Hike #1290; Pennington and Hopewell Loop

Hike #1290; Pennington and Hopewell Loop

1/18/20 Pennington and Hopewell with Jennifer Berndt, Kirk Rohn, John DiFiore, Brittany Audrey, and Justin Gurbisz

This next hike would be a loop around the area of Pennington and Hopewell NJ.
Originally, I had planned to do a hike in Westchester County NY, but the projected amounts of snow made that look like a bad idea, so I changed venues when it wasn’t too late.

Old Pennington Station on Mercer and Somerset

I have already explored much of the area extensively, but there are still several trails I’ve never been on. Further, even some of the ones I had already done were only done in the dark during night hikes when I was stationed at Washington’s Crossing, so I till hadn’t really “seen” them the way I wanted to yet.
I decided I would try to put a hike together that would begin at Pennington Market, the mom and pop full size grocery store in town, because we would be able to park without problem even with snow cover.

Ultimate torture device found on the ball field

I came up with a diverse route that I thought would work perfect with the snow coming, and despite having a few unexpected things come up, it ended up being an excellent day.
I headed over from the parking lot at the start to get a photo of the original Pennington Railroad Station.
There is an active track behind the grocery store, but that was the former Reading, built as the National Railway.
The original railroad to town was the Mercer and Somerset, chartered in 1870 and completed in 1874. It was rather haphazardly and quickly built, because the main reason for it was to block the National Railway from being built. If there was already a railroad serving the area the proposed National Railroad would serve, between the Delaware River and Bound Brook NJ, they might not be able to justify having the National Railway.
The Camden and Amboy held a monopoly over the area between New York City and Philadelphia, which expired in 1869, at which time the idea for an “Air Line” (which was shortest distance drain “in the air” over a map between two points) between Washington DC and New York City came up.

Old coal trestle in Pennington

In 1876, there was what was known as a “Frog War” in Hopewell, just to the north, when a Mercer and Somerset train blocked and would not allow passage of a train on the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad, which was the segment of the National Railway under construction here.
The Governor ended up getting involved and the Delaware and Bound Brook/National Railway plan was allowed to continue without incident.
The Delaware and Bound Brook portion of the National Railway was completed in 1879, and turned over to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad for operation in a 999 year lease.

Former Reading Railroad station in Pennington, built 1882

The Mercer and Somerset was operated by the Belvidere Delaware Railroad for a time, which became part of the Pennyslvania Railroad (which funded the construction anyway).

Tree and tire

The Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad was much straighter and had a better grade, and so the Mercer and Somerset, with it’s sharper curves and poorer grading, could not complete.
The line was abandoned and dismantled by 1880. Today, very little remains to see of the line unless you really know what you’re looking for. I did a series of hikes to trace it, but there’s still always some more I can find if I look.
We all went into the store and got whatever we needed, and then were on our way from the lot. No one was really into hearing all of the above history, so I spared them that, and we moved on.
We walked south from the market onto Delaware Avenue, turned right and crossed over the tracks on a bridge. We then turned to the left into a town park with ball fields.
Skirting the left side, Kirk found some sort of odd cross sticks with nails all sticking out of them. There was some kind of joke that it was a torture device for misbehaving children as well as other far more offensive things.
We came off the end of the park to Green Street and headed north, where we reached the beautiful old Pennington Station, a three story stone facade structure.

Watching the train

The station was designed by Daniel A. Clarkson and built by Irish laborers.
Passenger service was popular in its day, and Roosevelt even stopped his Bull Moose campaign at the site.
Passenger service ended on the line in 1982, and I think to this station it might have been an earlier drop.
We passed around the station, which appears to have some apartments in it now, and made our way along the tracks just beyond. I could see lights in the distance, so we decided to wait and watch the train pass by when it arrived.

Train spotting

CSX now operates the freight on the line. There is an old coal trestle just south of this area, with some stone piers and other brick ones, which means it was probably extended at one time.
Everyone also checked out some sort of barn building that had an advertisement for some sort of food or something we’d never heard of. I can’t remember what it was called.
Once the train was passed, we continued onto the tracks for a short distance ahead to the bridge that carries North Main Street over the tracks. The abutments to the predecessor of this bridge are just beyond.

