Hike #453 11/15/9
11/15/9 Princeton/Lawrenceville Area with Jillane Becker, Amanda Rosenblatt, Larry Butler, Jack Lowry, Susan Duncan Dawson, "Amish Paul" Hassler, Eric Pace, Bernie Liebermann, Eric Fay, Joe Tag and Doug Kiovsky.
The group on Province Line Road near Princeton, once the separating line between the colonies of East and West NJ.
This was a legendary hike that made "Elsie Higgins" an every day household word for Jillane and I.
In Woodfern Reservation
The next hike would bring me on a point to point trip between Princeton and near Pennington. Originally the trip was to have ended at Pennington but we just ran far to far behind. We met in Pennington at the Market as we'd done times before, and then shuttled as few cars as possible to Princeton, leaving a couple in Lawrenceville for people to cut out along the way. Joining me this time were my girlfriend Jillane Becker, Amanda Rosenblatt, Larry Butler, Jack Lowry, Susan Dawson, "Amish Paul" Hassler, Joe Tag, Eric Pace, Eric Fay, Bernie Liebermann, and newcomer Doug Kiovsky, the assistant planner from Hunterdon County Parks. We began walking in Princeton on Valley Road (0a) just a few blocks in from Rt 206/State Road I think by Harris Street. We began walking from there out to Rt 206 and crossed. Immediately, trails began that headed into Community Park North (1,1aa). We walked along the pathways heading generally west (1aaa-1aae) and passed a little pond (2,2a). We continued on another few trails, following Susan's lead because she knew the area really well, and got to Mountain Lake (also labelled as Palmer Lake on Google Earth). We walked around the west shore of the lake (2b-6aac) passing by the dam and then to the border of Witherspoon Woods. We turned left away from this though, then crossed over Great Road (6aad). The trail system reminded me of the Patriot's Path a bit, going through narrow swaths of land. This spot in particular stayed just barely in the woods parallel to Great Road for some time. It paralleled the EMS School I think it was, then cut away from the roads on that property through a swath of woods (7). It was referred to here as the EMS-Pond View Trail. The Pond View area itself had a couple of ponds near each other (8-9aa). We took a right turn on a side trail that led into the Woodfield Reservation. We followed the main trail through this preserve and took the first fork to the right. It took us for a bit of a loop around, then at the next trail junction we headed west. I somehow accidentally took the wrong turn which took us up hill a bit to Drakes Corner Road. Everyone was annoyed that we had to go back a bit, but the trail was rather unclear. Again, there was another turn that I took the wrong way and it brought us to a dead end (9aa-9g). I think it ended at a place called Council Rock or something. The coolest thing we found out that way was one huge boulder called Tent Rock (10). We continued on along the trail heading west (10aa-11) and we soon reached a paved section of trail where we turned right. This led us shortly across a stream to the dead end on Stuart Road. We followed the road to the end as Jack and Susan played their guitars. Susan still had her Martin Backpacker but Jack had a new one, black made of a strange material (12). At the end of Stuart Road we turned left down Quakerbridge Road (12a-12d). This eventually dead ended as the original road was now closed to traffic, but open as a trail with a neat bridge over the Stony Brook (13-19). The road was beat up on the other side, but it soon became a regular used road again. Soon, a trail on the right led into the Educational Testing Services area. It was a connector to the Laura Chauncey Trail. We followed this to the main trail and turned right, while Doug left us to cut back to where he'd left his car. Amish Paul accompanied him to meet us at the other end of ETS. We walked along a beautiful trail along the river and stopped for a nice lunch break (19aaa-20gaa). I mucked around in the river a bit, then we were on our way. The trail took us along Stoney Brook and then made it's way to the left heading up hill a bit (20gab). It soon crossed one of the access roads (20gac) and followed a strip of woods leading out to the main parking area at ETS. It was here that we picked up a section of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail. We'd hike sections of this trail before, and it was unfinished even then, but we'd never done this piece. It led to the south shortly under Osage Orange Trees. We played "bowling for hikers" with them for a bit (20gad-20gae). The trail section ended at Rosedale Road, and so we headed across onto Mya Drive. We turned right on Benedek Road, and a guy asked us what we were up to in a friendly way, and