New Edition of Princeton Area Trail Guide
D&R Greenway Land Trust, Friends of Princeton Open Space and Friends of Herrontown Woods invite you to celebrate a new edition of Sophie Glovier’s “Walk the Trails in and around Princeton,” with photographs by Bentley Drezner, Nathan Drezner and Grace Glovier, by taking one of four free walks across Princeton on Saturday, May 6. Meet the author and purchase your signed copy of the book at 10 a.m. Each of the walks begin promptly at 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: D&R Greenway's Johnson Education Center or at 11:30 a.m. at Mountain Lakes House.
- Join former Princeton Mayor Phyllis Marchand for a 1.1 mile walk on the Scott and Hella McVay Poetry Trail. This walk will leave from D&R Greenway Land Trust's Johnson Education Center, 1 Preservation Place, Princeton. www.drgreenway.org.
- Explore Princeton's "central park," the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve. Friends of Princeton Open Space will be offering two walks at Mountain Lakes Preserve. Both will begin in the Community Park North parking lot on Mountain Avenue, traveling through a pine forest, Tusculum fields and around the lakes. Each walk will include stream crossings, and some areas with rocks and exposed roots. The shorter route will be about 1.5 miles. The longer and more challenging route, approximately 2.5 miles, will also be traveling along a rocky inlet stream. www.fopos.org
- Take a 1 to 2 mile tour of Herrontown Woods with naturalist Steve Hiltner. www.fohw.org
Walk the Trails in and around Princeton (Princeton University Press, $19.95) is a new, pocket-friendly guide to walks on 16 of the best trails through preserved open space in Princeton and its neighboring towns. This revised edition includes eight new walks, several of which have been created on land that has been preserved since the popular guide was originally published in 2009, such as the Scott and Hella McVay Poetry Trail at Greenway Meadows Park, the Stony Brook Trail and the trails at St. Michaels Farm Preserve. The walks range from two to four miles, but many include suggestions for trail connections that allow you to extend your hike if you choose. The guide includes detailed color maps of the trails, directions on how to get to them and where to park, and recommendations for the most scenic routes. Each walk has been designed with a "reason to walk" in mind: a special boulder or waterfall to find, a bit of local history or a beautiful vista to enjoy. The guide is illustrated with specially commissioned color photographs, 16 of which are featured on detachable postcards.
Money raised from the book will benefit D&R Greenway Land Trust, Friends of Princeton Open Space and the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association to support trail maintenance and land stewardship.
“Getting outdoors in nature provides health benefits we can’t find anywhere else,” says D&R Greenway President & CEO Linda Mead. “Sophie’s new book encourages fun and adventures that benefit walkers in many ways by connecting people with the land.”
Sophie Glovier is an author and environmental advocate who is passionate about the preservation of open space and the importance of connecting people to nature. She is a member of the Princeton Environmental Commission and has served as a board member of D&R Greenway Land Trust, Friends of Princeton Open Space, and the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.
"Photographer Bentley Drezner and I envisioned this book as a way to get people out into nature and to provide funds to support the maintenance of our local trails,” says Glovier. “The wonderful network of open space in Princeton would not exist without the preservation efforts of D&R Greenway Land Trust and Friends of Princeton Open Space and we are excited to continue to support their work with the publication of this new edition of ‘Walk the Trails In and Around Princeton.’"
To celebrate the arrival of spring trail-walking weather and the book’s release, publisher Princeton University Press has geocached four copies of the book in hidden locations on the trails. Using the coordinates and clues they are posting to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook , they invite you to lace up your hiking boots and use your skills to find them. Be sure to exercise caution when venturing off the beaten path!
The four geocaches are hidden on the following trails: the Poetry Trail (Trail 3 in Walk the Trails); Greenway Meadows along the Stony Brook (Trail 4 in Walk the Trails); Princeton Battlefield (Trail 5 in Walk the Trails); and Updike Farmstead in Washington’s Footsteps (Trail 6 in Walk the Trails). Once you find the geocache, feel free to take the book but please leave the box. Use the notebook and pen to write your name, the date, the time, and the condition of the box. Feel free to take a trinket or leave one. Please secure the top and place the box where you found it. If you can’t find the box or if you find it and there is no longer a copy of the book inside, let Princeton University Press know on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #PUPTrails. When searching for the geocaches, please be careful with the wildlife, including plants and trees.
Good luck and happy hunting!