Baldwin Lake WMA

Once through, we climbed up hill to the right on a narrow deer path to reach parking for Baldwin Lake Wildlife Management Area. I’d hiked through here many times before, and always loved it. It’s a really beautiful swath of woods that isn’t quite what people expect when they think of Mercer County.
We headed down hill through woods, then turned to the right and soon followed along the shore of Baldwin Lake, which has several houses along its northern shore.
We followed along the lake shore to the dam, and then checked out the spillway.

Baldwin Lake

Justin climbed down to have a closer look, but didn’t get on top of the thing.
From there, we headed into the woods on the Pennington Nature Trail. We followed the green blazed trail with the D&L Greenways logo on it. There are several trails out through there, but we kept to the one that was closest to the Stony Brook.
Soon, we came out to Kunkel Park on King George Road. We turned left on the road there, and paralleled the edge along the Stony Brook. This led us out to Pennington-Rocky Hill Road where a spur of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail begins.

Baldwin Lake view

The Lawrence-Hopewell Trail is a really interesting long trail, about 22 miles total, which forms a loop between the areas below Hopewell, Pennington, and Lawrenceville.

Baldwin Lake

It’s intended as a multi use path, often paved, or if not, crushed stone surface. Using this trail adds a little difference between just foot paths and such. Some great diversity.
The trail took us across the Stony Brook, then turned slightly away from the road. It was always close to the edge, but never so much so that it was not enjoyably.
We continued along, and the trail skirted the properties of Bristol Meyers-Squibb.

Pennington Nature Trail

The spur of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail met the main branch just ahead at a crossing. We then continued straight, or north, on the main branch of it.
We continued around Bristol Meyers-Squibb, crossed Elm Ridge Road, and then a farm access as well as a couple of accesses to the industrial property. We eventually came to the intersection with Titus Mill Road where the trail turned to the left to parallel it.

Stony Brook view on Pennington Nature Trail

A line of trees separated us from the road in this pleasant section, and we continued to the intersection with Wargo Road on the right, where the trail turns right to follow it.
I had planned to walk north along Wargo to the trail intersection near a pond in Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association lands, but then I saw a new trail had been constructed.

Nice that they didn't rip the tree out

The new trail was another spur of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail to connect to the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association Headquarters. I decided we’d go that way.

Lawrence-Hopewell Trail

The paved path ended at the access road to their main office building, which is a beautiful old home. I’m not sure about the history of any of it.
There was a giant felled tree in front of it, much of it hollow, which we checked out. We then turned to the left to the rather new Watershe Center. We could see a guy walking around inside through windows, and there was a sign on the door reading that the place was open, but the doors were all locked. That seemed rather strange. There was also a guy out and about looking at plants or something, and he seemed like he worked there.

Lawrence Hopewell Trail connector to SBMWA

Some of the trails had signs on them that they were closed for hunting season. Other ones didn’t have them. To the right of the center there were no signs, but directly behind it there was one, and then a sort of tent shelter set up right on the boardwalk I assumed people were hunting out of.
We took to the field trail section, and Justin and Brittany went around another way around the outside. My group passed along field edges and then went through a section of woods with something like an outdoor classroom, and then a fire ring with benches around it.

At Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association

Justin and Brittany rejoined us just to the north of that area, and we turned onto the blue blazed Watershed Trail going north.
The Watershed Trail is now a much longer through route than it used to be. The first time I hiked up this way, it didn’t go all the way through to the north. The trail was just a segment that went to the pond in the middle section, and the southern end of that trail was at the time called the Four Season Trail, and it was a loop. Now, it’s just an out and back trail rather than a loop.

SBMWA office building

We soon reached a barn building, and there was a truck parked there. We continued on the blue trail a bit, but then could hear power tools going off. I didn’t want to bother whoever was down there, so we turned right on the access road back out toward Wargo Road, and then went to the left into the trail along the pond.
I walked out to Wargo Road first to see if there were any signs saying that trails were closed, and there was nothing, so I figured we were good. We continued around the east side of the pond.

