Our next hike would be another point to point after work hike, this time between Hopewell and Princeton. I had planned for a few hikes out of Hopewell, but figured this would be the better one. It would cover more new ground, but also I want to do the best hikes if possible while I’m at Washington’s Crossing because I just don’t know for sure how long I will be there.
A lot of people were scared off from this hike because of the weather. It poured rain most of the day, but even in the extended forecast, most of the rain was to be over by 4 pm. I told everyone interested that it would be fine, but most didn’t believe me. Lerch said he didn’t care, he would go anyway, even though it would be a shit show.
Of course, it ended up being fine. We met in Hopewell behind the liquor store and cemetery, and parked on street. We then shuttled with James’ car to Princeton, to park at a supermarket near the golf course.
We followed a trail along the east side of the golf course for a bit, which led us out to the bridges that go across the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
It was a relief to be out and walking. I really wanted Sunday to be Hike #1000, and for that to happen I had to have one more before it, so this worked out well.
I knew from the start that I had a very diverse winner of a route for this hike as well. It was going to be good. We followed the Delaware and Raritan Canal to the east from here, and the sun was setting beautifully. Over the golf course, we could see brilliant oranges in the clouds.
Sunset on the golf course
We followed the canal towpath to the east until we got to where a side trail goes off to the left into the Institute Woods lands. This would take us to the Swinging Bridge Trail.
The connection with Swinging Bridge Trail and the towpath is often under water, which makes it necessary to walk around a bit. I tried to find the path but lost it. We ended up walking off trail for a little bit until we found it, which resulted in me twisting my ankle again. I’d done it already three times in the past three weeks. After the first time on Mount Rose a few weeks back it’s been easier to keep twising.
Sunset at the golf course
I had to take it easier with the pace from here, unfortunately.
We followed the trail to the Swinging Bridge over the Stony Brook, the first of many times crossing the same brook on this day.
It’s always such a cool bridge to use, and we crossed with no problem, except for Susie’s dogs who were both nervous about it.
We all got across, turned to the left, and followed the trail along the Stony Brook up stream. That led us to other side trails to the right, and we took to one that led north through the propety to the Institute For Advaned Study. We didn’t go into that facility, but rather turned left on the trolley line trail. This was the route of the older trolley to Princeton from Trenton.
D&R Canal
We followed the trolley line only a short distance, and then turned right into an open field. This was part of the Princeton Battlefield, but not the part that is preserved as state park land. This was the section that was the subject of recent controversy due to the Institute’s plans to build a new facility on it. Many believe that the entire remaining battlefield should be preserved. I had not intended to hike this piece, but we turned right too early because my GPS had shown us in the wrong place. I was actually glad we went this way to see it and experience being there before they build something on it and it’s gone.
We crossed the fields and then followed the tree line until there was a break where we could get through to the improved surface path in Princeton Battlefield State Park.
Sunset on D&R Canal
We turned right to follow the path, which took us up to Mercer Road. There is a crosswalk there we used to get to the north side. Amazingly, people stopped to let us pass. This road was insanely busy at this time.
We turned left on the paved trail parallel with Mercer Road heading to the southwest a bit.
Swinging Bridge
Lerch met us at Parkside Drive, where it hits Mercer Road. We continued following the path which goes along the road heading to the west.
It moved away from the road after we crossed over Quaker Road, and then Susie had to cut out to get back to her car, so she made a loop of the start of it.
We soon crossed the pedestrian bridge over Stony Brook, our second crossing. There is a nice view of the historic stone arch bridge that carries Mercer Road over the same from this point.
We continued on the trail parallel with Mercer Road until we got to Hutchinson Drive. We turned right here to follow the road north.
Swinging Bridge
There is a paved path that closely follows this road, which made it rather pleasant to walk, but we first walked along the top of a berm until it got too weedy.
We followed the pathway along Hutchinson to the north (probably named for my Dutch descendants, the Hutchinsons), and then came to Rt 206.
While waiting on the corner at the crosswalk, a bus pulled up and opened it’s doors, mistakenly thinking we were waiting for it. I told them right away that we were good, just waiting to cross. He took off rather fast, but a jackass in a speeding SUV went up behind him, and at a blind corner went right around him across the broken line. We nearly witnessed a bad accident there.
Once across 206, a trail continues parallel with a fence down hill, past a house, and on a boardwalk and built up trail to our third crossing of Stony Brook on another prefabricated metal bridge. Once over, we turned left to follow the beautiful Stony Brook Trail, a simple footpath along the edge of the brook heading north.
We passed the plastic holder that was for loaner walking sticks, and it was disappointing to see that someone had smashed it since my last visit.
We followed this very nice trail as far as Rosedale Road. It joined with a paved path just before that, and we turned left onto the road to cross Stony Brook yet again, our fourth time. We headed up hill on the trail that followed the road until we got to Christopher Drive. I pointed out here how the Johnson Trolley Line, the fast trolley between Princeton and Trenton, crossed here, and we walked a short bit of it’s right of way.
