Hike #746; Princeton Loop

 Hike #746; Princeton Loop

1/4/14 Princeton Area Loop with Brandan Jermyn, Jennifer Berndt, Lyz  Hagenbuch, Ric Giantisco, Colin Webb, Erika Daniels, Eric Fay, Eric's gf, Mike Heaney, Bob ?, ?, Ilouth ?, ?, and ? (Having spelling trouble!)

The group in Princeton

I posted our next group hikes in advance with the idea that there would be no snow on the ground, and the wonderful trails around Princeton would be perfect, as we need to see treadway on many of them in order to navigate due to lack of blazes. When Friday rolled around, things went not as planned and we got hit with a snow storm. I was not planning on canceling the hike of course, but the route would have to be adjusted somewhat to compensate for the snow on the ground. I planned a couple of different alternatives before arriving in Princeton, at the Windsor Green Shopping Center. Brandan and I shuttled down to the place, and the roads were horrible with snow. Princeton apparently does not use salt on any of their back streets, and it was a slippery mess.

Eric and his girlfriend had to be picked up at the train station, and then we gathered at the shopping center. We took extra time to wait for people to show up, since the roads were so bad.

Once we got under way, I decided the starting point of the hike would still be the same; we'd walk behind Windsor Green Shopping Center to Wheeler Way, and there is a trail paralleling Emmans Drive to the west leading beside the golf course to the Delaware and Raritan Canal and trails on both sides. We crossed the golf course bridge, then turned right on the canal towpath which was quite lovely.

It was very tough walking at first, and it was even tough finding that connector path. With all of the snow cover and no footprints we couldn't see where we were supposed to be. Even on the towpath, only some foot prints made it easier to walk through the snow. I was thinking we'd follow the canal out toward Kingston and head back through town, but I also wanted to pass by Princeton Battlefield State Park. One of the main reasons for doing this particular hike at this time was the fact that it was the 137th Anniversery of the Battle of Princeton. Actually, the anniversary began the day before; the battle broke out on January 3rd 1777. Washington's army defeated the British here, and General Mercer was mortally wounded. He was said to have laid up against the Mercer Oak, which was destroyed a few years ago, and then cared for in the nearby at the Clarke  House, which still stands, but died nine days later.

We walked along the towpath, and I looked for the connector trail to Institute Woods, a trail system associated with the Institute for Advanced Study. The main trail connector was flooded over, and the surface was frozen. It passes close to the Stony Brook, which often back flows into the trail. I was able to walk across on the frozen pool, but it was cracking badly. It's a miracle I didn't go through, and I slowly made my way back in favor of finding a better route for the group to get across.

We found the informal trail that crosses the berm next to the towpath, and followed the route along the wetland area to the other side of the flooded pool over the trail. We then followed the trail, called Swinging Bridge Trail, to it's namesake bridge. This bridge is one of my favorite spots in Princeton, a rustic crossing on the Stony Brook unlike most we'd find in NJ.

Once on the other side, we took a circuitous route through Institute Woods. All of the trails through the woods were not marked well, though some plastic blazes had been added since my last visit. They really aren't good and don't make much sense though. We looped around, and then followed another trail to the Trolley Line Trail, which obviously follows the abandoned trolley right of way west from the Institute for Advanced Study toward Princeton Battlefield. When we reached the battlefield, we turned right along it's east edge. Someone pointed out that the monument across Mercer Road had the graves of several soldiers that had died in the battle behind it, unmarked. To the left of us, a small tree grew in the site of the stump of the former Mercer Oak, which was destroyed in a storm in 2000. Someone also told us that several branches of the original Mercer Oak had been planted around the battlefield. I read that this particular one was actually grown from an acorn from the famous tree planted within it's stump.

