Hike #612; Mercer Lake to Heathcote

 Hike #612; Mercer Lake to Heathcote

2/12/12 Mercer Lake to Heathcote with Doug Kiovsky, Wayne Meiner, Jason Kumpas, Amanda Murphy, Jason Itell, Megan Reid, Shayna Michaels, David "Captain Soup" Campbel, Rob Creamer, Brad Ladutko, Susan Duncan, and Jack Lowry.

Group shot at Plainsboro Pond

My next hike would be yet another point to point, this time connecting two hikes that were co-led by Doug Kiovsky (Snoop Dougie K) in the vicinity. One of the hikes was between Davidsons Mill Pond Park and Princeton Battlefield, and the other was from Monmouth County's Perrineville Park to Mercer County Central Park where we'd start this one.

Trail in Mercer County Central Park

Trail in Mercer County Central Park

Trail in Mercer County Central Park

We met at our end point, the Target store on Rt 1 in Heathcote, a small town name in Monmouth Junction area. We then shuttled as few cars as possible south to Mercer County Central Park at Mercer Lake to begin the hike. We parked this time at the ball field parking areas so we could pick up some of their trails to connect with the prevous hike.

A paved trail led right from the parking area to the north, toward Mercer Lake, and joined up with the main paved trail that runs from east to west. We had followed this from near this point, when we walked from outside of the park. This time we continued following the portion of the path we had not walked before to the east.

Trail over Assunpink Creek in Mercer County Central Park

Trail over Assunpink Creek in Mercer County Central Park

The path left the open part of the park and entered a lightly wooded area, followed by a more heavily wooded area. There were some side trails going off to the left, but we didn't bother following them this time. The trail led us to a nice prefabricated bridge over the Assunpink Creek in some lovely woods. While we were walking there, several other people were using the trail through the area, including two runners, one of whom had a pink balloon secured to the top of his head. Strange.After crossing over the little bridge, we turned left off of the paved path, and onto a nice dirt path which paralleled the Assunpink Creek down stream, which was quite nice.

Assunpink Creek, Mercer County Central Park

On the trail in Mercer County Central Park

Assunpink Creek, Mercer County Central Park

Mercer County Central Park Assunpink Creek bridges

Mercer County Central Park

The trail followed a lovelly route through the woods and along the creek, and then turned inland a bit more. The ground might normally have been wet, but the cold weather kept it more frozen.We came to a trail junction where we turned left on one that was blue (the one we were following was orange, not standard blazing).We only followed the blue blazes for a short distance because it soon crossed over the Assunpink Creek on a couple of foot bridges. We did not want to be crossing the creek again, so we opted instead to turn away and head out the same orange trail we had been following. Doug and I discussed the plight of Hunterdon Parks along the way, and how it had gone so far down hill since I'd left. Four more employees were to be laid off, which is pretty crazy. I thought to myself how lucky I was to have gotten out when I did, and to have been hired by the state at such a higher rate of pay. During this past week, I was passed through my probationary period at my job, which meant I was in to stay, barring any real big trouble.The trail seemed to have dividing paths that were ublazed turn off, and so I tried to follow one. We ended up at a very wet area. I tried to cross and stepped right into deep mud and water. It was a freezing cold day, and so this was no good. I was glad to have a World War 2 or maybe even earlier army jacket I  had purchased with Jillane in Simpson PA while exploring the night before.

It became clear to me that we would not be able to follow the northern section of the park due to wet areas, so we followed the orange blazed trail which brought us too far to the east again. We decided the best move was to leave the trail and head into an open field just to the north. This took us to where we could see Edinburg-Dutch Neck Road. We crossed the field on a diagonal, then turned left onto the road briefly.We didn't go far before turning left onto Darvel Drive. Although the road read that it was a dead end from it's main intersection, my trail application on my Google Maps on my phone showed that a pedestrian route connected the dead end with Bruntsfield Drive just to the north.

