Together with three grants awarded early this year, West Windsor has received $1.33 million from the state for new multi-use paths, new sidewalks, and other bicycle and pedestrian improvements.
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I went walking in the woods in West Windsor and spotted this fellow asleep in his hammock.
Then I spotted one ready to get a party started. And another gnome. Then a dozen or so more, tucked amid the tree trunks and leaves along the path. Did others scamper into hiding places before I arrived? Through that door at the bottom of a tree? That Rutgers one, though – did he get beaten up playing football? Or get the worse end of a quarrel with a deer?
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Thanks to PSE&G (which owns the land) and a nudge from the township, the Trolley Line Trail — the trail under the power lines — now extends to Village Road West instead of ending at Penn-Lyle Road. That means you can walk, jog, scoot or bike more than 3 miles from the northern end at Rabbit Hill Road without ever needing to be on the road (except when crossing at intersections, of course).
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I like this fun fact about the Union Transportation Trail: It lets you brag that you’ve travelled across Monmouth County, from Mercer County to Ocean County. Yet because it’s in the western corner of the county, it’s only 9 miles long.
The UTT is a crushed-stone rail trail that starts south of Hightstown and takes you through woods, past farms and fields and near the Cream Ridge Golf Course. Once part of the Pemberton & Hightstown Railroad, it’s now a great place for walkers, joggers, cyclists and even those on horseback.
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The Lawrence Hopewell Trail – a 20ish-mile loop connecting Lawrenceville and Hopewell – is one of WWBPA board member Silvia Ascarelli’s favorite local trails. She loves to combine it with the D&R Canal towpath to help get her where she wants to go by bike (they meet near the historic Brearley House).
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On Thurs, March 12, 7pm the WWBPA will be holding it’s annual membership meeting at WW municipal building Main Meeting Room A and is open to the public. Find out what we’ve accomplished in 2019 and what is planned for 2020. Have any concerns or ideas to improve the community? Come and share with us.
Help make West Windsor more accessible and safe for walking, running and biking to Conover Fields, Mercer Lake, PNRA Rowing Center and Mercer Park by showing support for the Conover Rd multi-purpose paved trail project. It will connect the trail at S Post Rd, Conover Fields, and all of the neighborhoods until Galston Dr.
Saturday, June 1st is National Trails Day, where people all over the country will be getting out to enjoy and build up our trails. We’re lucky to have so many great trails in the parks and along the waterways in NJ and if you go out any time from sunrise to sunset, the crowds will tell you how popular they are for both recreation and transport. Where do you wish we had a trail where we don’t? I know the extension of the Trolley Line Trail as part of the Knight Trail is one item on the wish list of the students in West Windsor and Plainsboro. Where else would a trail help you to get around more safely and comfortably, or help you to get out and about walking and hiking?
For those wanting to get out on National Trails Day, here are some of the events happening in our area in celebration of National Trails Day:
Run from Trenton to Piscataway on the D&R Canal Towpath. They start around 5 AM for the 34.1 mile run! Those who ?only? want to run 20 miles start at Rocky Hill.
For all the events in New Jersey from the shore to the Delaware Water Gap and to search PA, NY, etc
WWBPA will be at the Farmers’ Market on June 1st to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Stop by our booth and say hi before you head out hiking, walking and biking!
Join us Saturday January 26 at 7:30pm for a showing of TREK: A Journey on the Appalachian Trail, at the West Windsor Arts Center. Admission is free for WWBPA or WWAC members, $5 otherwise.
The movie tells “the story of four young men and the people they meet as they attempt to hike the 2,168 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Shot and edited by the hikers themselves, this documentary is one of the most accurate portrayals of the thru-hiker lifestyle that has been produced to date. Spanning 14 states and five months, this critically-acclaimed film will inspire you to follow your own dreams, no matter what the odds.”
Thanks to 20 volunteers who came with handsaws, loppers, chainsaws and more on Saturday, Dec. 1, the Millstone Preserve trails, the Millstone West trails and the last of the Rogers Preserve trails are now cleared of fallen trees and other Sandy damage. Our group ranged from a kindergartener armed with small loppers who attacked those invasive thorny green vines to a longtime resident in his 80s who helped cut branches with his handsaw. The group also included two other elementary school students and two high schoolers. Three volunteers with chainsaws allowed us to clear the biggest trees, and our own ?lumberjack? even got Santa to deliver his Christmas chainsaw early.
