crushed stone aggregate surfacing.
We continued walking along the right of way, and paused when we got to a side trail.

Rocky Hill branch along the canal

To the right, there was a trail reading “To Rockingham”.
Rockingham is a famous colonial house, and the final headquarters of General George Washington in 1783. I had never incorporated Rockingham into any of my hikes in the past, despite the fact that we’d walked nearby numerous times, so it was definitely time to pay it a visit. I didn’t know there would be a side trail leading to it, so that worked out just perfect.
We turned right on the trail, which had little markers with etches of Washington’s bust on them, as well as tree identification signs heading up the hill gradually to the site.
The current Rockingham historic site is actually the third home to the historic house. It had been moved three times previously due to quarrying operations.
The oldest portion of the house was built as a two room, two story salt box style of house between 1702 and 1710.
The kitchen and other additions were put on in the 1760s. The house’s original builder is uncertain, but it was purchased by John Berrien, a surveyor and land agent from Long Island in 1735. It originally sat in a similar spot that overlooked the Millstone River.

Rockingham

Barrien expanded upon the house, and lived with his first wife until her death, and then his second wife until he tragically drowned in the Millstone River in 1772. The house remained in the hands of h is second wife, Margaret Eaton (who’s father founded Eatontown NJ).
General George Washington stayed at the house from August through November 1783, because at the time Congress were headquartered out of Nassau Hall in Princeton nearby. Wife Martha Washington stayed with him for a time, as well as aides, body guards, and others in these final days of the Revolutionary War.

The group at Rockhingham

It was here that Washington awaited the news of the signing of the Treaty of Paris to end the war. Washington received news of the end of the war here on October 31st.

Rockingham

In his final days at Rockingham, Washington penned his Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States, which dismissed his troops and announced his retirement from the Army.
The house was never referred to as “Rockingham” until after Washington’s stay, when a 1783 newspaper advertisement for the house’s sale made the reference. It is likely that it was named for the Marquess of Rockingham, Charles Watson-Wentworth, (who also served is Prime Minister) who died in 1782, after which his titles became extinct. I find it curious that a budding new nation would name a building after a British noble.

Rockingham

Margaret Barrien sold the house in 1802 to Frederick Cruser, who expanded on the house even more. More quarters were added to the kitchen side, and the roof level was raised to accommodate a third floor attic. The house remained in the Cruser family until 1841, after which it went through several owners before passing on to the Rocky Hill Quarry Company in the 1890s for their continued expansion of operations.
The quarry used it for a time to house it’s managers, and then by it’s Italian workers.

Original Rockhingham site

The quarry kept several families in the building, with multiple people in each room.
The quarry endangered the house, and so Washington Headquarters Association of Rocky Hill was created by Kate McFarlane and Josephine Swann to move and protect it.

Historic Rockingham

The house was moved three hundred yards to the east on property sold to the organization for one dollar.The house opened for tours in 1897.

1936 image from Historic American Building Survey, by Nathaniel R. Ewan

Tours continued, but membership in the organization dwindled. In 1935, the original site of the house was still extant, but the area below it was being quarried. Unfortunately, quarry owners refused to sell the property.

1936 Nathaniel R. Ewan photo of Rockingham/Judge Barrien House

Ownership of the house was turned over to the State of New Jersey in 1935. Tours continued at that site until 1956. By the 1950s, quarry expansions continued, and the house was again too close to their activities. It was decided to move it again a half mile down the road, Rt 518.

Stone house

In 1957, encroachment of the quarry and the danger of the blasts led to the moving of the building yet again.
Rockingham remained further away from it’s original site until it’s final move in 2001, when it was moved to a location closer to it’s original, on a larger piece of land overlooking the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
On state property, it’s now protected. In addition to the historic house, there is a smaller stone building that serves as a museum store and visitor center.

Rockingham in 1910

I can find next to no information about the old stone building, but it is reportedly over 150 years old. I find it amazing that there is not a single sign detailing it’s significance.

Nevius Barn

Also on the property is the historic Nevius Barn. It was a New World Dutch barn built in the 1800s only a few miles away from the original site of Rockingham, in danger of collapse.

