Hiking Baldpate Mountain With Friends


Hiking Baldpate Mountain in New Jersey

Not more than 8 minute drive from my home, is an open space called, Baldpate Mountain. One lazy Sunday afternoon I stumbled upon this place when I took an unplanned turn onto Fiddlers Creek Road. Spying the lonely parking lot on the left, I wondered - should I, should I not. With only a hard top Jeep to keep it company, the parking lot seemed to be calling my name. Why not, I reasoned, and turned into the lot,  slowly getting out of the Mercedes to stretch my legs. The bulletin board at the end of the lot announced a trail going up to the top of the hill and not having much to do, I started to walk on what seemed like a well trodden trail. 45 minutes later I was at the top peering over the Delaware river into Pennsylvania.  The proximity of broad vistas offered by Baldpate Mountain, to my home, surprised me and I vowed to come here more often.


That was in late December when the blanket of winter was well spread and everything looked dismal. It has been 5 months, perhaps longer, since then and I have been living a rather monastic life, limiting my social interaction to Zoom and FaceTime calls.  So when Alok suggested we should get together, I grabbed the opportunity and suggested a hike up the Baldpate (how the mountain got its name is a mystery; it used to be called Kuser Mountain when the John Kuser’s family owned it.) Yes, we would maintain social distance, and yes we would wear a mask, for that’s the guidance today, but we would get our families together even if only for a short time. The suggestion to hike Baldpate was received rather warmly, and we agreed to start hiking on Sunday afternoon. 


On the appointed day, a last minute request to postpone or cancel the hike for fear of heat, was quickly dispatched with clarification that much of the hike is in wooded area. An hour before the hiking time, I sent the coordinates of the parking lot to the Sonigs, but when I arrived there, I realized that the coordinates were wrong.  There are, it appears, two parking lots on Fiddler’s Creek Road, one for Ted Stiles Preserve, and another a little further up for Baldpate Mountain, and we had arrived at Ted Stiles Preserve. While hiking Ted Stiles Preserve would be fun, the hike isn’t in wooded area that I had promised. The mistake was corrected quickly and new directions provided to the Sonig family. Within minutes, they arrived at the corrected location, all decked in hiking finery appropriately adjusted for COVID-19, (i.e. their angelic faces gracing face masks) and we started up the Summit Trail.



The early section of the hike is flat but quickly it takes on a moderate intensity with a section covering large boulders. This was my favorite section of the hike in December, almost seeming like a steep ladder of stones, but I realized to my chagrin that the vegetation did a good job of hiding the rocks stealing some of the hike’s beauty. Still, the kids seem to be having fun time bounding from rock to rock. 



The mask makes it doubly difficult to breath on a hot and humid afternoon, but even though I am rather out of shape, I managed to keep company with athletic Alok. I fully expected the kids to complain yet I didn’t hear much; it was my lovely better half who expressed her unhappiness for being arm twisted and dragged out of her cool castle for a “mask-on” hike on a hot stinky afternoon. The ordeal didn’t last long - it took us less than an hour to get up to the top of the hill where the Kuser’s majestic Strawberry Hill house sits overlooking a beautiful vista.



The Masketeers



We rested a while in appropriate social distance, taking in the beauty of central Jersey and imbibing cold cans of coke, before climbing further up to the top of the hill for a view of the Delaware river and Washington Crossing bridge.  


A short while later we started back on Ridge trail towards the Welling-Burd farmhouse and pond. I don’t know if this pond is man made or natural, but it is very picturesque and worth a visit. 





Our way back could have been shorter had we taken a bypass to Summit trail, but instead we doubled back towards Strawberry Hill and then came back onto the Summit trail. The time was very well spent for on the way back I had a great conversation with my little Jiya about writing stories and creating videos. During the walk, Jiya proceeded to create four five characters for a story she plans to write this summer.

 


Writing is Jiya’s passion, and without any prompting, Jiya came up with some goals for summer writing - writing two pages per day, at least 10 pages per week for 10 weeks, which should result in a book of about 100 pages. 


Jiya is also motivated by her recent success on Youtube - over 13,000 views of her youtube video, and over 100 subscribers!  So she wants to work on developing youtube videos for two hours each day with the goal of uploading at least two videos per week, and 20 videos by the end of summer.


By the time we returned it was 6.15pm, almost exactly 3 hours round trip. It was a great way to dispel the COVID doldrums in the company of good friends. But the icing on the cake was my conversation with little Jiya, who I am sure, will become a good writer and Youtube star one day. Wish you luck, baby!




Resources:

Mercer County Park Commission Map of Baldpate Mountain and Ted Stiles Preserve

New Jersey Trails Association page on Baldpate Mountain 

NJ Hike’s most complete description of the hikes in Baldpate Mountain

Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space page on Ted Stiles Preserve


Comments

Anonymous said…
Very nice article! I also like the funny part where you say you are unfit but managed to compete with athletic alok uncle 😂 -Jaya

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