Hike #1560; Pennington/Lawrenceville Loop

Hike #1560: 7/16/23 Pennington/Lawrenceville Loop with Professor John DiFiore, Cory Salveson, and Everen (and Banjo)

This hike came about in a weird way. I had done a few hikes in the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail system rather recently, both around Pennington and Hopewell, and then closer to Trenton, both of which were supposed to be the hike we would end up doing this time. I ended up changing them because of weather conditions, and because I ended up not having my son with me the one time. 

This time, a hike on Lawrence-Hopewell was not even the planned hike for the week. The planned hike was supposed to be the Joseph McDade Recreation Trail above the Delaware Water Gap between Bushkill and Dingman's Ferry, but it had been raining heavily, and area roads were washed out. I didn't even realize quite how badly they were washed out.

The rains were so heavy and persistent, with certain localized stuff so bad, we wouldn't be able to even drive to the location of my planned hike.

North of Washington, where I live, my driving route would have taken me up Brass Castle Road, and then along Rt 46. Both of these roads washed out completely and were closed. 

The area known as Hazen was completely covered over with deep stones, and the Manunka Chunk Tunnels, a place I love very much, washed out terribly and took out a home and a large section of Rt 46. 

There was no going through Delaware Water Gap this time.

I was still planning to do it on Saturday, when my coworker Matt started talking to me about the forecast and how bad it looked. I quickly rescheduled it for Pennington at last minute just because the amount of rain slightly to the south wouldn't be so severe. I was certainly glad I did, or I might have had a very tough time either getting to the hike, or getting home from it.

I made the meeting point Pennington Market on Rt 31, which I've used for many hikes before. I was then able to go on in and get some supplies for the hike.

Only Cory and John ended up showing up, and it was the rainiest hike we'd had probably of the entire year. Still, it wasn't a bad day and I quite enjoyed it a lot. 

We started walking from the market north, to Delaware Ave, and east over the bridge across the tracks of the former Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad, which became part of the Philadelphia and Reading, now CSX. It was built in 1876 in direct competition with the Mercer and Somerset Railroad, which was directly across Rt 31 from where we started. I pointed out the old station from that line, still standing, bright red, across from the parking lot.

As we crossed the active tracks on the bridge, I could see the lights of a deisel engine approaching. I knew we had to wait to watch it pass beneath us. Little Ev is really starting to love trains and railroads a lot, and so I knew this would be a thrill for him to see.

We waited it out and watched it pass completely beneath us before we continued on. The fast moving train blew its whistle to us as it went beneath us, which startled Ev at firs, but he was fascinated by it. His eyes were glued to it the entire time, and he said "choo choo" to himself numerous times. The speed of the train caused a wind that blew his hair back, and feeling that sensation probably only piqued his interest in trains even more.

Just on the east side of the bridge, we cut to the right through the Pennington School.

We followed sidewalks and such to the south for a bit, then turned out and along some activity fields. There was a baseball game I think going on as we passed through, and we kept to the right, up a slight slope, and into the track and field area. There is a pretty little pond to the right, and we skirted that a bit, then the field, and then took a little path that came out near a house, which might be associated with the school, at the end of Hale Street.

All the times I'd walked through Pennington over so many years, several through the school, and I'd never known this path existed out to Hale. It was a good connection to lesser used town roads.

We went a little too far on Hale, and had to backtrack to Welling and head east. I think we followed that to Burd Street, turned right, and then went left on Ingleside Ave. This brought us out to Main Street where we turned right at the old Hopewell Valley Regional School.

This was a new high school built in 1929, and remained in that use until 1959 when the newer school was built.

We walked a little bit to teh south, and on the left was the entrance to Curlis Lake Woods.

It had been alright out when we first started walking, but by the time we got to this trail, it was raining pretty good. I hadn't wanted to try to go through this preserve in the mud, which is inevitable in there, but there was no choice. We were committed.

We headed gradually downhill on the main path into the woods, and then dipped down to cross the little stream that flows into Curlis Lake. 