Washington as painted by William Dunlap, 1783

The barn frame was amazingly still good; the Dutch-Anglo construction, which was somewhat altered in the 1800s, was dismantled and re-assembled in it’s original form at Rockingham site, and new sidewalls and rafters were added. The original frame was repaired in Ringoes NJ by the New Jersey Barn Company. It was put back in place in 2013.
We walked around the front of the house and got a group photo, and checked out the very nice community garden that is now at the site, passed the barn and then the handsome little stone house further on. From there, we walked a bit of a paved path lined with light bollards to another foot path which leads to the left, back down to the canal area. This too had the little signs with Washington’s profile and the tree identification points.
This trail connected with the one we had initially taken to climb up to the site from the railroad bed. We followed it back down hill and turned to the right heading northeast.

Rockingham Trail

We continued on the railroad bed, which sort of went onto a causeway with a scenic little swamp to the right of us.
The entire next section was pleasant and easy. The group got somewhat separated because we all went different speeds until we got to the parking area at Rocky Hill where we got back together.
The area of Rocky Hill was originally known as “The Devil’s Featherbed” because it was so difficult for horse and wagons to traverse the rocky terrain. Today, Rocky Hill is a much nicer place to travel.

Rocky Hill spur

We had the easy way of getting there on the rail bed, but Rocky Hill was ther terminus of the spur. The parking lot was lined with some rocky edges that were in all likelihood part of the quarrying operation.
This sort of turned into a bit of a lunch break with a longer break.
I stopped and looked at my phone GPS to double check what I was planning to do for the next leg of the hike. Everything before was pretty straightforward, but this part would involve zig zagging around quite a bit more than what we’d done.

Swamp lands

The railroad through the area was abandoned about 1980 I believe to Kingston, and about the same time the state of NJ took over Delaware and Raritan Canal in the section to Rocky Hill, it was reportedly abandoned about 1974.
We hung out for a little bit here, and then moved on along the path to the likely end of the rail bed were there were some masonry ruins adjacent to Washington Street, near the bridge over the Millstone River.

D&R Canal

The foundation we came across was that of a bridge tender’s house. During the years of peak operation, canal employees were put up in homes to raise and lower bridges over the canal.

Approaching former bridge tender hosue site on rail bed

Like the lock tenders, each bridge crossing also had an employee house to open the bridges spanning the 75 foot wide canal when the boats would come through.
At this particular site, the historic markers claimed that the foundation had been “reconstructed” because the house had been demolished long ago, but that it was done on teh original footings. I’m not sure the details of this, but it does seem strange that a house would be demolished and such a substantial foundation could be left in place. There were also some large iron I-beams sat near the foundation ruins.

Bridge tender's house site

We turned left from the building foundation ruins on Washington Street/Route 518. We then crossed over the lovely Millstone River.
Once on the other side, we headed up hill and started passing through part of the community of Rocky Hill.
The settlement started in the mid eighteenth century with the construction of grist and saw mills along the river, but otherwise very little development took place until the mid 1830s when the canal first opened through the area.

Taking a break

An 1834 Gazetteer Report states that the village at the time was “comprised of twelve to fifteen houses, two stores, two taverns, a woolen manufactory, a grist mill, and a saw mill”.
With the canal as well as the spur from the Camden and Amboy, the town became a sort of transshipment point for local products.
The town was also the home to the terra cotta factory which provided decorative tiles that were used on both the Woolworth Building in NYC, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Bridgetender house site

The terra cotta factory closed in 1929, and today only one brick building and supposedly the remains of a couple of kilns are all that remain of the former industry.

Millstone River

The original bridge tender’s house was wood, but it was destroyed by fire and replaced with a masonry one in the 1920s. Near this was the Rocky Hill passenger station.
In it’s heyday, a train could be taken from Rocky Hill to Kingston, and then on to Monmouth Junction. Passenger service ended however in in 1929.
The town today retains much of it’s character from about 1900, but the main town part is now one of those little communities with popular stores, nice to take a stroll in or have a dinner.

