Hike #688; Washington's Crossing to Lambertville/New Hope

 Hike #688; Washington's Crossing to Lambertville/New Hope

 3/10/13 Washington's Crossing to Lambertville with Frank Meloi, Brandan Jermyn, Rich Pace, Craig Nunn, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Jaque Melo, Jack Lowry, Susie Duncan, Eric Pace, Al MacLennan, Angela Williamson, Stephen Argentina, Oscar Alvaredo, Malcolm Preese, Betty Demers, Mark Norman, Maricella Sevilla, Carol Van Giezen, Joe Tag, Eric Pace, Nurys Garcia, Mark Hermsmeier, Bonnie Peters, David Brancho, Eva Brancho, Michael Verr?, Rich Bowman, Lenny Lewis, Carmen Lewis, Bernie Fitzsimmons, Tim Atwood, Bruce Love, Egbert Ammicht, and John Spiridon (my apologies for those I left out...I need to  check spellings and such, so I'll add later!)

Group shot on Baldpate Mountain

Our next trip would be an almost totally new point to point trip between Washington's Crossing and Lambertville. I had found a route that would take us between the parks aside from the well known towpath and rail trail along the Delaware, D&R Canal State Park. The route was mostly foot paths in a diverse route through the hilly parts of northern Mercer and southwestern Hunterdon.

Having such a large group is intimidating, but it ended up going really quite well.

We shuttled without much incident, except that the parking area was difficult to decide on at Washington's Crossing Historic Park in PA. We started here, but had to do a little driving around.

We then walk on over to the Delaware, where the Durham Boats would have been unloading soldiers on Christmas 1776, and passed by the nice big trees to the bridge. A few of us climbed a stone wall while the rest of us went around.

We turned to cross the bridge, and on the other side made our way across the D&R Canal to the foot bridge over Rt 29. We then entered Washington's Crossing State Park. I had read about several Champion Trees, meaning the largest of their respective species within the Arboretum section of the park. The map clearly showed what the arboretum section was supposed to be, but I could not find anything that was distinguishable as a champion. The largest Eastern White Pine in NJ is supposed to be in there, but we didn't see it.

We turned onto old Continental Lane, and then followed it out to the visitor's center where we chatted with a guy working there about parks and such. We then returned to the trail and continued to follow it west for a bit.

There were still a lot of trees down from the storm, but it was easy to get through. The trails were not correctly marked which made it difficult to figure out where we were supposed to turn, but eventually we found that too.

We turned left onto the Yellow Dot Trail parallel with Steele Run's south branch, a lovely little creek. We passed the amphitheater and continued down stream until we reached the bridge where the Red Dot Trail turned, and then we followed it.

The trails were actually very nice, save for the lack of good marking. We headed up hill through some light forest until the Red Dot Trail ended at the AAAP Observatory and nature building. Captain Soup brought people the wrong way again for a while, but then we got back on track. We turned left from here on the Red Trail which serves as sort of a self guided nature trail. It passed through woods to another Steele Run creek branch. We crossed and visited a wildlife observation blind on the White Trail, which led us out to a Horse Trail to the north. We followed the horse trail out to Brick Yard Road, also an access/multi use trail, where we joined up with Jack and Susie.

It was getting pretty warm, and I warned Jack not to bring his jacket. He was glad he didn't! We crossed over Church Road and entered the Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain. The trails in this preserve were also not standard blazed, and they were very difficult to follow because they didn't always match up with what was shown on the map. Trail intersections were not distinguishable as being beginnings or ends. They really need some help there.

We ended up following Honey Hollow Trail to part of Copper Hill Trail, some of which were woods roads, up to a parking area off of Pleasant Valley Road. We were having a great time singing along with Jack and moving along at a pretty good rate. From the parking area, we continued west on Ridge Trail, which followed an old woods road to the abandoned houses we'd seen previously hiking here. We had our lunch break here.

This time, the houses were opened up, and so we went on in to have a look around. It was quite awesome. The house and two barns were all opened where we could have a look inside. If they're anything like Hunterdon County, they'll surely be torn down.

After our break, we continued on Ridge Trail out to an overlook of the Delaware River where we could see the Washingtons Crossing Bridge we'd crossed earlier. The view wasn't amazing, but it was nice. We continued on Northwest Loop Trail on and down hill slightly. It came near to a quarry property so there were a lot of no trespassing signs. We continued until we reached Pleasant Valley Trail, which headed down hill to Pleasant Valley Road. This was a nice trail too, mostly on a woods road heading down. At the road, we had to turn left for a bit, but then we turned right onto a "trail" in Howell Living Historical Farm. We followed the farm lanes across the beautiful property and then came out to Valley Road. The place obviously had someone living there, but no one came out fortunately. Also, there were dogs on the trip, and the place I'm told does not allow them, so it's a good thing no one was around, though it was not well signed and we didn't know.

From the Howell Farm, we turned right only a very short distance onto Valley Road and entered the Dry Run Creek Trail, part of D&R Greenways. Still not standard blazed, but nice and easy to follow. It led us on a gradual up hill for a ways and ended at a parking area on Brunswick Pike. From here, we crossed the road directly, and slightly to the right was the start of the Rock Hopper Trail. This trail headed into state park property and had some very nice stone work. The trail navigated through very well, and eventually led down from the Piedmont geology to an old woods road, known as "Old Stone Road" which dates back to colonial days. It even crossed an old stone bridge out there. There were beautifully laid stone walls parallel with much of the road.

We stayed on the road for this trail as I recall until we reached a power line. The property had horrible state park signs, stapled to the trees which means they won't last more than a season, and that read "no parking" where almost no vehicle could ever reach.

We headed down hill on the trail which came out on the end of Rock Road next to a house. It then descended into Lambertville. We crossed over Rt 29 and followed back streets to the Delaware and Raritan Canal. We used a foot bridge to cross, and soon reached the parking area.

Rather than drive, we opted to have dinner in  New Hope, and many of us walked the way there across the free bridge, then up the hill. The parking area charges, so it was a good thing we didn't bother going up there!

We had a great dinner, and afterwards a few of us made the walk back over the bridge to our cars.

It's always so great to do an awesome all new hike in a very familiar area. Overall, most of the group loved the hike, though I'm told a few didn't so much.

When someone doesn't enjoy a hike, for some reason it gets to me too much. There can be thirty people who had the time of their life, but if one hates it I let it bother me. I guess the group is pretty silly/crazy, and it's not for everyone, as much as I want it to be, but even the mileage alone excludes some, so I shouldn't let it bother me.All in all, this was a really great day!