Hike #989; Princeton to Pennington

Hike #989; Princeton to Pennington

11/23/16 Princeton to Pennington with James Quinn, Jennifer Berndt, John M. Kosar, Tom Kosar, Dan Asnis, Eric Gregorich, and Shayna Michaels with the pups.

This would be another night hike, point to point, down near my place of work at Washington’s Crossing State Park. I still don’t know how long I’ll be there, so I figure I will post the best hikes closest to that area first and keep the quality going.

I met the group at Pennington Market after work, and we shuttled with as few vehicles as we could to the south, to a Trader Joe’s just outside of Princeton.
My plan was to cover some of the awesome Princeton trails as well as other stuff coming back to Pennington. There’s really a ton to see.
We started walking out behind Trader Joe’s after Dan and Jen went in for stuff, and then climbed a hill toward Meadow Road. We had to bushwhack only a very short distance before reaching the road, which had a good sidewalk on it. We then continued across a grassy area to Wheeler Way. We crossed the road, paralleled another development road, then took a side path that led us onto a utility right of way behind.

Clearing near the canal and rail bed

This route is closely parallel to the old Camden and Amboy Railroad that had followed the south side of the Delaware and Raritan Canal. We followed this clear path to the northeast for a bit, behind the development homes closer to Princeton.
There was one woman jogging on it that looked as though she was taken by surprise when we walked toward her. She asked if this was anything special, to which I responded that it was, but further that it was in fact just a hike, but every hike is special.
We made our way along this path further to the east from there, and another side path led to the left, and soon picked up the certain former Camden and Amboy Railroad bed. We turned right to follow that further to the east.

Path

We followed the rail bed to the east, and got to a point where there was a missing bridge at an inlet of a little stream. Fortunately, we were able to go to the right to cross it safely. We soon reached the end of Canal Road, a little road with a couple of homes on it that follows the former rail bed, then came out to Alexander Road. We turned left here, crossed the canal towpath, then continued past Turning Basin Park and then left onto West Drive. A guy came turning out of a college building to the right of us, and seemed quite surprised that we were walking in the road. He had one headlight out, and probably couldn’t see us all that well. I should have freaked out and made a bigger scene, it would have been funnier.
We continued to the left on another narrow side road that leads to some sort of water treatment area or something. We continued almost to the gate, and checked out a wildlife viewing platform over the Rogers Refuge. We had gone only slightly too far, so we had to climb back down and backtrack a bit to get on part of the Marsh Trail.

The trail map

The Marsh Trail took us along the north side of the wetland we had observed from the platform on the east side. It led us to yet another platform with a nice view of the wetland again. It’s really nice to see these spots at night, very interesting, and there’s still enough ambient light to see stuff.

Marsh Trail came out to a wider trail called Founders Walk. I stopped everyone there briefly to tell them about the plan to develop some of the Princeton Battlefield site that was not preserved as part of the current state park. We were now in Institute Woods, and the Institute was to build a new building on part of the historic battlefield, which has fallen upon much scrutiny.
We continued on the Founders Walk to the left until we got to the Stony Brook and brook side trail, where the Swinging Bridge Trail continues straight toward the canal.
The Swinging Bridge is one of only two swinging bridges I know of in the state of NJ (the other is on Ridge and Valley Trail at Camp Mason in Warren County.).

Eric on the bridge

We all crossed the bridge, which is always really cool, and especially silly at night. The trail then took us through more woods heading to the south, to an inlet on the Stony Brook. A lot of the time, this trail is impassable due to high water, but it was so dry this time we were able to walk right across with no problem at all.

Swinging Bridge

We turned right on the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath, which is wide and very easy from here, and followed it for a good distance to the east.
We passed the Princeton Country Club with it’s two bridges over the canal, and then came to where it was closely parallel with Quaker Road. A side trail leads parallel with the road from here.
We continued along the trail, which remained sort of low, out of sight from the cars, but still very close to the road. Quakerbridge Road soon crossed over the canal, and Dan pointed out that there was a lock tender’s house on the south side, across from us. We wouldn’t go over there, even though there was also a path on that side (probably the rail bed). We instead stayed on the clear path, higher up away from the canal to Province Line Road ahead. The path led beneath Province Line Road’s somewhat newer bridge, and we continued further once again.