Flood stage Millstone

We continued gradually up hill on Washington Street, and then turned to the right on Princeton Avenue. At the end of this road, a trail continued into a swath of trees to enter what Google Maps calls Millstone Park. We continued on the path a bit, and reached a side path that went down along side the Millstone River, which was running extremely high. Most of the trees seen on the other side were at lest partially out of water. Half the group remained up hill and took another break while we did the side trip.

Along the Millstone

While down there, I did a little nature lecture and gave the differences between Sugar Maple, Norway Maple, and Black Maple, a couple of which were visible in this area.
We made our way back up the hill and turned right on the trail, which led us into a wide open field. Rather than continue on the edges, we took to the middle, which led us out to the Crescent Point Park. We passed by some ball courts and came out to Montgomery Avenue. We turned right for a little bit, and turned left onto a trail.

Trail in the development

It would have been really easy to miss this if I wasn’t watching closely. It was a narrow paved path that just went between buildings to emerge on the cul de sac at the end of Lemore Circle.
We followed Lemore Circle to the end and turned to the left on Merritt Lane. This took us back out to Washington Street, and we crossed over to enter a bank parking lot in a shopping center area. We had a laugh at a sign that read “no charity boxes” in plain sight of a donation bin. I’m not sure if they were trying to tell us none were there.

No?

Maybe it was meant to tell people not to put charity boxes there. Whatever the case, it was kind of funny. We walked by and followed the front of the strip mall looking for the best choices for lunch.
The group kind of dispersed into different places, and some of us, including me, headed to Alfonso’s Pizzeria.
I had an amazing taco slice I think it was, as well as some other weird and filling slice with vegetables, but I don’t remember exactly what it was. It was warmer inside, so we hung out there for a bit.

Van Horne Park

We were making really good time, even with the stop. We ate pretty quickly and were soon ready to move on.
We followed the edge of the strip mall to the south, which was parallel with State Road.
An access road soon cut to the left, and we followed it to a curve where we were able to walk through a line of trees and access Van Horne Park. A series of paved pathways lead around the park, which we’d utilize to the greatest degree. I didn’t plan to follow the direct route across, of course.

Succession

A paved path led to the left out to Young Drive, in an apartment area or something, but we continued to the right. We passed along an open field, then entered a succession area that had lots of young evergreens, I think Eastern Red Cedars (juniperus virginiana).
We weaved arount to an intersection of pathways, and kept to the right. This took us back through some more scrubby succession areas. At this point, Shayna was having trouble with her dog Cody. Cody is the older of the two, and he had had trouble on the last hike as well.

Cody's carrier

Her two Rat Terriers, Cody and Gracie, have always been tough little hiking dogs, which remind me of some sort of power up in a video game that circles the protagonist killing off the bad guys.
Cody was pooping out pretty badly on the previous Hunterdon hike where we were walking in the snow, but this time there was none of that and he was still having some trouble. It may have actually been because he was colder and stiffer, but his back legs were getting more rigid which could be some sort of arthritis.
Fortunately, Shayna had brought with her a sort of baby carrier for Cody if he had trouble, and we had to pause to help her get him into it. Once he was all secured, we were able to continue on with no problem.
The trail led us west into more open areas of Van Horne Park, and skirted the south side of the recreational fields. We followed this to the west end, where another path went to the left, south along a parking lot and into the woods. We soon emerged onto Princeton Avenue across from an apartment complex development or something.

Puppy carrier

I got a text message from Jack in this area that he was going to come and meet up for the rest of the hike. He gave me the time frame, and I predected that we would be into the Autumn Hill Reservation, and so I told him to try to meet up with us there.
We cut directly acros Princeton Avenue and into the apartment complex area. We walked along the lot,a nd then turned to the left across a foot bridge leading to another section of apartments. We then skirted the back of some of the buildings to the north, and emerged on Blue Spring Road.
From here, my plan was to either follow the road, or if it looked promising, bushwhack into the Autumn Hill Reservation directly, parallel with a creek. It was looking promising at this point, so we opted to go in.
It was pretty wet, but we had a sort of path in this swath of public land along a tributary between Scarlet Oak Drive and a nameless road parallel with Manor Drive. We headed up hill a bit more and soon picked up the trace of a s ubstantial former road, probably a former vehicle road.