It is amazing what such a group can do in less than two hours!
We also are thankful for some neighborhood ?trail elves? who cleared some trees in Millstone Preserve before we arrived and the five volunteers who stayed for an extra two hours to remove more downed trees.
We left most of the leaves on the ground to fight against mud and soil erosion, so please let us know if you find some trails difficult.
Trails in the Rogers Arboretum and Zaitz Preserve still need to be cleared. We plan to tackle Rogers Arboretum at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 15, weather permitting. Join us in the arboretum parking lot on Clarksville Road. Once again, we will aim to finish by 12:30 p.m.
As West Windsor’s public works department concentrates on clearing our roads of Sandy’s debris, members of the all-volunteer West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance are tackling the many trails in town, which also suffered heavy damage. Volunteers have already cleared the popular dog-run trail at Community Park and much of the Rogers Preserve trails, where countless large trees were toppled by the winds.
This Saturday, Dec. 1, we will be at Millstone Preserve. Join us at the Millstone Preserve parking lot on Millstone Road at 10:30 a.m. with loppers, chain saws, hand saws, gloves and whatever other equipment you think might help. Children are welcome with an adult and can help pick up smaller branches.
We will finish by 12:30 p.m. If we have enough people and time permits, we may also start on the Millstone West trail off Joanne Street.
We’re making progress in clearing our trails of fallen trees after Sandy.
Three WWBPA volunteers cleared the fallen trees off the dog run trail in Community Park. There were several trees blocking the popular blacktop trail and a great deal of debris and leaves on the pathway. It is now clear for all to use.
One day later, a large crew of volunteers tackled the down trees in the Rogers Preserve trails. One section was so bad that we had to re-route the trail around a large fallen tree. Even so, most of the Preserve is now cleared, with only a couple of very large trees yet to be cut. These will be tackled soon, but they are passable with a little effort. Many thanks to all who helped, particularly to Phil, the “Minnesota lumberjack” who impressed us with his chainsaw skills. Some of us had never seen a giant rootball and stump settle back into place oh-so-slowly when cut right.
We will keep you updated as we clear more of the open space trails in West Windsor. If anyone wishes to join us on our next “work day”, please send an email to [email protected]. We’ll also send out an email to our members. Feel free to bring a friend. The more people who help, the faster we can get our trails back to normal.
Sandy’s damage in West Windsor extended to our trails. Take a look:
Help make it possible for friends, family and neighbors to enjoy an after-Thanksgiving walk through the woods by joining us this Saturday to help clear part of Rogers Preserve. We will meet at the Clarksville Road entrance at 10:30 a.m. Please bring gloves and tools: rake, loppers, hand saw, gas-powered chain saw — whatever you have.
Join the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance for its sixth annual Community Bike Ride on Oct. 6 (rain date Oct 7) as we head down the D&R Canal towpath to discover how it connects to other bicycling and walking routes.
Our eight-mile ride will leave from Turning Basin Park (Alexander Road and the canal) and head to Brearley House in Lawrence (located on the 20-mile Lawrence Hopewell Trail). We?ll stop there for refreshments and some give-aways, plus hear about the Lawrence Hopewell Trail and the East Coast Greenway before turning back.
This is the last in our series of free family-friendly bike rides for 2012. Meet at the park at 2:15 p.m.; the ride leaves at 2:30 p.m. No preregistration is necessary; just bring a bike in good working order and a helmet. Children under 13 should be accompanied by an adult.
This year, we are adding a walking option, from Port Mercer Canal House. Gather at the parking lot at 2:15 p.m. (departure time is 2:30 p.m.) for the 1.3-mile walk to Brearley House. Because of road construction, the parking lot is only accessible from Route 1, not Princeton.
The ride is so-sponsored by the Lawrence Hopewell Trail, Sustainable Lawrence and the Princeton Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee.
About two dozen people, many of them new faces, joined us on Sept. 15 for a five-mile loop from Community Park down the Trolley Line Trail to Penn-Lyle Road and past High School South back to the park. Thanks for coming along for the ride!
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The Appalachian Trail Conservancy recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of the completion of the trail, which runs almost 2200 miles from Springer Mountain, GA to Mount Katahdin, ME.
According to the AT Conservancy’s web site:
The A.T. was completed 75 years ago on August 14, 1937. This task took over 15 years to complete and involved thousands of volunteers, agency partners, local Trail maintaining clubs and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The A.T. is one of the longest continuously marked footpaths in the world, measuring roughly 2,180 miles in length. The Trail goes through fourteen states along the crests and valleys of the Appalachian mountain range from the southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Georgia, to the Trail?s northern terminus at Katahdin, Maine.