Wrecked foot bridge on Bruntsfield Drive

Makeshift stream crossing at Bruntsfield Drive

Wetland along Bruntsfield Drive, West Windsor NJ

We followed the pleasant back street around a sharp corner to the right, passing only one resident who gave us a look of wonder as we walked by, and discovered that the pedestrian bridge over the tributary that severed the two sections of road had washed out. Someone had placed old road signs and wooden planks across the water to allow for safe passage. I tried first to cross this pile of junk, and ended up with a wet right foot.We could see just to the left down stream the bridge that had washed from the site. Jason Kumpas managed to go over and cross that busted bridge, and he was followed by a few others until Jason discovered that it was easy to just step over the water, barely down stream from the washed down bridge. When he announced he'd found a good one, Kumpas replied "yeah, but it's boring".

Once we were all across, we passed a pond on the right, and a utility right of way. I considered walking this, but there might have been unpredictable bodies of water to cross, so instead I brought everybody out to a left hand turn onto Galston Drive, then left on Conover Road. It wasn't far on this before a nice sidewalk began, which ran back and forth between trees and such near to, but not on the road, making it a nice route for the hike.

Former Trenton-New Brunswick Fast Trolley Line right of way north of Mercer Lake

Former Trenton-New Brunswick Fast Trolley Line north of Mercer Lake

Abandoned trolley right of way

Abandoned trolley right of way

West Windsor Trolley Line Trail

Once the sidewalk ended, we reached a wide open field to the right. There was some sort of boat launch far off to the left of us on the shore of Mercer Lake, but we weren't going to go down there. We turned right across the field, following the tree line, which was near the Conover Fields. In the middle of the field we could see clearly some of the remains of the fill for the abandoned Trenton-New Brunswick Fast Trolley Line, which operated between those two cities from 1902 till 1936. It was an important segment of a larger trolley system that ran from New York City to Philadelphia. We followed the trolley right of way from  here to the north.We had seen a piece of this to the south of Lake Mercer on a previous hike, but did not hike it further. The line was cut out when the lake was created. A power line now followed the entire course of the former trolley line.

After leaving the first open field segment, a paved trail came in from a development to the right. A segment of it crosses, and we continued on along the rail bed out to New Village Road and crossed directly. The right of way was clear and grassy, but there was very little sign that it was ever a trolley line. Where we first got on there was a little bit of fill, and I believe in this area there was a slight cut.

Pond along the trolley trail

West Windsor Trolley Line Trail

West Windsor Trolley Line Trail

We soon reached Penn Lyle Road. Here, the trolley right of way became an official trail, paved as part of the West Windsor Trolley Trail. A paved path accessed the trail from a development west of the road. We crossed directly and began following the trail to the north. Aside from the power line being constantly over head, it was nice. A section ahead had a very nice pond off to the left.

Trail marker

West Windsor Trolley Line Trail...but no trespassing?

Where the trolley line used to cross

Trolley line map

We continued ahead on the trail as it crossed Woodmere Way. We were always pretty close to homes, though there was often either trees blocking them, or sections of woods on one side. Still, this paved trail made us feel like we were definitely in suburbia.

We crossed over Brians Way, Rumford Way, and Mill Road before reaching Rt 571. The trolley line continued clear on the other side of the road, but was posted. Actually, even the section we had just hiked had signs that read "no trespassing" on them, despite the fact that it was all signed and advertised as a trail through West Windsor Township.

My phone application showed that the trail went on through, but Doug opted instead to turn off to the left and go another way into West Windsor Community Park. I opted to bring everyone else and stay on the trail. The paved trailway turned right when it reached 571, and paralleled it like a sidewalk for a bit. When it reached the entrance to West Windsor Community Park across from Slayback Drive, there was a crosswalk where we entered the park. Immediately after turning onto the entrance road, another paved path turned to the left further into the park. We made a stop where there was a porta potty and ate some lunch.After our break we continued on the paved path passing recreation fields. I started making screaming sounds so that Doug would find us.

