A big step has been taken by FOHW to make the red trail--the main trail route in Herrontown Woods--fully usable year-round. In the past, trails in the preserve would dry out in summer as the trees pulled moisture out of the ground, then cold weather would harden the ground in winter. But as rains have increased in New Jersey, and mild winters often fail to freeze the ground, the season when trails are soft and muddy has expanded. Though volunteers have laid hundreds of stepping stones along trails in Herrontown Woods, a 500 foot section in the northwest corner of the preserve has long seemed beyond remedy. A reroute two years ago on what appeared to be drier ground quickly turned to mud, as foot traffic broke down the delicate root structures that had held the highly organic soil together.
This year, however, we set about making a more permanent fix. It began, as most major initiatives do in Herrontown Woods, with Kurt Tazelaar focusing his energy on the problem. First came a reworking of large stepping stones to cross the stream. He then stockpiled 100 large stepping stones along a pathway leading into the preserve from Stone Hill Church, occasionally assisted by family and friends. The stones came from the Windy Top development on Snowden, where periodic excavations for new homes have for years now been our handy go-to for stones that vary from small to massive.During a stretch of days when no one else was available, I finished a usable version of the trail. The new route is actually the original route from previous decades, through a swamp forest habitat that hikers don't experience elsewhere in the preserve. Some of the planks used earlier became boardwalks. The crosspieces are posts scavenged when the Princeton Shopping Center took down an old fence several years ago.
Another native plant found in winter along the trail is partridgeberry. A few of these found in the trail path were transferred to the botanical garden.