we told him we were hiking through. He told us how we could get onto the next section of trails ahead. We turned left on Bellview Terrace. Soon, we came to an entrance to Carson Road Woods. More of a field and meadow property, it was still nice to be off the road and back into a park, though it was tough to follow. I used my new Blackberry phone in this area to determine where we were since the map and trails shown were not accurate with what was there. We made our way across the preserve to the south mainly in fields (20gaf-21aaa). The trail took us out on Carson Road, and we crossed directly and walked a section of field on the Bristol Meyers Squibb property. It was obvious where the Lawrence Hopewell Trail would end up going because there were wooden stakes at intervals and it was mowed differently in the route (21b-21d). We crossed the entrance road to Squibb, and then stayed on the future trail route south across Lawrenceville Road/Rt 206 and along County Rd 533. The proposed trail had nothing of it finished in this section, but the proposed route turned right on Bannister Drive as it seemed on the map. When we got to this point we took a break (21da-21daj). Jillane and Amanda did'nt want to go on, but they had to. We followed Bannister to Foxcroft Drive and followed it to Princeton Pike or something I guess it was and turned right. It semed like none of the trail as it was proposed was in existance, so we just walked the road. Along the way, to my great surprise, we found an abandoned house. It looked incredible, so we all went inside and looked around. Jillane and I found all sorts of good stuff. Joe Tag found some sort of tone machine, and we got some house supplies and more. Everyone pretty much rooted through everything while we were there (21e-21i). Later, on another trip I would find out that the property seemed to have belong to an Elsie Higgins. While we were inside, the people hanging around outside gave us away and the next door neighbors started yelling at us. I went over to talk to the lady who seemed cool enough, and let her know we were just doing a hike. She told me there had been a lot of break ins there and that the police had asked her to keep an eye on the place. I think she knew we were no harm when she saw I even had a map. She told me that the lady had to move out because a tree had fallen on the house and she did'nt have the insurance money to fix it, and so the municipality condemned the property and made her move out. We were later find out that everything was hoarded like crazy with many of the same items and each part to every knick knack individually wrapped in zip lock bags. We continued to walk down the road and turned right when we got to Lewisville Road, the future trail route. There was a guy riding his bike by that was friends with Jack, so they stopped and talked for a bit (21j). We walked through more Bristol Meyers Squibb Property and followed stakes like we had done before, which this time led us across an abandoned roadway and parking lot (21jaa). We followed this route and then soon came back out to Lewisville Road. We crossed and almost immediately ended up on the Lawrenceville School property where we'd been on a previous hike a couple years before. We followed the trail across the property and into downtown Lawrenceville. Bernie and Eric cut out, as Eric had to be at a meeting in Flemington shortly. He was going to give Jillane and Amanda a ride back to my car, but he could'nt make it on time. Jillane and Amanda hung out in Lawrenceville for the rest of us to finish up the trip. Larry went pretty far ahead of everyone and found his way back to the car his own way very quickly. The rest of us continued north on the Lawrence Hopewell Trail over the rail trail, then into Village Park (22c). We crossed over what must have been Keefe Road, then headed into the Pole Farm property and continued along. The Lawrence Hopewell Trail had been signed through the area, although it was'nt yet paved like other sections except for the section on old farm road (22d). We somehow must have made a wrong turn and I could'nt figure out which trail we were on, so I again used my Blackberry which was a huge help. I followed it and we eventually got out to Blackwell Road (23a). We walked Blackwell Road, which was closed to traffic and being realigned so that it went directly across Federal City Road instead of being sort of an offset crossing as it was previously. The hike had gone longer than anticipated and so we were ready to cut out at this point. Larry was fortunitely able to come and pick us up (23b). We went and picked up Jillane and Amanda to finish off the day.
Jill and I in ETS, Laura Chauncy Trail
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