Former trolley right of way

LOL

Info on the history of the trolley

The screaming must have worked, because we we first got a glimpse of Doug he was looking in our direction. The paved path took us back onto the old trolley right of way, which headed from here gradually down hill. The right of way was actually unpaved here, and the path followed a berm to the left. Since the rail bed was in a slight cut here, it could have been something to avoid erosion issues or wet feet. Still, most of us walked in the cut.Along the way, there was another very nice sign that had been erected with a list of many different facts about this particular trolley line. We then continued down hill toward the Pig Town Bridge where we crossed the narrowest part of the slack water of Grover's Mill Pond.

Pig Town Bridge over the end of Grover's Mill Pond

Pig Town Bridge over the end of Grovers Mill Pond

Grover's Mill Pond from Pig Town Bridge

Grovers Mill Pond from Pig Town Bridge

Pig Town Bridge

Walkway along Cranbury Road, Grovers Mill

Grovers Mill Pond Park

At the bottom of the hill, we crossed a nice prefabricated bridge over the eastern end of slack water of Grover's Mill Pond. This body of water served the power house which ran the entire trolley line, but I'm not sure if it's the mill further west of here that still stands.The bridge we were crossing was known as the "Pig Town Bridge" for reasons I'm not sure of. After admiring the views of the lake, we continued on the trail which gradually took us up hill, into a development, and to Rabbit Hill Road. The trail officially ended here. We could see the right of way clearly on the other side, a very short distance to Cranbury Road, but from there it was gated off with large metal farm gates. No matter really, as I had planned the hike for this detail anyway. Ahead of this point the rail bed crosses the Millstone River, and only steel framework of the original bridge still stands according to Google Earth.Doug had wanted to go to the right, thinking of another route to get us back onto the right of way to the north, but I had had another idea that I scaled off. We would turn left onto Cranbury Road.As we came nearer to homes, side walks started up, and they were once again the very nice kinds that weaved in and out away from the street, making it a more pleasant walk.After a bit, we turned left into Grovers Mill Pond Park. We skirted the left side of the park with a nice line of trees out to Grovers Mill Pond itself.

Grovers Mill Pond Park

Grovers Mill Pond Park

Grovers Mill Pond Park

The mill pond had a very nice, somewhat new looking dock on it's shore, with a good sign that read "Grovers Mill Pond Park". A paved path came into the park from the opposite direction from where we entered it. I checked out the shore line a bit, and then moved on to rejoin the others, who were already checking out an interesting historic marker sign.

Grovers Mill Pond Park. Famous "War of the Worlds" site from 1938

Grovers Mill Pond

Grovers Mill

Some might call Grovers Mill NJ the birthplace of Media Responsibility. In 1938, a radio broadcast dramatization of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" had a million people believing that Martians had attacked the Earth. Doug told us that Grovers Mill NJ was chosen rather randomly as a location, with a dart board or something.I had always heard about this incident from my grandparents, but had never actually been to the site. It was cool to visit yet another place in NJ history.

This is the water tower that was shot at in 1938, feared of being a Martian Invasion

We walked out of Grovers Mill Pond Park and continued following Cranbury Road to the west. We walked with the mill pond to the left of us, and passed by the lovely old Grovers Mill, now home to a chiropractor. The walls of the building looked not to be all that stable, though I'm sure they must have been, although they weren't straight.Doug soon pointed out to us in someone's back yard, right next to the lake, a strange looking water tower in someone's back yard. The tower was relatively odd looking. As it turns out, this was a water tower that was shot at by farmers believing they were under alien attack in 1938. While covered in weeds, it still stands.

Captain Soup has an uncanny resemblence to a deer

We continued walking along until the right hand turn on Millstone Road. We followed the road on toward the Millstone River itself, but on the way I had Captain Soup pose for a picture.

