Hike #539; Trenton/Morrisville to Pennington

 Hike #539 2/6/11

2/6/11 Trenton/Morrisville to Pennington with Jillane Becker, Amanda Rosenblatt, Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, and Sharon Daley Kelly

Group shot on the Delaware and Raritan Canal in Trenton near Calhoun street

With all of the snow still on the ground, I had to continue making my hikes something appropriate for the conditions. With that in mind, I figured it had been a while since I had done a hike through Trenton, and there was still so much more of it I had yet to explore. I organized a point to point route that would take us between Trenton and Morrisville PA to Pennington NJ.

Hiking thorugh Stacy Park, Trenton NJ

Delaware River from Stacy Park, Trenton

Again, my camera was not doing well. It still had the crack in the screen, but I brought it regardless because it could still take pictures. I ended up taking some with my cell phone as well just to be on the safe side.

I met the group in the morning at Pennington Market, which I'd used as a meeting point for many many hikes before. We then shuttled cars south to Trenton in Amanda's car and parked on Riverside Drive at the north end of Stacy Park.

Jillane in Stacy Park, Trenton

We headed south following a paved path that went through this linear park, though usually we couldn't even see the pavement. It was a much warmer day than what we had been used to fortunately, but not enough to really get rid of much snow. We passed a side path that led across Rt 29 I think and a sign said it went to nearby Cadawallader Park. We'd have to explore this another day.

Old style bridge in Stacy Park

We next came across an old foot bridge. This bridge was of suspension design, and it looked like it was made to emulate early bridges over the upper Delaware. It was a neat little addition to this park, and we used it to cross a stream. We came to Trenton Water Works at the end of the bridge and had to go around.

Foot bridge in Stacy Park

View of the Delaware from Calhoun Street Bridge

We went left around the building through a parking lot, and then up onto an on ramp that led to the deck to walk onto the Calhoun Street bridge, now also the route of the East Coast Greenway Trail, an inter-connective system of trails that lead from Floriday to main, or will when complete. We crossed the bridge and had some really nice views up the Delaware River.

Crossing calhoun Street Bridge, Trenton

Calhoun Street Bridge in Morrisville PA

Once on the other side of the bridge, we turned left. It was apparent that the path was intended to go immediately to the waterfront, but there was new construction going on at the site. I was at the time in the middle of reading through the Morris Canal 25 Year Action Plan proposals and I believe one of the firms involved was working on this project as well. We had to bypass the construction a bit and then made our way over to the pathway, which stayed on the top of a berm above the Delaware River.

Calhoun Street bridge from Morrisville PA

We followed the berm to the south near Williamson Park of Morrisville PA. Because of the exposure the area gets it was a little bit easier to walk on this section than it was in Stacy Park earlier.

Trail along the Delaware River berm, Morrisville PA

Trenton from Morrisville PA

Path on Delaware River berm, Morrisville PA

Along the way following this berm trail, we were afforded incredible views into NJ, and the many government buildings of downtown Trenton including the Capital building with it's outstanding dome.

Path along the Delaware, Morrisville PA

Trenton NJ from Morrisville PA

NJ Capitol building from Morrisville PA

Pathway on Delaware berm, Morrisville PA

Delaware River from Morrisville PA

We continued walking this path until we reached the "Trenton Makes.." bridge. This bridge, of East Bridge Street, I'm not sure it's official name, I believe was the one that used to have the letters reading "Trenton Makes, The World Takes". I figured they removed those words because Trenton doesn't really export anything any more except for maybe Taylor Pork Rolll.

Delaware River path, Morrisville PA

Bridge Street bridge from Morrisville PA

We took a bit of a break on the Morrisville side of the bridge, and when we were ready crossed over on a nice walkway back into Trenton. We continued on Bridge Street on the other side only a short distance to a left turn onto a street called "William Trent". Trenton was named for this man who renamed the town after himself. I think originally it was known as Stacy's Ferry or something.

Bridge Street Bridge on the Morrisville side

Pathway near the bridge, Morrisville PA

Crossing the bridge on East Bridge Street into Trenton

In fact, William Trenton's home still stands in Trenton. Somehow this historic structure managed to escape the wrecking ball unlike so many others. We walked by this building but it was closed, so we didn't have the opportunity to go inside it.