Once on the other side, the trail was a little rough because it was so full of tree roots, but I was able to get Ev and the stroller through pretty well. I had his rain cover on the thing. The previous hike had had a good amount of storming as well, so he got reasonably used to it.

We continued on the trail along the lake, despite the rain, until it started to turn away. We followed this trail to the Mercer County Equestrian Center, and then followed the edges of that on mowed grass to the north. The Lawrence-Hopewell Trail used to go right through this complex a few years ago, until it was rerouted a bit to the north.

We turned to the right, and then onto the access road to the equestrian center. I had intended to go east a bit more to get on the crushed stone former Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, but I missed the turn. It was raining too hard and I couldn't unlock my phone to check it very well. I know the area well enough that I really don't need it for navigation, but for this extreme details it gets a bit hard.

We simply went out to Federal City Road, turned right, and then continued to where the trail crossed and went into Rosedale Park.

We turned left, and then continued through the park past the playground. I got the feeling that Ev wanted to get out and play, but it was just too wet out at this point to let him go for it here.

The rain started letting up just as we reached the current alignment of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail. We were able to follow that across the dam at Rosedale Lake, and then across a bridge on the other side. Because it got so nice at this point, I let Ev out of the stroller to walk on his own. He loves bridges, so crossing the one at the end of the dam would be good for him.

We got across the dam, headed slightly uphill, and reached an intersection.

We turned left and remained on the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail. This stretch had some really good blackberries on it. They're a bit more tart than the Japanese Wineberry, but they're still pretty good. Ev loved them. They were just starting to ripen, so we had to let him know to pick just the black ones, and not the reddish ones that weren't ready yet and really gross.

We continued around a corner to the east, and then out to a small pond on the right. Ev was doing well walking, and stomping hard in every puddle along the way, of which there were a lot.

We headed slightly downhill, and then up a bit more. He started getting a little fussy in this area, and I figured he was definitely ready for a diaper.

We headed uphill, and he was starting to fall behind a bit. He's also like I was when I was a toddler, pretty interested in pipes and culverts, and seeing both sides.

We moved ahead, and at the top of the hill, the trail came out to the Mercer Park headquarters. The original house was built by 1762, with additions built in the 1790s and 1850. Mercer County did a really nice job of restoring it for modern use.

Now it's offices of Mercer County Park Commission.

We took a break here under a sort of partial pavilion where I gave Ev a diaper change. There was a trash can, so I had to make use of that while I had the opportunity.

Ahead, Lawrence-Hopewell Trail continues along the access drive and crosses over Federal City Road, then turns left through the Mercer Meadows Preserve, parallel with the road. It then turns hard right parallel with Cold Soil Road for a bit.

We passed another historic home across the road to the left, and then the trail turns to the right slightly into the wide open fields of the former Pole Farm.

Ev couldn't stay caught up as well, as he was starting to get a bit tired. He did his thing again where he wants to be carried, not walk, and not sit in the stroller. When he wants to be picked up while hiking, I have to try to get him to sit in the stroller, which is a struggle, and usually he doesn't give me as much a hard time as he did this time.

This time, he screamed like crazy as soon as I got him in. I moved on ahead and Cory and John talked for a bit, as I tried to get him calm out in the field areas.

I talked to him and pointed stuff out, and fortunately he calmed down pretty quickly when we were in the middle of the Pole Farm area.

Pole Farm was an AT&T Bell Labs project using radio short waves to transmit telephone calls to other parts of the world. The first call was made to London in 1929.

In 1965, AT&T launched it's first satellite capable of handling the transmissions, and ten years later the Pole Farm was decommissioned.

We continued along the trail to the south, through the fields, and then through a little access area with historic markers.

The trail turned hard to the right through a tree line, and then left to the south, soon to cross over Keefe Road.

On the other side, the trail goes through Village Park, and we crossed a little bridge over Shipetauken Creek.

We continued through Village Park out to Bergen Street, turned right, and then left down Craven Lane. A trail section connected two unconnected sections of this lane down into Lawrenceville. We continued until we reached the former crossing of the Johnson Trolley line, and the station and office building was right on the corner, repurposed.