Millstone Preserve West

Trail map

Trail map

Millstone River Trail

Millstone Preserve West

Plainsboro Pond

Plainsboro Pond

Plainsboro Pond

Plainsboro Pond dam and viewing area

Plainsboro Pond

This road was probably about the worst we would have to walk all day. We got lucky that any roads we had to walk pretty much had sidewalks or parallel walkways which I loved, but this one was just narrow.

We continued walking until we came upon something I did not expect: another park.i knew from Google Earth at home that there would be another park property, but I had no idea there were any developed trails in there. What was even more impressive to me was the fact that these trails were marked properly, with beginning and end of trail markers on carsonite posts or more.The preserve was called Millstone Preserve West. A map in a kiosk box showed us that we could have gone on through and accessed from Melville Road. I'd have to come back to do another hike another time. A red blazed trail began at the kiosk, named the Millstone River Trail. I knew from the map shown that a loop was possible here, so I decided we would go and do it. After all, if we came back and did another through route, we would only be able to take one of the trails anyway. This was our opportunity to cover some different stuff. Not everyone joined, a few followed the road to where our return route trail came back out near the bridge over the Millstone River.The trail entered the woods and was marked very well. We soon came to an intersection with a blue blazed trail and turned left. It crossed over puncheons and such close to the Millstone River before returning to Millstone Road.We turned right and crossed the river, which was quite lovely. We then reached the west end of Plainsboro Pond. There was a parking lot on the far side with a ranger parked in it, and a viewing platform in the center of the road bridge over the pond. The ranger left soon after we arrived. We went out to the platform to take in the lovely view, and to get a group picture. There was sort of a causeway out on both sides of the pond, but the one off to the left was accessible. There were also tons of geese everywhere.

Lenape Trail at Plainsboro Pond

Lenape Trail at Plainsboro Pond

Lenape Trail at Plainsboro Pond

We left the viewing platform, and then turned right onto the Lenape Trail. This is not to be confused with the Lenape Trail in Essex County. This is a shorter trail bearing the same Indian name, and it stretches the length of the north side of Plainsboro Pond. It started as a nice dirt path along the short, which first crossed over a causeway to a sort of island. Jason scared away geese while we were out on it.

BRAD BALLER!!!

Along Lenape Trail, at Plainsboro Pond

Lenape Trail near Plainsboro Pond

Lenape Trail at Plainsboro Pond

Historic marker on the trolley line at Plainsboro Pond

Former trolley line heading north from Plainsboro Pond

Former trolley crossing of Plainsboro Pond

SHARE THE ROAD MOTHER FUCKER!

Lunch break in Plainsboro

We followed the entire length of the small island, and at the end the Lenape Trail crossed a big metal foot bridge back to the main land.

From this point on, the Lenape Trail was paved, keeping to the north side of Plainsboro Pond. It closely skirted apartment complexes and the waterfront through a narrow strip of land covered with goose crap. Jason continued to chase ever goose we'd see.

We followed the trail until we reached the abandoned trolley right of way once again, where it used to cross Plainsboro Pond. There was no bridge left, but someone had strung a rope across the site. I was not going to be trying that on this trip. There was also another interpretive sign about the trolley line.The Lenape Trail continued along the lake, but another paved path followed the trolley line up hill to the left. We continued on that, and it soon ended at Enterprise Drive. Another road was built over it ahead, and the power line was still following it as well. We turned right off of the right of way and into a strip mall where there was an asian food market, pizza place, and plenty of other stuff. We decided to take a little break for lunch at the pizza place.Susie had Flip Flop/Zip Line with her, and of course he/her couldn't go inside; because it was so cold Susie decided to keep going for Zip Line/Flip Flop's sake. The rest of us had some pizza, which despite the fact that it was costly, was quite good.After our break we continued north tracing the former trolley line route.