William Trent House, Trenton

We followed William Trent to Market Street and crossed into a parking lot across the way and turned right. I was thinking we'd stay off the road and go direct toward the capital building, but I changed my mind and we turned right onto Market Street.  I think we ended up turning north on Broad Street which took us by a park in an urban greenway of sorts it seemed, Mill Hill Park, and then followed it to State Street and turned left.

Interesting buildings in Trenton

Downtown Trenton

Interesting art corridor, Trenton

We walked north and soon made a left hand turn onto State Street. We were looking for a place to stop and eat, and saw a couple, but nothing the group could agree on stopping at so we continued on.

Ahead, we came to a neat little hallway beneath a building that was reserved for local artists, which was pretty interesting.

Mirror shot on State Street, Trenton

Front of Thomas Edison College

We walked for a bit further down State Street, and even I was getting hungry, but we didn't really see anything that caught us so we continued on.

We went close to the old Barracks but didn't stop there. I had recently walked up and down State Street on a mission to incorporate Metrotrails as a non profit corporation, and they kept sending me to different buildings. It was now a much nicer day to be walking through the capital city. We next walked by Thomas Edison College, which had some really nice patterns around the outside of the doors and a cool clock hanging from the outside.

Clock on Thomas Edison College

Capital building, NJ

The next point of interest was a place was very important: NJ's capital building. Of course, I had been to the state capital building many times before, it was nothing new probably for most people, but I had never incorporated it into one of my big hikes. This occasion was the perfect opportunity for me to bring the group by it.

NJ Capital building

The building was beautifully done, and there was an historic marker in front of it that detailed the history of the building and when each addition was built starting with it's original structure constructed in the 1700s.

Park across from the capital building

Across from the building was a sort of military memorial park that looked rather new. We didn't cross for a better look at this on this trip though.

The part of the capitol we were walking along was not the original, it was built in the 1800s. Still, some of the original portion of the building still existed out of sight.

In 1890 the capitol of NJ was Perth Amboy, but it was that year that it was moved to Trenton, and the original portion of the "State House" was constructed in 1892. There were many subsequent additions to the building in different styles by different architects, but the only portions most people see are the part from across the river in Morrisville and from on State Street. A fire destroyed the original State Street section in the 1880s, and it was reconstructed in the style of "American Renaissance", in a time when it was felt that the United States would be the heir to the Greek Democracy.

Walkway area near the capital building

We continued to walk down State Street a bit and passed by another sort of promenade area to the left that stretched out toward the river, with a pavilion thing in the middle. We continued down State Street from here, and as we walked a black girl on her cell phone walked by saying to the person on the other line "...are you kiddin' me? This is the whitest street in America!!!" Obviously, she'd never been in a convenience store in Tennessee where I thought I'd be burned at the stake for having long hair.

We turned right off of State Street onto a narrow walkway between buildings that said something weird above it's entrance, but I can't remember what. I should have taken a picture of it; I think Amanda did, she might be able to tell me.

Delaware and Raritan Canal

We walked Capitol Street for a bit and came to the Delaware and Raritan Canal, which we began to follow. We couldn't get right on the former towpath for a couple blocks, but we picked it up at Calhoun Street. We were able to walk on the left side fo the canal for a bit and paralleled more of State Street, then when we reached Prospect Street we made a turn to the right briefly to have a look at an abandoned church. It looked like it had been worked on somewhat since my last time wandering around the city about nine months before or so, as the roof had a ladder on it toward some patch work on the roof. We got back on the canal, with a path on the right side heading north a bit.

Former Bel Del Railroad, Trenton

Former Bel Del Railroad, Trenton

We walked a short distance along the canal, and then came to where the former Belvidere and Delaware Railroad used to cross. North of here, the railroad pretty much followed the canal, but to the south it was broken away from it a bit. We turned right and followed the old railroad bed back to the south, which had recently been developed as a trail. The rail bed was covered in snow, but it was a curiosity that the canal towpath from Prospect street to the former railroad bed was completely snow free.

Tunnel under Calhoun Street overpass

Tunnel under Calhoun Street, Trenton

We passed under Prospect Street, followed by Calhoun Street via underpasses, and I think it was under Calhoun Street that there were stone laid tunnels going both north and south built into the abutments. They had a lot of junk in them; even though it was very cold out, and one of the reasons for doing the city hikes in the winter is because it's a well known fact that hoodlums don't like the cold, I wasn't about to go crawling in too far, just enough for a good picture. I joked that there were probably needles in there. Just after I said that someone spotted a needle. None of us were surprised.