Giant dead tree

We could hear and see whoever was working from this area again. They seemed to be building a wildlife observation blind.
We continued around to the Watershed Trail, and took it north through the woods.
The snow started coming at about this time, and it was accumulating pretty surprisingly fast.
This section of trail is really cool because such a huge amount of it is puncheons (simple bog bridges laying on the ground on wet areas rather than a regular bridge or fill work).

Brittany in her coop

We weaved around a lot on this route, which I had never followed completely during daylight hours.
It was weird just ahead when we passed some nice cameras set up across the trail. We decided to walk around them to the right rather than have them go off for us.
Soon, we came out to Moore’s Mills-Mt. Rose Road. There was parking to the right, but no one parked there, so I figured it wasn’t a problem. There were also no signs here saying anything about the property being closed at all.

SBMWA boardwalk

We moved through the woods to the road though, and there was an orange chain across with a closed for hunting sign close by. We stepped over it and back to the road.

Wargo Pond

On the other side, the Watershed Trail continued, but this spot had orange chain and closed for hunting signs as well. There was also a large group of hunters all wearing orange walking just ahead of us on the trail. We decided to amend the hike and not bother to go through that area.
I do need to return to that very spot for some more hikes. There are tons more trails in the area I’ve never done. Already from what we had covered, there were some of the rehabilitated trails at Stony Brook-Millstone that I’d not seen.

Watershed Trail

Just ahead of Moores Mills-Mt. Rose Road, there was also the Elks Preserve which is a side loop off of the main trail, as well as another secondary loop off the main trail. I’ve never done either of those, in daylight, night, or otherwise. I could make pretty much another entire hike of just about the same stuff, ending in Hopewell, and have it be majorly different.
This time, we would have to turn right on Moores Mills-Mt. Rose Road. I wasn’t particularly happy about having to change it, but we could still see some more stuff anyway.

Watershed Trail

We followed the road, which was already heavily coated with snow at this point, to the intersection with Wargo Road. A guy with an oddly curled white mustache walking from the other way recommended we keep going straight, but I was considering going back down Wargo to connect with the official Lawrence-Hopewell Trail route.
I changed my mind about that when I realized that all of that was going to be road walk.

Puncheons on Watershed Trail

Cars were blasting by us like idiots on this road. It’s no wonder so many accidents happen in icy weather. It was absolutely stupid how fast some people were going.

Bigfoot area?

The Lawrence-Hopewell Trail rejoins the road we were walking at the intersection of Weldon Way. From there, it will eventually cross directly over and connect with an otherwise unconnected section that comes out in fields just to the north on Pennington-Rocky Hill Road.
We turned left when we reached Pennington-Rocky Hill Road, and then soon came to a section of field where we could follow along the edge. Surveyors stakes showed where right of way ended, and this could become part of the future trail.

After a little bit, we came to where that dead end section of trail comes in from the fields to the left. The trail crosses over the road, and then parallels it to the north.
After a short distance, we passed by the Mt. Rose Distillery, an old brick building on the right directly beside the current trail.
This is known as "The Wiskey House". An Apple Jack distillery first opened in Mt. Rose, an unincoprorated community in Hopewell Township NJ, on part of Rocky Hill, in the mid 1800s.

The trail near Mt. Rose

The first store was opened on Mt. Rose around 1822, and various other businesses followed.
The settlement itself is named because roses were once grown in the area.
At it's peak, Mt. Rose had about twenty homes. Nathaniel Drake opened the distillery where he made and sold peach brandy, apple cider and apple whiskey. The Wiskey House was the office building for the distillery, and is the only remaining Drake family building. A local entrepreneur is re-establishing the distillery at Mt. Rose. Unfortunately, nothing was open for us to partake this time.

Mt Rose Preserve

I was glad to finally be doing this section in the daylight. I had done it a couple of times before when I was working at Washington’s Crossing and have some crazy memories.

Lawrence-Hopewell Trail

The last time I walked through the thing, I ended up losing my phone. It’s one of only three phones I have ever lost since I started using a cell phone (one of them was over by Panther Valley in 2007, and the second was on my anniversary hike in Washington).
On this one, we had walked this stretch, and then cut through another Bristol Meyers-Squibb property where I probably dropped it in the dark. At the time, I figured I’d find it because it’d be out in the open.