Abandoned former trolley line, Princeton Meadows Country Club

Abandoned former trolley line hiking, while Jason makes tea.

Old trolley right of way in Plainsboro, north of the golf course

Paved trail near Cypress Court, Plainsboro

Pond in Plainsboro

Pond in Plainsboro off Cypress Ct.

Pond in Plainsboro

Dam in Plainsboro

Crossing a brook into Plainsboro Preserve

Entering the Plainsboro Preserve from Community Park

Center Drive, which accessed the shopping center reached Plainsboro Road at an intersection where the trolley line used to go, and it remained a dirt access road along the power line across the north side. We crossed directly and continued following it north.

The right of way skirted the Plainsboro Country Club to the right, with homes to the left. We then crossed an open field followed by some of those fenced in electric stations. We then reached Rt 614. Directly across from us, I was surprised to see yet another paved trail, first parallel with the road, and then turning away following the old trolley bed. My map application through Google on my phone did not include this section, which was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, it didn't follow the trolley line for too long. It stuck to the left of it, and then turned away to the left further, along a line of trees skirting a development. The trolley bed to the north was posted well. We opted to follow the trail and see what happened.The trail led us to a series of white fences lining it's way near a section of woods. There was a nice little pond, and then the trail turned right, with the fence lines coming close to the edge of the pavement. The trail then ended at Cypress Court. This worked out for us, because that particular road had nice sidewalks and ended at Woodland Drive directly across from the Community Park, our next destination.

While walking the road, we found tennis balls, which Kumpas and I continued to kick until I lost mine. He apparently  hung onto his for a good while into Community Park. When we entered community park, we found many ball fields. We crossed somewhat to the left and reached the tree line along the north side, then turned right. We continued to follow the tree line in hopes that there would be a connector trail leading into the Plainsboro Preserve, of the Audobon Society. I had been talking with Doug about doing a hike in this preserve for quite a long time, and so we were finally getting to it. It shared a boundary with Community Park.

When we reached a section of mowed turn heading into the woods a bit, we knew this was where to go. The mowed area ended at a little pond on our right, with a tiny dam in front of us. To the left, there tributary that spilled over the dam became very small, and was cross-able by way of a cinder block placed as a stepping stone in the middle. An indistinct trail continued through the wet area of the woods to the Education Trail in Plainsboro Preserve.

Dam in Plainsboro

Education Trail, Plainsboro Preserve

Kids crawling thing in the Plainsboro Preserve visitor's center

Kids crawling thing in the Plainsboro Preserve visitor's center

Kids crawling thing in the Plainsboro Preserve visitor's center

Plainsboro Preserve map

Lake McCormack, Plainsboro Preserve

Captain Soup, ahead of the group for most of the day, was already nearly to the road on the Education Trail, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to go straight or to the left. I called him back, and when he returned decided that we'd go the way he'd already go, much to his dismay.We crossed a few puncheons and got to the road. We then walked over to the visitor's center which was quite nice. We were able to collect some maps, and Captain Soup, Brad, and I crawled into this kids discovery thing in the place. The lady running the place was both friendly and tolerant.Once we had seen all we wanted to see, we exited the building opposite the way we came in where there was a lovely view of Lake McCormack, I think a former quarry lake, and the beginning of the White Trail.

Snoop Dougie K at Plainsboro Preserve, yo.

White trail in Plainsboro Preserve

Yellow Trail, Plainsboro Preserve

Along the main trail out into Plainsboro Preserve

Maggie's Trail, Plainsboro Preserve

Lake McCormack, Plainsboro Preserve

The White Trail followed an old roadway. We followed this for a bit, and then turned left onto Yellow Trail, which joined up with Education Trail. I was very happy to see that these trails too were marked correctly and done so with paint rather than costly and gaudy looking tags. In addition, the trail was lined with sticks to define the route that might otherwise be unclear due to the lack of undergrowth.We turned left off of the Yellow Trail to Red Trail, which took us through some lovely woods back to Yellow Trail, where we went left again. We passed a sort of informal looking old access road, turned hard right and soon reached Green Trail. The Green Trail led us out to White Trail where we turned left. Along the way a few went out onto an abandoned bridge sitting to the right of the trail over a tributary.