Former Bel Del Railroad bed, Trenton

After Calhoun Street, the trail made it's way between Belvidere and Summer Streets for a block. We turned right onto Summer Street to walk in lieu of the crazy snow on the railroad bed.

Former Bel Del Railroad bed,

We continued to parallel the railroad bed to North Willow Street where there must have been a rail yard or something. Not too far ahead there are active railroad tracks where certainly a connection had to have been made. I had walked that section once before years ago. This time we would turn left up Willow Street.

The next plan was to pick up another railroad bed heading sort of northwest away from Trenton to a junction at West Trenton Station. We couldn't see exactly where it would have come across Willow, so we kept walking north. I was planning on going left on Pashley, but we were all hungry, so we opted to go ahead to Rt 31 another block away looking for food.

We found a tiny hole in the wall store on the corner of 31 and Willow. We didn't know if it was open, so I was sent across to check it out. I couldn't even tell which door to go in to see this establishment. I tried to door on the left and it turned out to be someone's apartment that I just opened the door to. I went over to the right and found the correct door to go in. Apparently while I was inside, the tenant in the apartment came out, probably wondering what hoodlum opened his door.

In the store, there was a ton of stuff stacked everywhere, and not a huge selection. I asked if they had sandwiches, but they told me they weren't making anything because it was Superbowl Sunday and they were closing early. They were very apologetic, but didn't need to be. One could tell this store was struggling, and one employee was working on unpacking goods in the front. I bought a few nutty bars and Jillane and I got a few drinks. Uncle Soup offered to pay for the stuff for us since I gave him some wine in New York a month or so earlier. Amazingly, with all the stuff we got it only came to like six dollars.

When I came out, the guy who lived in the apartment who's door I accidentally opened told Jillane she could go ahead and sit on his porch, don't sit on the ground. He chatted with us for a while, and another larger man came out and talked to us as well. Jillane asked if they knew a place we could get sandwiches or something, and they said yes, at the supermarket just up the road (Rt 31). They then got into an argument over whether it was just two blocks or two football fields which was amusing.

The man asked what brought us to the area; we must have looked very out of place. We were in fact the only white people anywhere in the area, which made the girl's comment on State Street so much funnier. The only tourist attracting in sight was the Trenton Battle Monument within sight just to the southeast, a towering behemoth of a monument.

When we told him we were hiking, he gave us a great amusing reacting, saying "I don't know no black people do no hikin...". He was right, in fact there had only been a few who had done my hikes over the years. He went on to say "Black people don't even like camping! I wake up a squirrel be lickin my face...nooooo". We had a great laugh as he went on to describe the horrors of nature, and how he'd even leave his family if a bear showed up.

We bid the guys farewell, and the one went back to shoveling what little snow remained on the sidewalk for reasons unknown, and we walked up Rt 31 to the grocery store (for the record, it ended up being about six blocks, whatever that equals in football field talk).

Jillane and I walked through the grocery store, but they had no prepared sandwiches made anywhere. In this grocery store, we were again the only white people, so we looked out of place. I had been into grocery stores in south central Las Angeles, including Compton and Lennox, and there was always at least one white person, but this was not the case here. Regardless, it didn't make me feel at all uncomfortable really, it was just different.

We decided to move down along the strip mall and go to a pizza place we saw, but that was closed. The only establishment there was to stop in was something called Yahyah burger or something. It advertised Soul Food and such. We went in and looked at the menu, and the big woman behind the counter said "You can't go wrong" when I asked her about the Yahya burger.

We ended up waiting for over 45 minutes for our food, but it turned out to be great. I wondered if there was some sort of racism going on, since there were lots of people that came in after me and got served first, but I can't really blame them for feeling some sort of animosity, I know it's nothing to take personally. Besides, the food was great. I got an order of hot wings to share with everyone in addition to my burger. I then went back into the grocery store and bought a box of Nutty Bars as well as a half gallon of cranberry juice cocktail for only $1.25. Indeed, everything was dirt cheap here.

We turned left out of the grocery store and headed to Prospect Street, then turned left again. As we walked down it I could see where the former railroad used to cross, but we couldn't follow it to the right due to a fence over it. Some of it ahead was now part of West Ward Park, but we'd have to access it down the street. We turned right onto Stuyvesant Ave.

This is amazingly a church

As we walked, it was not nearly as run down an area, but there were some oddities. Throughout the day there were a lot of strange churches. We'd seen one that was sort of a crummy single story office building sort of thing, and here on Stuyvesant we came across one that looked like it was supposed to be a corner grocery store or liquor store. We continued along until we reached Hoffman Ave and turned right.