Foot bridge in development

We followed this route up hill for a bit. It was pretty easy to tell where it had gone, but we didn’t want to continue that way. We had to head to the east further to pick up the trails of the Autumn Hill Reservation.
We had to turn off of the old road trace after a little bit, and made our way thorugh a swampy area, followed by a rocky area. The terrain wasn’t terribly easy, but it also wasn’t really bad because there was almost no undergrowth. It’s probably a safety zone with lots of deer overbrowse.

Old road trace

We skirted “no trespassing” signs on one side, and stayed within sight of the town houses below us, with a bit of a view off into the Millstone Valley th rough the trees.
We climbed over logs and rocks, and soon came to another old road trace, this one lined with giant stone rows. This might have been a through road, probably more used by the farmers that used to operate at the top of what we’ll call “Autumn Hill”.

Bit of a view

We crossed over the old road and continued through more rough woods. Just ahead, we faced a wall of weeds that I dreaded going through. To the south, dead end Herrontown Lane had development houses on it, so I didn’t want to go too far up hill, and down hill were the town houses.
It seemed like the smartest move would be to skip trying to fight through the weeds to remain on the hillside, and descend to the town houses for some easier walking, even though it would be a little further.

Old road trace

I led the way down hill gradually toward the rears of the town houses. May aim was for a space between two of them off of Hoover Avenue. We managed to line ourselves up pretty well and emerged onto the street for some easy walking for a little bit.
We passed some houses and continued on this road until we got out to Blue Spring Road again. We turned to the right here, but didn’t go very far. The public land apparently comes down to touch the road here, so we went over a wet area of a small tributary before turning right.

Shayna and puppy carrier

The woods were still pretty wet in this area, and I should have continued down Blue Spring Road a little bit more before deciding to bushwhack again, but we went anyway, and had a rather tough climb up the Autumn Hill area. Again, we climbed over more logs and such on our way to the top, aiming to hit the western corner of the trail system in the Autumn Hill Reservation. I watched my phonee GPS pretty closely, and we managed to get onto it without all that much trouble. Once everyone was together, we turned left.

Big flat rock on Autumn Hill

The trail started of as a simple foot path, but as we continued on a bit, it gave way to a very obvious old woods road. There was also a trail that went down to the left, which I assume went to the apartments, but I can’t be sure. On the next variation of this hike where we visit the area, I’ll likely try to follow this route through to close a loop or whatever instead of bushwhacking. From time to time, the trail would leave the woods road where it was wet and then return to it, but we were for the most part pretty close to it heading west.

Autumn Hill Reservation old farm road.

The Autumn Hill Reservation was historically “hardscrabble” farmers who worked this rocky land. They were referred to as the “Herringtown Farmers” or “Herrontown Farmers” because they were known for driving to the shore and picking up Herring to use as fertilizer in these thin soil farms.
The bulk of the property was purchased in 1967 by Princeton Township, with participation of Princeton Borough, Green Acres, and Friends of Princeton Open Space.
We continued along the woods road trail to the east side, and took a side trip for an overlook.

Old truck...

There wasn’t really an overlook, but rather a slight view over the roof tops of town houses. I thought I might be missing out on some nice overlook, but when I read the guide to it later, I found that we were at the correct point.
From this area, one of the trails headed diagonally to the southwest, toward the main entrance to the park, so I decided that would be the best way for us to go, because the next destination would be the Herrontown Woods Arboretum, which is just to the south of Autumn Hill.

Old truck

The next little surprise we came upon was an old farm site of sorts. We had crossed over a few of the other trails, and then come to a slight opening, where the remains of a truck.