Officially called the “Trenton-Princeton Traction Company”, the Johnson Trolley Line was the “Fast Line” between the two cities built in 1901.

The line was referred to as the Johnson trolley line after Albert Johnson of Kentucky, who operated A Streetcar business in Cleveland, and obtained franchises in Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He was even active in England. 

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad purchased the line in 1929.

Trolley service was abandoned in 1940, and the Reading Railroad continued to operate the segment south Lawrenceville until 1973 as a freight railroad.

Today, much of it is obscure, but a segment from Ewing to this station on Phillips Street in Lawrenceville is mostly a trail. Another short trail section is found near Johnson Park School in Princeton.

We turned left on the railroad bed, and then right on Phillips Ave out to Rt 206, where we'd stop for a lunch break at TJ's Pizza, where I usually stop when we do a hike into town.

This was a pretty good stop, and Ev ate a good amount of pizza. We sat on the front deck, as it was not raining again, and he had a good time meandering around the porch. 

Cory's dog Banjo was really well behaved here, and Ev really seemed to like him a bit into the hike. 

Once we were done eating, we headed back up Phillips Street, and then turned to the left on the old Johnson Trolley line again. This is where the hike would have some different stuff than I've ever done before.

The first part I'd obviously done, because it was more of the Johnson Trolley line. We followed it past the combined station/powerhouse/office again, across Craven Lane, Titus Ave, and Green Ave to Lawrenceville-Pennington Road. There is an old building on the corner there that used to be a power house.

I had Ev in the stroller for this bit again, just because we'd be getting on more roads. There would be plenty more opportunities for him to run around on the trails we'd be on a bit later.

We continued south to Denow Road. Here, Interstate 295 severs the right of way. Supposely, there is a plan to bridge the highway there to turn the entire right of way into a trail. The construction of the highway was one of the reasons the railroad was abandoned, because it wasn't considered worth the cost to built a rail bridge over the new highway.

We turned right on Denow Road to the east, and eventually turned right into the lawn of the Hope Presbyterian Church on the right. We cut through the lawn, and then to the west reached the edge of an apartment development. We cut through the line of trees that delineated between the two properties, and emerged on a paved walking trail along the apartments. We turned right to follow this north.

The path turned to the west at the corner of the property, and then came out to Federal City Road. We crossed directly, and then turned right on that road following the sidewalk up on the west side.

I had intended to maybe try to get off of the road a bit more and meander through some apartments and developments around the area, but the rain and wet conditiosn put a damper on that, so I decided we would go more direct and follow better stuff.

I think we stopped at Manors Corner Shopping Center, where we reached Pennington-Lawrenceville Road again, and then continued on Keefe Road ahead to the sort of new trail section along the road, which had a good connection into Mercer Meadows Preserve to the north.

When we got to that trail, it was the same one I'd accessed the west side of that preserve with Ev and Jillane on maybe a year ago.

The trail took us north through fields, through tree lines, and across Shipetauken Creek again on a little bridge. We skirted the left side of a field after that, and then made our way into the fields to the north, where there is a really cool, long section of boardwalk to the north.

I got ahead a little bit as I recall, and we continued on and off boardwalk sections until we reached a T intersection. We turned right there, along more boardwalk, and then emerged into a field area.

Just ahead, the trail reaches the awesome outlook tower that overlooks the Reed/Bryan Farm to the west, and the rest of the Mercer Meadows and Pole Farm to the north, south, and east.

I of course let Ev out of the stroller here to climb the steps and look around at everything. He was quite excited about all of it.

We checked out all of the views, and then eventually continued ahead to the north.

We reached where the access road came in from the Reed-Bryan Farm, and Ev wanted to stop and throw stones into the little tributary it crossed.

After crossing the bridge, we turned to the right, to the north along more fields.

We headed north for a bit, then when the fields opened up a bit, we turned hard right and then crossed over the tributary again at a little bridge. Ev threw more stones off of this one, and Banjo went into the water to chase a toy or something like a hippo, coming out the other side of the bridge.