Break time

We stopped for a break when we got to the intersection with the Lawrence Hopewell Trail.
I had done hikes on this in the past, trying to follow it’s route, which is over twenty miles, all over this part of Mercer County. Some sections I had walked before it was even developed formally and completed. We ended up spending a lot of time on roads, and we got kicked out of the Bristol-Meyers Squibb property by their security who weren’t aware that the trail had gotten permission to come through yet.
It was really cool to finally get to see this trail that I’d spent a good deal of time trying to follow, getting lost the entire way.

Hiking the future staked out route of Lawrence Hopewell Trail in late 2009

We followed the trail into the woods, which was on a large berm. It was almost like another railroad bed, but it couldn’t be I don’t think, as I don’t know of any of them that were in this particular area.
The trail emerged at an historic home with a sign. There was apparently someone living there, so we hurried by. We then came out on roads at a commercial site.

LHT signage

The trail was simply marked along sidewalks and lightly used roads through this area. There were really no other cars around, and it was an interesting little walk past the big buildings.
The trail turned right, and I think had been rerouted off of an old roadway that went through the site. We switched from the right to left side of the road on a paved path, and then soon crossed over Princeton Pike. I had followed this section here before, in 2009, before it was developed. We walked slightly up hill as the trail led away from Princeton Pike. The crossing had very interesting talking boxes that said “Wait” but went on to say “To cross Princeton Pike”.

Big commercial building

We went up hill, above a parking area for a large building full of bright windows. We could see inside to every office in the place. It was actually pretty cool to see this time of night. Several cars were still in the lot, but not many people could be seen working inside.
The trail continued a bit further up hill, and then turned to the right to cross over Lewisville Road next to a house.
We walked by, and the trail continued out through open area with a baseball field to the right and other fields to the left. When we got to the tree line on the other side, the trail hung a left and continued heading west.
The trail turned right on the Lawrenceville School access road. This was the only part I was a bit concerned about, because it was some sort of prep school.

Scaffold

We did’nt stay on the road. We left the trail route and went left soon on a path that skirted more fields from above. When we got to the end of the fields, we turned right, to the north and walked toward the school more. We had to stop along the way, because there was a cool scaffolding thing up next to the place. John, Tom, and I climbed up it immediately, which was pretty cool.
We continued from here away from the fields toward the buildings, then went to the right and across a parking lot to the road that was the route of Lawrence Hopewell Trail. I didn’t want to stay right on the road, so we cut to the right into the grass, which paralleled it, but in the dark we wouldn’t be bothering anyone over there.
We paralleled a golf course and continued north toward Rt 202, Lawrenceville Road in Lawrenceville. I didn’t realize it at the time, but we had walked across a golf course. I remember crossing one of the sand traps and wondering what it was! When we got close to the road, there was a black fence blocking the way. We were able to scale a section of chain link that was low, next to a higher section of chain link right next to it, to get us to the Temple Micah, a church and cemetery.

LHT Map

We continued in front of the church, then came to the other entrance to Lawrenceville School, where we rejoined the trail route. The trail route actually went up Gordon Avenue straight ahead, but we turned left further into town so that we could stop by TJ’s Pizza. They had some pretty good stuff as I recall.
We had some good pizza and then made our way up Phillips Avenue to the Johnson Trolley Line right of way, now part of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail for a block.

Johnson Trolley line

The Johnson Trolley Line was the fast line to Princeton from Trenton, which was in operation from 1901 to 1940 as a trolley, and the southern end from Trenton to Lawrenceville was used as a freight railroad after that until the seventies when it was truncated by Interstate 95.