End of Maggie's Trail, Plainsboro Preserve

Lake McCormack

View of the visitor's center in Plainsboro Preserve

Trail sign, Plainsboro Preserve

Resting in Plainsboro Preserve

Blue trail, Plainsboro Preserve

Blue trail, Plainsboro Preserve

We followed the Main Trail out to it's end at the Blue Trail. I talked to our good friend Jack on the phone prior to this, and he was coming to meet up with us. He had made his way to Community Park and parked near the inlet of grass. I directed him on how to get to us by crossing over the cinder block near the little dam, and then turn left on the White Trail. We couldn't have him park in Plainsboro Preserve because the office closed at 4, and the whole park at 5. I wondered if the lady behind the counter would wonder when we were coming out.After turning right, the next section was a little side trip. We turned right on Maggie's Trail, a dead end spur of 0.3 miles that led out onto a peninsula to the middle of Lake McCormack with nice views. We followed the trail all the way to the end and hung out for a little bit. I decided to start screaming like a Banshee to see if we could get a response from Jack, whom I knew must be close by this point. When I couldn't hear anything, I called him up, and sure enough he had heard us!We hurried back out the peninsula, and most of the group waited back while I went back out to the White Trail to meet Jack. Together, we continued on the Blue Trail, which followed along the shore of Lake McCormack to the north.The trail went over lots of little knolls and such, probably leftovers from some sort of past quarrying operation.

Blue trail, Plainsboro Preserve

Blue trail, Plainsboro Preserve

Blue trail, Plainsboro Preserve

We soon came out very close to the lake side, in a small finger that stretched to the north of the main part of the pond. We continued along it's shore out to the edge of a field, and then headed further into the woods a bit to parallel it's edge, continuing north. When the trail got to the norther end of the field area, it turned left and climbed to the top of a sort of berm, along a small stream that flowed mostly east/west. It continued atop the berm for some distance until it descended slightly next to the Northeast Corridor railroad tracks.

Northeast corridor

Crossing the northeast corridor

Nice big tree in the woods near the tracks

We could hear the train whistles blowing for some time, but now we actually had them going by us. This track was originally the Camden and Amboy, first regular passenger railroad in the United States, although this was not the original right of way. The original right of way went through Princeton Nurseries, and is now a trail just to the north heading to Monmouth Junction. We had hiked it on the previous trip. What we were seeing now was the later straightened route. It was four tracks wide, and I remembered how all of the Pennsylvania Railroad's tracks (the company that took over Camden and Amboy) were done four wide. Now, the line would be used by NJ Transit, Amtrack, probably Norfolk Southern, and who knows what else.There was a culvert to get us over a ditch and to the tracks, so I went on ahead to see if there was a safe way across and into the woods on the other side.

Near New Turkey Island Road

Paved path along a development in South Brunswickl

When I was about to dash across, an Amtrack train sped by. I waited and hurried, and then found a woods road toward a development on the other side. Captain Soup I think followed close behind me. He watched out for the others, and warned them in case more trains were coming. It seemed at least every two minutes a fast train sped by. NJ Transit were a bit slower, but the Amtrack ones seemed to fly by like mad.Once we were all across, we followed a cut wood road into a development next to a retention pond and a cul de sac. A car was parked there watching us as we came from the woods. Another paved path left the road nearby. We cut the corner and walked over to it as the car drove north on New Turkey Island Road. The paved trail took us out to Anderson Way where we turned left to the north through the development.

Lovely South Brunswick sunset

As we walked north on the road, the sun was setting beautifully. We reached the end of the road, at the intersection of Ridge Road (although we all failed to see any ridge there) and the beginning of a paved path on the other side of the street again. We crossed and began following it through the South Brunswick High School property.