The trail took us uphill a bit on a utility clearing, and then reached another crushed stone trail section. I think this was the former route of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail again, which was rerouted to the new park headquarters when that had been built. As such, the treadway got to be a lot more pleasant here.

We turned left, and descended a bit to Blackwell Road. We crossed directly, went through a parking area where we could make use of more trash cans for diaper and bottle disposal, and then continued into more thick woods to the north, in Rosedale Park.

I think they're referring to it as all Mercer Meadows now, rather than independently as Pole Farm, Rosedale Park, etc. 

We followed a few more field edges before the more thick woods, and Ev found lots of puddles to stomp in. I don't think he got tired as much because there was so much stuff to distract him in the form of these puddles.

Along this bit, there were lots more blackberries again, and Ev ate lots of them.

At first, I'd pick the berries and offer him to him; he'd shovel them into his mouth saying "yummmm" over and over, but eventually he got to the point where he wanted to be independent. He didn't want any berries I picked for him; he only wanted to eat what he picked for himself. It's amazing seeing him grow so independent, and he wasn't even turning two years old until another three days!

I also couldn't believe that he was walking so far without a fuss. This day was probably a record setter for his longest unassisted walk yet.

Pretty soon, we reached the intersection we had been at before, at the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail. We turned left, downhill a bit, crossed the spillway at Rosedale Lake again, and continued across the dam with some nice views of the water.

We continued to the other side, and then remained on the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail as it turned to the right out of the park area.

Here, the trail goes up and across one of the longest foot bridges I've been across, and certainly the longest one on this trail, across the Stony Brook.

Ev really liked the bridge, but he started getting a bit fussy while out on it. I think at this point he had walked about two and a half miles. I think it was on the other side of the bridge that he was ready to get back in the stroller again.

Cory and I were discussing all of the craziness about the pandemic management at this point, and he and I have a difference of opinions on what is coincidental and what is not. He is much for a rule of averages based more in claims on studies, and I'm probably more on the side of conspiracy at this point, just based on what I've seen, that all of that is simply what's seen on a screen, not anything to be taken seriously because of its source.

With the recent death of a good friend due to a cardiac incident at age 36, and the 13th person I know personally who has died of such an incident soon after vaccination, I have huge reservations about ever getting an RNA one myself. I was about to bring up how pushy and rude people are getting about it, and how someone's personal decision regarding these things is the subject of disdain and outright anger.

Just as we were talking about it, a guy walking the trail in the opposite direction butted in and yelled in a contrary manner. I yelled back at him, because that kind of thing was just uncalled for, and if he wanted to talk about what's fake or not, I was ready to lay into him. The outright lies in gov't I've personally been a part of has left me very bitter and angry about it all, because of people like this guy going by, who will tow the party line no matter how underhanded it might be. 

I could tell that John didn't want to have anything to do with the conversation anymore. He and I see pretty eye to eye on these issues, but Cory, while he doesn't fully tow the line, is much more in favor of the management than I will ever be. John usually walks a bit slower toward the end of the groups, but this time he pushed ahead much more quickly, and I can't blame him. It takes a lot of patience to try to deal with the garbage that's been going around.

We continued on the trail, and it took us by a giant Sycamore tree, and then out to Old Mill Road. It paralleled the road and crossed it, then cut to the left across a field to Pennington-Rocky Hill Road. We crossed, then turned left on the LHT connector trail to the south. 

The trail parallels the road, and then comes to an end at the bridge over the Stony Brook. We reached there, and then turned left King George Road I think.

We walked a few blocks, turned south, and then reached Delaware Ave. We turned to the west on that, through the middle of Pennington, and then continued back across the active railroad tracks on the bridge, and to the Pennington Market lot.

I was so glad to get out on this day. It was one of those days that you just don't know if anyone will show up, but my record of never having a weekend hike posted that no one showed up for is still safe since 2004. I just have to go one more year, and it will be twenty years of all successful hikes.

The political discussions are still pretty good for me, because even though there are disagreements, they are intelligent and respectful, and there is no loss of good friendship over any of it.

We had also finished this one pretty early, which was nice, because we could have a pleasant evening getting home not so late.