We turned right on Christopher, veered to the right, and then to the left onto a paved trail heading north. It went through a very open area in the middle of an open space field in the development. It was a beautiful place to be because the starts were so incredibly bright. Even with the ambient light of the homes, we could see them all very clearly.
When we got to the intersection of paved paths, we turned right and crossed over Christopher Drive. The paved path followed a power line and then veered to the right into the woods, but we kept going down hill on the power line, then cut onto a trail through the woods to the left. This was the Ent Farm Trail, another simple foot path.
The trail had very tight switchbacks heading down hill. I had followed some of this trail in the past, but this section had not yet been developed, so this was new to me. We got down close to the Stony Brook, and another trail went right. We turned left though.
We followed trail in a very beautiful stretch of the Stony Brook through nice woods, and eventually came out to the abandoned section of Province Line Road, at the historic triple pony truss bridge we’d also used recently. We crossed Stony Brook here for the fifth and final time on the main branch.
After going up hill on the road, we turned left on Pretty Brook Road. Province Line Road and this road are the designated routes of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, but I’d never walked the Pretty Brook section. A lady pulled up to us soon after we’d turned and asked if we were hiking. She was friendly and I don’t think she thought it was anything suspicious.
LHT Map
Pretty Brook Road had a spring running along it, and barely any traffic. I think we passed two cars the entire stretch. It was really quite nice. We followed it as far as a ninety degree bend where it changed names to Cleveland Road. I think Pretty Brook Road once went straight at the turn, because there is a clear woods road that goes all the way out to Carter Road from here, but is no longer a public thoroughfare.
We turned to the right into the fields, and headed to the north. My plan was to go around big commercial building sites following the tree lines, and then come out to Carter Road on the north side. This of course did not go as planned, which is fine because we can’t expect everything to just work out like that.
The field was terribly wet. I mean so terribly wet that there was no way of walking through it without getting our feet drenched. It was like a gravity defying bog, where we could see that we were higher up than the nearby parking lot, but were still sopping wet above the ankles. We made our way out to the edge of the parking area to continue to the north from there.
We walked around a large building, and no one seemed to be around. There were a couple of cars in the parking lot, but nothing really going on. When we got to the north side of the facility, there was a paved trail going into the woods. We followed this, and it took us on through to the next commercial facility.
We turned right at the end of the trail, parallel with the parking area, but remained on the grass. I figured we were good at this point. We were skirting public land, because we could see the signs for it to the right of us, and we seemed to be at an even less occupied building. Just as we were walking the wood line along the east side of the building, a guy was bringing a garbage bag outside to the dumpster. He saw all of us go by.
I figured this guy is definitely calling the police if he saw us. There were no signs saying “no trespassing” anywhere, and we were just walking the grass, but we probably did look suspicious. And I was wearing my suit and tie.
We hurried along the north side of the place, and no one was coming out. We were getting close to Carter Road, and I had everyone wait until we were all together and no cars were coming on Carter Road before leaving that property. There was a big Norway Spruce on the corner that provided some cover if we needed it.
The next leg of the hike I had found by accident. I’d seen it looking over aerial images.
LHT symbol
The Lawrence-Hopewell Trail is not yet complete, but it showed on the map where the proposed route was. When I was planning this hike, I noticed that there was a paved trail parallel with Pennington-Rocky Hill Road. I then saw construction equipment. This I knew was the future Lawrence-Hopewell Trail. I also knew that if it were appearing on aerial images now, and I could see a route through the woods, that it was probably now complete. I planned to use it immediately as part of this hike.
The trail entered the woods right across from the corner of the property we were on along Carter Road, so when no one was around, we dashed across and got on the trail.
Having not had a problem, we were feeling particularly celebratory. Everything would be fine now, and we’d have a more relaxing walk on back to Hopewell. Or not.
The others went ahead and I held back to relieve myself. When I’d gotten done and was walking back to connect with everyone, I heard Lerch’s voice quickly and assertively say “MIKE - CAR!”. I could see unnatural light coming from back through the woods.
I didn’t have to hear any more. There was thick weeds and wetlands on both sides, but I chose the left. I dashed through a barrier of weeds, and then laid down with my entire left side in the water. An SUV slowly cruised by me as I cautiously peered over my shoulder from the muck.
I let the cruiser get around the bend to where I was sure I couldn’t be seen, then ran back out into the trail. My left side was completely soaked, including the pocket I kept my cell phone in. I didn’t have time to check it. I could see that the car had stopped at the intersection of Carter Road and the trail. I watched it for just a moment to see if it was pulling a K turn. It was not pulling out onto the road, so I took off running back to the others.
Lerch explained that he had seen the red tail lights as they walked ahead, and then the car suddenly started making a K turn up there, so he and Varsha ran into the woods. He told James and Jen to drop, and they did, and were fortunately not seen. We moved ahead quickly because we didn’t know if he was coming back. My heart was racing. I wanted to get to a point where we could safely dash together if we needed to.