It has been estimated that 2-3 million people visit the Trail every year and about 1,800?2,000 people attempt to ?thru-hike? the Trail. People from across the globe are drawn to the A.T. for a variety of reasons: to reconnect with nature, to escape the stress of city life, to meet new people or deepen old friendships, or to experience a simpler life.
The A.T. is a unit of the National Park System and is managed under a unique partnership between the public and private sectors that includes, among others, the National Park Service, the USDA Forest Service, an array of state agencies, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and 31 local Trail-maintaining clubs.
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The West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance and Friends of West Windsor Open Space invite you to join us for some maintenance on the Rogers Arboretum and Rogers Preserve trails. We will beat the heat by meeting at 10 a.m. on Sunday, August 12 in the Rogers Arboretum parking lot on Clarksville Road. We will be clearing trails of brush, weeds and downed trees. If there are enough people, we will tackle Rogers Preserve as well. Otherwise we will do that next.
Bring clippers/loppers, rakes and weed-whackers or something else to take out the weeds. You may want to wear gloves and carry a bottle of water. Children are welcome with their parents. We?ll be done by noon.
Email [email protected] with any questions, and feel free to bring some friends.
On a beautiful sunny (once the fog burned off) Saturday, 13 volunteers organized by the Jersey Off Road Bicycle Association (JORBA) met to re-route an eroded section of the Red Trail near the tennis courts in Mercer County Park. These? dedicated off-road bicyclists know that conservation and maintenance are part of responsible mountain biking. Thanks to Mick Tormey of West Windsor for organizing the work, and to all the volunteers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania who showed that they care about our trails!
Mountain bikers, check out the JORBA web site to find opportunities to maintain trails all over New Jersey. Public – private partnerships, like JORBA working with Mercer County Park officials, allow everyone to enjoy our public assets, and save our taxpayers a few dollars along the way.
From our friends at SMART/Jorba (the volunteers who maintain the off-road bike trails in Mercer County Park):
We will be holding our first trail day of the year on Saturday, March 17 and have a couple of projects planned. Depending on park approval we will be doing a re-route of the red trail east of the tennis courts. Building the trail and re-mediating the old damaged sections hould keep us busy for at least one trail day, if not more.
As is customary, we will meet at the Marina parking lot at 9 a.m. Please bring something to drink. We will have tools and gloves (some bug spray may not be a bad idea).
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The WWBPA’s mission is “To promote bicycling and walking in West Windsor Township and neighboring communities,” and this past week we’ve worked with residents of Plainsboro and Hopewell Boro to encourage them to become more bicycle and pedestrian friendly.
On February 1, WWBPA trustees met with Plainsboro residents, a township official and interested WWBPA members at the Plainsboro Library to discuss the issues. Topics included biking on the road vs. paths, the upcoming closings of the Rt 1 circle at Washington and the jughandle at Harrison, bike commuters to the Forrestal campus, biking and walking connections to West Windsor on the PSE&G right of way and Cranbury Road, biking and walking to school and many others. Various ideas were presented on how best to encourage biking and walking, including a having a bike rodeo at the annual Founders Day event and organizing a community bike ride.
On February 6 at the Hopewell Borough Council meeting, a resident advocate invited bicyclists from the area to support bike lanes on CR 518. A dozen bicyclists, including a WWBPA trustee and 2 members, showed up to support? the bike lanes as well as a Complete Streets resolution for the borough and for Mercer County. Representatives from New Jersey Bike Walk Coalition,? Princeton Free Wheelers, Lawrence Hopewell Trail, New Jersey Bike Exchange and the Battle Against Hunger Ride also spoke in support. We hope to see Hopewell Borough adopt the next Complete Streets resolution in Mercer County!
Monthly meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month via Zoom. We will eventually resume meeting in the West Windsor Municipal Building. Email us at [email protected] if you would like the Zoom code.
Find us at the West Windsor Farmers Market (Vaughn Drive parking lot) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every other Saturday from May through Halloween.
The 
The WWBPA’s mission is “To promote bicycling and walking in West Windsor Township and neighboring communities,” and this past week we’ve worked with residents of Plainsboro and Hopewell Boro to encourage them to become more bicycle and pedestrian friendly.