Old railroad bed in Trenton from Hoffman Ave

It was cool to see that this section of the former railroad bed was developed as a sort of park. There was some playground equipment on it, and a lot of people had been using it because it was full of footprints. We followed the bed from here heading northeast.

I think we went over Parkside Ave on a bridge, then crossed Maple Ave...I forget how, on a bridge or at grade. Probably at grade, then came out to Hillcrest Ave, a former grade crossing.

Abandoned railroad bed from Hoffman Ave

Abandoned railroad bed near Parkside Ave, West Trenton

Homan Ave was directly to the right and ran parallel with the former rail bed, so we'd be able to follow this since the rail bed itself was developed over. There was also a store on the corner of Homer. I went in and got myself a Clover Farms chocolate milk, which is always great.

We followed the road next to the old rail bed from here for a bit.

Abandoned railraod bed near Parkside Ave, West Trenton

We continued to the end of this road, where another road went to the right, and a retention pond had been built on the rail bed, obliterating it's grade.

Old rail bed in West Trenton

Rail bed in West Trenton

We were able to turn left off of the road around the retention pond and pick up the railroad bed on the other side, which went into the most secluded stretch of woodland we'd been in all day, which isn't saying much, but it was a nice change.

We continued through the woods, and after a little while we came to where rails started back up again. We continued for a bit and came to where this line was still used as an industrial spur, with a siding to the left.

Rail bed in West Trenton where the rails started again

With the tracks opened up, it became a lot tougher to walk them. I tried walking on the rails when they were exposed, but even that was too difficult.

We passed an industry on the left, and when the access road to it to the left was clear enough, we walked over to that because it was so much easier. This led us to Lower Ferry Road. North of here we had no other choice really but to walk the tracks on out to the main line in West Trenton.

Railroad equipment at West Trenton Station area

The tracks took us through a wooded section, and as we approached the junction site there were a couple service cars parked on the tracks we were walking. Ahead, the main line track had overhead electric. I was not expecting to see this on this line because I knew that to the north it was freight only. Uncle Soup said this could simply be a storage area for passenger rail cars. I think it may have actually been an active passenger station I didn't know existed. I still haven't looked into it.

Equipment at West Trenton Station area.

We turned right onto the active tracks from here. Snowmobiles had been using some of it, but not nearly enough to pack it down to make for easy walking. It was easier than what we'd been going through before, but not nearly good enough. There were two sets of tracks, and we could see a trail behind us with it's lights on, but it never came our way.

Along the tracks just north of West Trenton

We went over Parkway Ave on a bridge and continued walking north. The rails on this line were much more exposed, so I chose to walk on those. Aside from occasionally getting a wet spot which made them really slippery, it was much easier walking on the rails than in the snow. The activity of this railroad, unlike the previous one, had kept the rails almost snow free save for a few drifts.

Along the tracks

We continued ahead and crossed over Scotch Road, and then after that over Interstate 95. We continued north on this section that just seemed to go on forever, and crossed Rt 546 and also under Rt 31. Jillane walked on the rails for a bit while I walked beside her to help her keep balance.

A miracle, a plowed path along the railroad tracks south of Pennington.

Around the Rt 31 underpass, we came to what felt like a miracle to us; the railroad right of way had been plowed alongside the active tracks. It made for much easier walking and quicker time.

Rt 31 overpass near Pennington along the tracks

Jillane and I got way ahead of the others as we gained momentum in this section. We continued north, and just before reaching our turnoff for Pennington Market the plowed section ended. Jillane got back on the rails for a while to avoid more snow. This worked out pretty good this time save for having to go around one totally mangled up dead deer.

Near Pennington Market

We eventually came to the path up hill out of the railroad cut that led to the south side of the Pennington Market strip mall. Jillane and I climbed to the top and made our way toward the parking area. Just as we were almost out of the snow, we heard the loud whistle of a train. I yelled out "Train!" for them to hear, and they got off of the tracks. It came by very fast.

Field just south of Pennington Market

Everyone made their way up hill, although no one used the path Jillane and I had followed, instead going off trail through the weeds up to the field. Once we were all together we headed back to the Pennington Market parking area and our cars.

Field just south of Pennington Market

Jillane and I took Amanda back to her car, and we drove back up north along the Delaware to close another great day.