Sunday, August 7, 2022

Ted Stiles Preserve and Fiddlers Creek Preserve, NJ

ABOUT THE PARKS: 
Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain - Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space
Fiddler's Creek Preserve - Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space

DIRECTIONS: 
GPS Coordinates 40.31860, -74.86632
Brickyard Road parking at the northern edge of Washington Crossing State Park.  I parked here so I could get the road walk portion out of the way early without any traffic.  There is only room for about 4 cars.   This hike passes through three other parking lot options.

TRAIL MAPS: 
Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain - Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space
Updated map from the Mercer County Park Commission Facebook page showing the orange trail reroute.

Fiddler's Creek Preserve - New Jersey Trails Association


HIKE DISTANCE:  7.4 miles

THE HIKE: 
It was a miserably hot and humid day, even at 7 AM.  This was not the complete hike that I planned on doing.  I'll have to save that for another time.  Minimizing elevation gain and cutting the hike short was the way to go on this day.
Walking back out from the parking lot to the road ...
... across Church Road to Fiddler's Creek Road.
After about 1 mile coming up on Fiddler's Creek and ...
... the entrance drive to Fiddler's Creek Preserve parking lot on the left.  There is no sign.
Straight through the parking lot to the gate ...
... then left on red.
After exiting through the gate, a right turn then ...
... an immediate left on an overgrown footpath which is red but there are no blazes or markers.
The trail alternates between overgrown and clear but there is always a footpath to follow.
Continuing along Fiddler's Creek.
The trail turns sharply right and climbs up above the creek.
Red ends at blue where we turned left and continued on blue through the gate.
Eastern Towhee
Staying with blue all the way to ...
... Fiddler's Creek Road where we crossed, veered slightly left ...
... then right into Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain.
Right to the mowed path that parallels the paved road ...
... and goes through a parking lot.
The trail is now blazed blue and was the steepest ascent of the hike, sometimes climbing up boulders.
At the top we worked our way over to views to the left.
Scarlet Tanager
We looped around over to the white trail which follows the ridge.  This was not the original plan but it was an easier hike in the heat and humidity.
We turned right on orange where I had read the trail had been rerouted on to a new trail.
Apparently Brodie cannot read because he insisted that was the way.
The reroute goes over chunky rocks that are pretty annoying to walk on.  Maybe that is why nobody goes this way, evidenced by the many ancient spiderwebs I walked through.
Just after this mass of blow down is a T-intersection where we turned left.
This leads to another parking lot where we turned right ...
... then right onto a mowed path through the full sun in the very hot power cut.
Finally the trail went into the slightly cooler woods.
Following along Fiddler's Creek ...
... and crossing on a rock hop.
Back across Church Road ...
... to the parking lot where an iced coffee in the cooler and air conditioning awaited.

Birds not seen but heard with the Merlin Bird Sound ID app:
  • Red-bellied Woodpecker
  • House Wren
  • White-eyed Vireo
  • Eastern Phoebe
  • Blue Jay
  • Veery
  • Eastern Towhee
  • American Goldfinch
  • Indigo Bunting
  • Northern Cardinal
  • Hooded Warbler
  • White-breasted Nuthatch
  • American Robin
  • Northern Flicker
  • Black-and-white Warbler
  • American Redstart
  • Red-eyed Vireo
  • Acadian Flycatcher
  • Carolina Chickadee
  • Carolina Wren