Side trail from Lawrence-Hopewell Trail

Unfortunately, I never did and it was gone.
The other experience was at night when we were walking through, and a cop car came up on us, right on the trail. We all had to duck off into the weeds to avoid him.
I had been on one section during daylight when I drove my car onto it looking for my phone, but that was it.
We entered the woods, and crossed over streams over little bridges, starting with the Honey Brook. Just a little past there, there was a trail to the right and a sign that read “Bear Trail”. This was not there the last time I came through.

Mt. Rose Preserve map

I considered turning off and following this trail, but it was still a while before we would get to Hopewell, and I didn’t want to push it too far, but I was quite curious.

Lawrence Hopewell Trail

It turns out, this was now the Mt. Rose Preserve, and it’s a lot larger than I ever would have thought it to be. The Bear Trail leads to a large loop within this preserve I’ll just have to make sure I get back to somewhat soon.
Furthermore, it seems the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail has also been extended, and is open though unimproved on the other side. Definitely more to do.
When we started getting close to Carter Road, we cut through the weeds and then out to it to turn left.

Mt. Rose

We followed Carter Road to the north from here into the main center of the settlement of Mt. Rose, a cute little place. It’s easy to picture the settlement having its store and blacksmith shop. Some of the buildings are probably the larger residences in the middle of the town.
Traffic is far faster through here than it should be for such a little place. We turned right on Cherry Valley Road here, and continued only a short distance before a left turn on Aunt Molly Road, where there was an old barn off in the woods ready to collapse. The road went from pavement to dirt surface.

Old barn

The road was much nicer than I anticipated it would be. We had a nice walk down that with very little traffic, and passed by a farm with some cows.
Eventually, we came to where we were bordering the St. Michael’s Farm Preserve on the left.
We turned up hill on that, off trail, until we got to the edge of the fields where there was a trail going around the outside.
I had done at least two hikes through this preserve before as night hikes, and we did these sections earlier on so I actually got to see some of these. It’s a great area for sunsets actually.

St. Michael's Farm Preserve

The snow had pretty much stopped by this time, and the accumulation was not deep at all, so it was still easy walking.
In fact, I didn’t even realize that Aunt Molly Road was dirt because of the snow cover.
The preserve was formerly the site of St. Michael’s Orphanage and Industrial School which was operated by the Catholic Diocese of Trenton from 1896 until 1973. After the orphanage was closed the building where they lived and went to school was torn down and most of the land was leased to a local farmer.

HOORAY!

Despite plans to develop the land, D&R Greenways eventually purchased it to turn it into the preserve. There are now trails around the outsides of almost all of the fields.

Beden's Brook

We turned right to follow the field edges to the north for a bit. The fields were bordered by some tall wire fences to keep the deer out of them.
We passed over a small Beden Brook tributary on an odd roll metal bridge, and then turned left through some woods.
We took a little break at a nice overlook spot with a bench and interpretive signs. We could see out across most all of the meadows from there.

McComb Barn

We headed across a section of field from the overlook to the west, then turned right, north to the Beden Brook, left through the field parallel with it, and then right to cross it.

St. Michael's Farm Preserve

We then headed straight toward the barn in the middle of the preserve.
This was the McComb Barn, originally built in 1840 in Belle Mead NJ. It was dismantled at that location and saved by barn collector, Dr. David Reynolds. A trustee for D&R Greenway Land Trust, Dr. Reynolds donated the barn for use at the St. Michael's Farm Preserve. It’s now used to store a tractor and materials and such for use on the preserve. There is a wind vane on top of it that has “D&R Greenways” written on it.

Historic orphanage image

Once at the barns, we turned somewhat to the left and started heading near the northwest side of the preserve. I think we walked almost right through where the orphanage stood.

Park in Hopewell

There was a nice historic marker about the orphanage in the park, which I don’t remember seeing before.
We made our way out to Hopewell-Princeton Road, and then crossed over to a gas station where we could take a brief break. Justin found a soccer ball or something we kicked around against the wall for a bit.
From there, we turned into a large ball field area directly to the west of the gas station.

Along Beden Brook in Hopewell

We headed north when we reached the wood line, and followed the trail parallel with Beden Brook. It took us past a building made to look old, but is probably just a sewage ejector.