We turned left, following Mercer Road. Had their not been so much snow, we could have walked a parallel trail to the right of the road, paved mostly I think, but it was invisible because of the snow. After we passed Quaker Road on the right, the trail turned away and we followed it parallel with Mercer Road, which took us over a foot bridge across the Stony Brook again. This one was right next to the beautiful three arch stone span over Mercer Road. It was a beautiful bridge, which might even date back to the 1700s itself. The trail continued parallel with the road, and we turned right on Hutchinson Drive, a development road which took us north to Rt 206. There was a property on the road that is called "Historic Overlook" on the right, public land, but I'm not sure what is there. We saw only fields and no real overlook. I figure this might have been a strategic location during the Revolution, but not sure.

A trail is supposed to cut off to the left of the road near the golf course to the Greenway Meadows area, but I didn't see where it went. Again, because of the snow these things become invisible. Not seeing it, we continued down hill on 206, facing nasty traffic, until we got to it's bridge over the Stony Brook. There was a beautiful stone house on the south side, and the ruins of a stone mill, with less than a third of the walls remaining right next to the highway. I applaud whoever made the decision to keep the remains of the structure standing. It truly adds to the ambiance of the area.

The bridge itself, another stone arch span, was impressive itself. I was surprised to see the plaque that read it was constructed in 1790. It amazes me that such a bridge would carry a highway like Route 206 today. The route is also part of the original Lincoln Highway, the historic first cross country highway in America. Several of the members of the group had already left us at this point to head back to their cars. They'd let me know they were going to leave early anyway, but I wasn't expecting so many to cut out so quickly.

We continued across the bridge and up hill on the other side to a left turn on Edgestoune Road. There was a sign there reading that it was now the 100 year anniversery of the Hun School. We went left on Winant Road which led us to the Hun School itself, a route we'd done on a previous hike. This took us to the Stony Brook and another trail beside it heading up stream. We took a break briefly at the school where kids were sledding down a steep hill. We then followed the fields to the woods, and reached the prefab bridge over the Stony Brook that we were supposed to come across on.

The paved trail continues along the Stony Brook for a bit, but then turns right up into Greenway Meadows, an open field park area. The path we followed continued with a natural surface, though covered in snow, along the brook. We passed a small box with an expensive looking walking stick in it. A sign read "free walking sticks", and to please return at the other end of the trail! This was a nice looking walking stick, and it had a plastic holder stuck to a tree! Very strange!

Brandan didn't take it, but we found the other end where the stick was to be left.

We continued along the trail out across Rosedale Road, from which point we had trouble seeing where the trail should be again. Lyz and Ric found it, and we continued along the beautiful section. I'd not yet covered this piece of the trail, which was outstanding. It continued along the creek to an outlook area, where there were piers of a former bridge in view. I wondered what it could be.

As we continued, the that led us to the right, across General Johnson Road. There was a path on the other side and a boardwalk viewing area to the left on a side trail. We had to check it out; it was a mess, having been severed into two pieces. It was now not easy to get from one set of the boardwalk area to the other. I was able to jump it but most climbed down. It was overall a very nice spot though, much of the structures being made of Eastern Red Cedar logs. Erika made a sculpture of a person's face out of snow on the guard rails. We moved on from here along the trail through what's known as the Johnson Tract to the Johnson Park School. The group went to play on the playground while I scouted ahead to find the next section of trail. I found it, and was happy to see that it was a paved AND PLOWED trail! This led us through some woods to a somewhat level right of way. I realized this was the line that I assumed to be a trolley line, that would have crossed the creek earlier. The trail followed it to the right, heading gradually up hill to Elm Road.

I read into it, and found that this was the former route of the Johnson Trolley Line, which operated between Princeton and Trenton from 1901 until 1940. I'd been on a portion of it before in Lawrenceville, but had never hiked the entire thing from Trenton to Princeton. Researching this made me want to do it, and I scaled off a future hike which I will call the "Johnson Trolley Line Heritage Hike", already planned with parking areas ready to go.