Huh? Trail near South Brunswick High school has this sign.

Jason on a pile, South Brunswick High School

Paved trail at South Brunswick High School

Crossing a creek

As we began following this path, we came to a rather odd sign on the left. It read a normal list of prohibited activities, but included on it "NO ACTIVITY" to our great amusement. We continued following the path as it led along ball fields, and then turned hard to the right, around the ball fields with a new developement that was under construction to the north of us. Many of the houses were built and appeared as though they might be occupied, while some were in the middle of construction. We continued on until the trail dead ended at Stouts Lane.We turned left for a short distance down a slight hill to the former Camden and Amboy Railroad right of way. To the right of us the trail was paved and well developed, but to the left it remained gravel with no signs. After re-grouping, we turned left here. The trail took us behind the businesses where we were parked. Captain Soup wanted to cut through the woods, but it was far too wet.

Creek crossing to Target from former Camden and Amboy Railroad bed

Creek crossing

SUCCESS, BRADLEY!!!

It didn't take long before we reached the access road that came into the back of the Target. What we did not foresee was that there was a stream to deal with. Once there, I tried to jump it and got a wet food. I forget who else, but someone else met the same fate. Maybe Captain Soup. Jason Kumpas initiated construction of a bridge out of branches, and everyone started crossing. Wayne noticed a turn in the brook ahead, and went to explore. He found that the stream turned and was not even necessary to cross. He just went around it easily! A couple others went that way, which Kumpas dismissed again as the "boring way". Once everyone was across, we made our way along the back of the Target. I gave Brad the last of my Traveller's Club Vodka (which had now been in my backpack for about two months), which I regretted because I thought he rode in with Rob, not on his own. Fortunately, Rob was good enough to stay and have dinner with him at the Target because he was in no shape to drive!We all managed to do the car shuttles with no problems, and strangely we departed with most of us not even saying goodbye. I was alright with it, but it seemed a little strange. The next day I went to work,  feeling really at peace with myself. I had connected another two hikes by way of an unconventional route that was interesting, despite being very developed, and it was something that not many would do, or even consider doing.When I went to get lunch, in front of me were two overweight women bickering about the sweetness of their coffee. They were unkempt, wearing pajama bottoms, had excess highlights in their hair, and two chins each. The one girls boyfriend came in and leaned by me to the cashier, asking "habla espanol?". The triad purchased over twenty dollars worth of junk including cigarettes, and were just miserable."Did you light a cigarette?" the one woman asked the hispanic man. He replied that it was outside. I became even more annoyed, that here were three people, probably with no jobs, at 11:30 am purchasing cigarettes and junk food, and complaining about coffee, and then leaving an expensive cigarette burning at the front door for everyone to smell. A cyclone of feelings hit me. Waiting what seemed like an eternity (I only get a half hour for lunch) made me start noticing all of the negative. They had tattoos they probably couldn't afford, brand name shirts. I couldn't even bare to see what kind of car they left in when they were finally done. Probably an Escalade or something. At first I was angry that these people were so wasteful. Then that they were unappreciative. Then I felt sorry for them.My thoughts rushed back to my weekend.I spent all day Saturday gallivanting around northeastern Pennsylvania with Jillane, hiking rail trails and exploring towns and unique stores. Sunday I had had this amazing hike with such wonderful friends.I'm so lucky to have great things going on in my life. I have wonderful people close to me and exciting and fulfilling experiences on a regular basis.I then found a way to convey in words a concept I have always known but knew not how to express; that the difference between being pessimistic and realistic depends on what you want and what you allow your reality to be. My reality is brilliant, and I have so many wonderful people and experiences that have culminated to an optimistic outlook on life for which I am so grateful.

Snoop Dougie K at Plainsboro Preserve, yo.