In Hopewell

We continued on the trail ahead, and there was a lovely scene of trees, woods, and a foot bridge to the left. They had a very nice large playground, but we couldn’t goof off on it because there were too many kids around.
There was a pretty pavilion/bandstand in the middle of the park, so that seemed like the obvious place to try a group shot. From there, we were not far from the spot we figured would be the best lunch option: the Hopewell Valley Bistro and Inn. It was only about two blocks away.

Pavilion

One of the trails in this little park is apparently called “Frog War Trail”, but it is not part of the old Mercer and Somerset Railroad. Through Hopewell, it was immediately parallel with the existing former Reading Railroad.
We headed up into a parking lot as I recall, and around the back of a gutted building with open windows. Of course, I could not resist the urge to see, so some of us stepped over through the window to have a look inside. It looks like it’s just getting renovated, nothing too special.

The group in the pavilion

I made my way out the window on the other side of the building, which was right behind the Inn we were heading for, and a sidewalk led between it and the building next door.

Eu 'splorin

The place was nice. It didn’t seem overly upscale, and it wasn’t too busy. There was only one other group, a rare occasion of one larger than ours, in the back of the place. We were seated in the very front.
The building was definitely late 1800s construction, but I’m not sure exactly the date of construction. It’s the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Hopewell, with the same family owning it for over forty years. They didn’t have a huge selection on the menu, but I thought the food was good. I think everyone else was more just that it was “okay”.

Hopewell Bistro

I got some kind of Bistro Melt special or something I think it was. It was actually quite delicious. I also had some beer they had on tap that was pretty good.

Hopewell Station

When we were all finished, we headed out and walked almost directly across the main street to Blackwell Avenue. This took us almost direct to the old Reading Railroad station.

In the old Reading Station

This handsome structure looks much like the one in Pennington, only it is constructed of brick, and predates that one by a few years. I think it was built in 1876.

Old ticket window

While wandering around, I think Jen tried to open the door, and it was amazingly unlocked! It was amazed! The entire building was heated and very nice!

Stove in the station

The inside retained so much of its historic decor. Wooden paneling on the walls, benches in waiting rooms, and even the ticket window with working slide up and down door was working just fine.
There was a nice wood stove in the middle, which probably is a reproduction, but still very nice. I think the municipality must own it.
We didn’t stop at that point. We were able to go righ tup to the second story. The doors were locked at that level, but amazingly not to the third story!
We headed up into there, and only the front end was open. I figure they must have been sectioned off at one time for separate apartments or something. I think passenger service ended at this site in 1982, but I could be wrong. That’s a lot of time for it to be out of railroad use, and I’m not sure what else went on.

Station benches

Lots of stuff was left up there, probably someone who has long since passed.
We didn’t spend a ton of time in there, but it was nice to be in somewhere heated. Coming out of the Bistro, it was freezing cold by comparison. This building was even warmer than that one was.
We headed back down stairs and out of the station to continue on our way.
My original plan for this hike wasn’t to walk the tracks back to Pennington. I wanted to take the trail over Mt. Rose and then down to Hopewell, then do St. Michael’s Farm Preserve after lunch, followed by the main Lawrence Hopewell Trail as a relaxing return route.

Since we saw those hunters, it forced me to switch up which way we were going and improvise.
I figured we would end up still doing about the same mileage, but it turned out to be a lot more. John was taking mileage, and he already had fourteen miles when we left the bar.
Of course, if we really needed to, we could have gotten and Uber back to Pennington, but no one seemed particularly opposed to walking the rest of the way back. It was, after all, pretty direct.
I’d done that route once before on a night hike with James and Red Sean. It’s not bad.

Parcel map showing how the two railroad beds still effect modern property lines

My last goal for this hike was to try to locate exactly the same spot of the Hopewell Frog War. I had an historic photo of the “frog” crossing, but nothing else.

Previous times I had walked by the site, I never saw quite where it was. This time, I came prepared with knowledge of about where it was exactly. Further, the appearance of the curve in the tracks in the historic photo means I must be looking head on at the former Reading line, because no matter which angle you look, if I were looking at the Mercer and Somerset, the curve would be to the left.
There is also the presence of a bridge in the distance, which I can only assume is the overpass on Van Dyke Road.
Today, since the Reading line was widened, straightened, and double tracked, finding the original spot exactly would be very difficult.
Still, I wanted to try. I’m still confused about it somewhat, but I think I probably ended up finding the correct spot. The modern railroad has probably been widened out over the original Mercer and Somerset at some point.