Old truck

The frame of the vehicle could be seen in the weeds. We all went over to check it out, which was pretty cool. The front of the framework was still recognizable as a truck, but the rest of it had sort of melted into the landscape. There was other junk laying around too, and there might have been a house back there at the site at some time. We continud on the trail from this point to the south. We ignored a side trail that went to Autumn Hill Lane and continued to Herrontown Road, which on some maps was shown as Poor Farm Road.

Autumn Hill puncheon

All of the farms of this area were pretty much gone by the 1950s. The complete seclusion of this place compared with everywhere we'd been earlier is quite amazing for it being in the Princeton area. We passed over some very nice puncheons as we neared the main parking area.
When we arrived, amazingly Jack and Sarah had just gotten to that very lot! I thought I would have to try to contact them and let them know where they'd need to go, but it worked out almost perfect both with timing and location.

Nice Autumn Hill sign

We took a little break here, and I went over the maps again on what I was planning to do.
Conveniently, there was a trail that was not on any of the maps directly across the street from the entrance to the Autumn Hill Preserve that would get us into the Herrontown Woods Arboretum.
We followed the path into the woods and soon connected with the “blue” trail in the reservation. The trail was very poorly marked, but it was well delineated with sticks enough of the time that we weren’t lost.

Herrontown Woods Arboretum

We continued along, and the well constructed trail had some rocks and suck to keep us from walking in some of the mud. It was still really wet out, and it would be impossible to avoid the mud completely. The blue trail led us to the west, and then turned to the south for a bit. There were many connecting side paths.
At one point, there was a super secure looking place to the right. There were cameras on it close to the trail, and big fences. Google calls it "Center For Comm Research Ida". We steered clear of there.

Herrontown Woods blue trail

The area of Herrontown Woods was an active farm deeded to Mercer County by Princeton Mathemtician Oswald Veblen and his wife Elizabeth in 1957, and additional timber and trap rock quarry properties were purchased and added in the 1970s.
We continud around some nice big rocks, and then to the south side of the preserve. The NJ Trails Association website, which Jen was able to download the the maps for on her phone, did not show the next connection we needed on it, the All Saints Trail. A map was on a small sign.

Blue trail at Herrontown Woods

This must be a relatively newer addition to not have any notation on it. It led to the south through some nice woods to an abandoned road known as Journey's End Lane. It has two branches, and the eastern one looks like it's probably nicer, but we'll do that as part of whatever next hike we do in that area. There are plenty more trails to do in Autumn Hill, Herrontown Woods, and this point. We reached the Journeys End Lane and turned to the left.

Journeys End Lane

The old road was pleasant enough. We followed it and could see where the other end of the All Saints Trail cut into the woods heading back to the northeast. This section is next to the All Saints Church. I can only assume that this connection to the preserve was some sort of donation from the church, but I can't be sure. We continued along the road where we could see the opening in the woods for the church lands, and then reached a sort of end of the road. We had to turn to the right down a set of stone steps.

Journeys End Lane

The berm the road was on appeared to be some sort of sanitary sewer right of way at this point, but the path led us out to a paved cul de sac of Journeys End Lane. This led us down to Terhune Road, which we were on briefly before. We turend right at this intersection, then left on Randall Road.
We followed Randall Road to the south for a bit. This led us out to Grover Avenue just a short distance to the west of where we came out of Grover Park at the beginning of the hike. I reconvened everyone another time for a group shot here before walking back to McCaffreys Market.

Journey's End...

We’d finished earlier than anticipated, and we’d done the hike very close to exactly as I’d scaled it off and planned. I was really happy it went as well as it did, and it leaves me even more optimistic about the next one we do in the area. I’ll be able to plan that one with more certainty of the turns, and less drama when it comes to the bushwhacking and such. I can pretty much do the exact same loop but utilizing different trails from the preserves we passed through to make it more than half a totally different hike!

The group in Grover Park

We just wandered through the store and I drove Jack and Sarah back to Autumn Hill.
Princeton really is an amazing area to explore, with history and nature meshing together in such a way that it never gets boring, and it always seems to be comfortable, even when we’re doing one of my crazy routes.
It’s maddening how much more there is to see, and wondering when I’l get around to seeing it. One of these days...one of these days...