Historic trolley

We turned left to follow the trolley right of way for a block, then turned right on the LHT route heading north on Cravens Lane.
The trail went through a pathway section between two dead ends of Cravens Lane, then crossed over Bergen Street. We turned right there, then soon after the vehicle entrance, turned left into Village Park on more of Lawrence Hopewell Trail off road.
We kept to the right side of the park, which was a nice pleasant walk for a while, but when we neared the north section, Dan realized that he’d lost his cell phone. Fortunately, Jen had her find my phone app on her phone, and they were able to pinpoint the location of the phone. A few of us waited back at a bench in the park while James and Jen went with Dan to help him find his phone. They found right where it was, and were soon back. We continued out of Village Park heading north.
Soon, we crossed Shipetauken Creek followed by Keefe Road. We remained on Lawrence Hopewell Trail from here into the Mercer Meadows Preserve, formerly the Pole Farm.

The Pole Farm section of Mercer Meadows was originally the location of the American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) shortwave international telecommunication station from 1929-1975. To create their facility, AT&T purchased several family farms, relocated the farmhouses, and clear-cut much of the property. Two transmitter buildings were constructed on the southern end of the property, and the remaining fields housed the steel antenna arrays and later, many rhombic antennas. These fields were grazed by a local farmer's livestock. Farming continued on much of the property until Mercer County purchased the land in 1998.
I’d done many hikes on the tract in the past, well before the trail system as it exists today was in place.

Last leg of the hike, Pole Farm, Rosedale Lake, and Curlis Lake Woods

I started hiking it when the trails through were nothign more than grassy mowed pathways that went all over the place. They weren’t really even mowed well at all. There were a couple of the trails that were paved roadways, and I think some of those are what became Lawrence Hopewell Trail. Even that main trail has been moved from what is shown on the current maps.

Pole Farm in 2009 on one of my hikes

We turned left from Lawrence Hopewell Trail to the left, heading to the west. There was soon a tall observation platform to check out. It looked really cool, so we had to go up and check it out. The steps to it were lighted, probably in case they had any night programs.
We didn’t hang out too long, and continued on the trail heading to the west, then cut through a section of woods heading to the north. This trail turned into a really nice section of boardwalk before coming out to another grassy field area.
I was surprised in the next open area to find yet another observation tower. We stopped again to check this one out before moving onward.
We reached a paved access road at some point, which was where we had been in this preserve on a previous night hike. We turned left briefly, then right onto a grassy path heading north again. Everyone ahead of me almost went straight.
The trail led to a power line, which we followed to the right until we got back to Lawrence Hopewell Trail, in the section that differed from what was shown on the maps.

At the tower

We followed the trail north into Rosedale Park after crossing Blackwell Road. We went through nice woods, and turned left onto a wider trail following an old roadway after a bit.
The trail then came out to the spillway at Rosedale Lake, a really pretty spot.
We continued along the path through the open part of the park, and then headed to cross the park entrance road followed by Federal City Road.
My intention from here was to walk the road briefly and use Lawrence Hopewell Trail, but I instead decided that Curlis Lake Woods was better. I told Shayna if she wanted an early out, she could follow the road to the right to get there. We all stuck together though.
When Lawrence Hopewell Trail turned right into a lighted farm area with a house, we continued straight on a mowed pathway. This led through the Mercer County Farm Park, south around the fences, and then north again on the other side until we got to the path that went to Curlis Lake.
We continued through Curlis Lake Woods on the foot trail we had used on the previous hike here. Once we crossed the brook outlet of Curlis Lake, it was an easy old road route heading to the southwest to get to Main Street in Pennington.
We turned right there, then left and right again on Burd Avenue. We continued on Burd until we got to the entrance to the Pennington School, opened the metal gate, and walked a portion of the running track, then the paths going right between the buildings of the school out to Delaware Avenue. We emerged perfectly from the school property onto the road at the incline to the overpass of the former Reading Railroad. We turned left across the tracks, and then left into the Pennington Shopping Center parking lot to conclude the hike.