Frog war site

We got on the tracks and started heading west, then south. I watched closely to the sides to see where there might be rail remnants.
I was only seeing drainage areas from the right spilling to below the railroad level elsewhere to the left.
After passing under Greenwood Ave, then across Louellen Street at grade, we passed beneath Van Dyke Road. A short distance after that, Kirk and I bushwhacked up above the grade to the right, while everyone else got further ahead of us.
In doing this, we found a pretty definite former grade parallel with the cut. It was far too level and flat, with a slope down to not only the active rail grade, but to the yards and such off to the right.
If it wasn’t the Mercer and Somerset, it was most certainly a construction railroad or possibly an earlier alignment of the Delaware and Bound Brook before straightening.

In the station

Kirk and I walked that right of way for a bit, until it started to get too difficult, and then slid our way back own to the active right of way.
The others had gotten far ahead by this point, but we moved along pretty fast.
The first of two trains we passed on the way back came by from straight ahead of us. We could see the lights well before it was upon us. When it got close, the snow and such that had at this point started back up again slightly, was blasting me in the face.

The old grade, probably Mercer and Somerset

Kirk ran off into the adjacent golf course when it approached to avoid that mess. Some of the others were ahead and moved off to the side to let it pass.
We continued ahead, and the others got ahead of us once more.
We continued over the access road to the golf course, Stony Brook Road, followed by an overpass of Pennington-Hopewell Road, then after a while Titus Mill Road.
We passed a section of siding track on the right that has been long disused and was disconnected from the main track.

In Hopewell Station

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this siding was the connection for the spur that went out across Rt 31 to the Trap Rock Industries quarry on the other side of Rt 31. The bridge that carried the spur over the highway has been abandoned my entire life, but still stands.
We continued across Titus Mill Road and somewhere in this vicinity had another train go by us. I again got pelted in the face with lots of ice, and had to walk backwards for a little bit so I didn’t feel frostbitten.

Train passing

The others were again ahead of me, but we were closing in on Pennington fast. We soon reached the North Main Street bridge underpass where we had turned off of the tracks near the beginning of the day.
Kirk and I walked up on the group, who were all cautiously waiting near the bridge.
Apparently, someone was parked along the tracks with their lights facing them.
Rather than risk getting in any trouble, I had a plan of a route that would be interesting, but also circumnavigate this spot and get us pretty directly back to the market.

Along tracks

We climbed up the west side of the bridge rather than the east, and then when no one was around, headed onto the road for about a block. We then turned left on Knowles Street.
The street headed south and got close to the tracks again, and when we wre directly across from the lot area, there was no longer a vehicle facing directly to the tracks. There was now one facing parallel with them. We kept going on the road to the south, then cut onto a paved path to the right after passing the intersection with Woolsey Court.
The path ended at a fenced ejector building type of thing, and we turned left through a line of landscaped trees, and then right along the backs of some town houses. We then came out to a parking area between buildings, and an access road off of Franklin Avenue. We turned right and skirted the back of one more building, then left to head directly out to Franklin Ave, and crossed.

Historic industrial buildings

It was pretty dark by this time, but the historic former industrial building directly acros from where we came out was quite impressive, with the masonry base and later brick top. Upon looking up the property, I can’t immediately find any information on what it was.

Along the trax

We turned to the left off of the right, to the right of the historic building, which I think is now the Straube Center or something. We then followed along the backs of various business lots heading to the south through Pennington, across Broemel Place, and then further through more lots to reach Delaware Avenue.
It was dark and getting colder by this point, and we all had lots of snow, with a caked layer of ice on top of it when we arrived. Our timing could not have been better, because as soon as we arrived, it started raining quite heavily.
Once again, it was another really great day out. The route wasn’t exactly as planned, but it also wasn’t something that worried me too much, because I can get back there to finish those trails off just about any time.
2020 has certainly been off to a glorious start in terms of hikes I think!

HAM