We turned left on Elm Road. It sucked walking the road because it was easy to walk on the pavement, but being off in the snow was a heap of crap that was hard to walk through, and there were cars rushing toward us. Fortunately, we didn't have to be on it all that long. I was looking for the trail head on the right to that led into Community Park North. I'd seen it on the maps, but not yet been on this piece. There was no trail head sign, or anything really to let us know it was there except a green acres sign I think. It really didn't look public. I watched my GPS and aerial images and just recognized where it should be. Sure enough, we found the J. Seward Johnson Sr. Memorial Trail and began following it. There was a deer exclosure around the fields, and we skirted a lovely farm to it's south. The thing that was really impressive here was that the trail went out over a very long boardwalk above wetlands.

Trails went off from the end of this one in a few different directions, but we continued left, parallel with the farm fields just into the woods. We kept on that to the next intersection, then went to the right to reach the northern end of the pond in Community Park North. We continued around the pond and eventually out to the main driveway road into Community Park North. The pond was an historic spot where ice was harvested for the town of Princeton before refrigeration. I had originally wanted to head north into John Witherspoon Woods, but that was simply not going to work this time because of all the snow, and we couldn't tell where all of the trails were. We simply walked down the road for a bit, which was pleasant enough, and threw some snow balls around. We eventually cut to the left onto a trail near the Tusculum Tract, and then to the right to pass through a large evergreen grove heading south toward a garden section of Community Park North.

We reached the garden section and turned left along the pond, crossed the inlet, then turned right again. We then climbed over a hill directly to the left to reach State Road. We turned left on a path parallel with this and crossed to the right on Valley Road, then right on Wistherspoon Street south. After all this trudging through snow (Brandan kept running through the snow "messing up" everyone's workout ahead of us in a wild rage) were were all very hungry. We had to find something to eat soon.

We talked about where we could go, and couldn't quite settle on anything right away. We stopped by the Art Council of Princeton building, which was breaking down previous exhibits when we arrived, and chatted with the lady working behind the counter. They had some interesting stuff on display, and I'd have liked to take some time to have more of a look around. There was a nice black history area, because this was historically the black section of Princeton when it was more segregated, so they had a nice homage to the history. I went up the stairs to have a look around myself while others waited. This was particularly a good stop for Erika, being an art teacher, because she could possibly arrange a field trip or something.

We continued on from here into town, at Lincoln Highway/Rt 206 and decided to go for a pancake place (which had plenty of other food) nearby. I got myself a delicious smothered burger (Eric and his girlfriend cut out at this point and headed to the Princton branch line station which would get them back to the main line where we picked them up. The rest of us continued on from here to walk through the University itself, which is quite pretty and great for walking. It was really a nice time with high spirits, walking through every archway we could find, bellowing melodramatic excitement at the prospect of each one we could use.

We continued through the campus south to the Jadwin Gymnasium, which we skirted the left side of and descended on a foot path to Faculty Road as the sun was beginning to set on the western end of Carnegie Lake, quite a site. I found out later that my grandfather was one of the surveyors who worked on the Jadwin Gymnasium, when he was with Studor and McEldowney (at least I'm pretty sure this was the one he did). He told me about it over dinner the following Wednesday!

We continued across Carnegie Lake on the Washington Road bridge, and then followed the canal towpath west. I pointed out to everyone the old Princeton Branch bridge, and how it still had the turn function in the center from when large boats would pass through the canal, although the bridge has not turned in over half a century. We eventually made our way to the bridge we'd crossed on earlier, and retraced our steps back out to Wheeler Way. This time, we found an opening in the fences that gave us a quicker route back to the shopping center again. When we arrived there, most of the snow on the lot was gone, and we saw that Erika had parked taking up four different parking spaces! So funny. Rather than put her car in a better spot, she went to go and buy herself a gift in the store for completing the hike.

Despite all of the snow on the ground, which usually would make it seem like a drag, we did a lot of the hike as I'd planned rather than the completely re-worked hike toward Kingston. I'm glad that we chose the route we did, passing through more interesting spots. It was definitely the right hike to do, with the right participants dedicated to making it a great day.