The trail took us across a little bridge, which I thought might be too narrow for a car to cross, but then we saw tracks over it. We took a quick break to gain composure, then moved on along the path, which soon came out to parallel Carter Road. I felt better at that point as we followed parallel to the left side of the road.
Interesting...
A few cars went by while we were along Carter, but no one stopped. We paused for a moment at a brick building that read “Mount Rose Distillery” on it. This sounded quite interesting, and rather quickly we were less on edge about everything.
We continued on across Baily Court, and the trail crossed Carter Road to a field on the right. Jen was freezing cold and ready to call an Uber to get back early. I had a spare jacket and Lerch had some gloves, and she was able to go on after we gave her those. Surprisingly, despite having my entire left side soaked, and the fact that I was only wearing a blazer and button down shirt without a heavy jacket, I was not really cold. Quite comfortable actually.
Venus and Mars are alright tonight, but this isn't them
Lerch went ahead and found that the trail ended with a sort of trail cul de sac. It wasn’t completed like the rest of it here, so we’d have to continue down Pennington-Rocky Hill Road and do the road walk section next. James pointed out what looked like two planets, Venus and Mars, in the sky to the south. At first, it did look like them. In fact, I thought that it looked very reminiscent of the Paul McCartney and Wings Album, Venus and Mars, from 1975. It turned out it wasn’t Venus and Mars, but rather slow moving (from our perspective) planes coming out of the Trenton/Mercer Airport. Oh well.
Venus and Mars album cover by McCartney & Wings
We headed to the south for a bit in the fields parallel with Pennington-Rocky Hill Road, then had to walk right on the road. When we got to Moores Mill-Mt. Rose Road, we turned to the right. We then made a left turn into a development onto Weldon Way. These back streets are the official route of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail (for now).
At the corner of Moores Mill-Mt. Rose Road and Weldon was a nativity setting, which James and Lerch had to pose with.
We continued south from here and turned right on Howard Way. We continued to a left turn on Wescott Blvd, and stopped for a break along the way on a curve so Jen could change her wet socks. I think she was the only one who thought to bring socks on this one. Actually James might have but didn’t change them.
Nativity
We turned right from Wescott onto Bradford Lane and followed it out to Wargo Road where we turned to the right.
I didn’t know it at the time, but we probably could have cut into the woods from Wargo directly and gotten to the trail system in Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, but we didn’t. I’d probably rather check it out during the daytime to be sure we could get through before trying something like that anyway. We followed Wargo Road to the south, the official LH Trail route, and it took us onto a built up causeway before crossing the Honey Branch, a branch of the Stony Brook. This could be considered our sixth crossing of the stream.
Nativity
On the other side was the trail head into Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed lands. The last time we were here, there were two cars in the lot. This time, there was a nice Ford Mustang in the lot. I found this to be quite strange. There is no house back there in this section, and no hunters would be back there using a Mustang, especially with no rack attached to carry a deer out with. I just tried not to think about it and we wandered on through. The first bit is a woods road, and it leads to an area with a barn. There was no one to be found anywhere. We passed the barn and then turned onto the trail that connects through the Thompson Property, which leads to Mount Rose section.
Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Trails to Hopewell
The trail went along the pond, then turned away to the north. The previous time we were out here it was so dry we could walk just about anywhere, even though there are puncheons along the left side of the trail. This time, we actually needed to use those puncheons. It was quite wet.
We headed to the north and crossed Moores Mill-Mt. Rose Road, then skirted field edges more to the north to cross Crusher Road. Most of this entire section was really easy, and relatively level. It wasn’t until north of Crusher Road that it got kind of rocky.
We reconvened at the top of the hill where there are two wooden seats. From then, we headed down hill, and I twisted my ankle again. It was slow going for me to the end. I couldn’t believe I did it again, at the same place that I twisted it initially.
Arrived in Hopewell
The trail leveled off, and we followed the path through fields out to Pennington-Hopewell Road. Lerch and Varsha decided to head onward the short distance on road to the cars, and James and Jen were still back in the preserve well behind me. I waited until they made it back out to the road and then continued on.
We arrived at Mercer Street where we were parked in pretty short order. Jen got James back to his car and Varsha took Lerch back to his, and I was able to head directly home. Five AM comes very early, so it’s always a help to be at least headed in the direction I need to go.
This hike was a great blend of diverse terrain and scenery, relaxation and excitement. Lerch called me the next night, having realized the scenario was probably that the guy we saw bringing out the trash called police, who were just cruising down the trail, and had stopped to make the “K” turn in the middle of the trail to answer the call, because there is no way anyone in their right mind would want to make a K turn out there for any other reason. It made perfect sense!
All’s well that ends well, and it was a really great route and unforgettable experiences to add to our ever growing museums of recollection.
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