A friend called the Lawrence Hopewell Trail ‘magnificent’. He’s right.

On Memorial Day, I took a friend on a loop ride of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail in Mercer County, N.J., all 22 or so miles.

He pronounced it “magnificent.”

I couldn’t agree more.

This trail goes through woodland, fields, small town, neighborhoods and then parks with even more trails. Lakes. An eagle’s nest. A plethora of historical signage that teaches me something new every time. (You’ve got to read about the Pole Farm and the dawn of transatlantic phone calls.) The gotta-find bakery and ice cream shop, among other food choices. And that scent — was it honeysuckle? Or something else?

How many other trails do you know that offer so much variety?

Oh, the surface? That’s a mix of paved and stonedust, with a few spots where it’s rougher (no super-skinny bike tires in Carson Woods!). If you haven’t been on the trail in a while and remember some crushed stone areas with deep ruts from rainstorms, you might be surprised that the stretch from the Pole Farm to Hunt House is now paved.

I know I raved about this trail back in 2019, but it’s gotten even better since then. And then there’s the unique Full Moon Ride every year….

Yes, the Lawrence Hopewell Trail isn’t quite finished. And right now there’s a construction detour by Brearley House (new neighborhood being built) that means a rocky stretch and at the Lawrence School, which means taking the road … or biking through the school on your own terms. But you can still ride tghe full loop, using interim road routes. Nervous? Try a Sunday morning. Or just go from downtown Lawrence to the Watershed Institute and back.

Hopefully by this time next year, both trail segments will be reopened AND the boardwalk section of Maidenhead Meadows Park will be built, which will eliminate the need to be on busy Princeton Pike. (Don’t hold me to that timeline for the boardwalk section — trails seem to always take longer to build than you expect.)

Better yet, it would mean an uninterrupted traffic-free route from the bike/walk only bridge on Province Line Road, through ETS and Carson Woods to Maidenhead Meadow, then past Brearely House (where you can connect to the D&R Canal towpath and the East Coast Greenway) and Bristol-Myers Squibb HQ, through the Lawrenceville School, downtown Lawrence, Village Park, Mercder Meadows and past the Watershed Institute. There’d be a bit of quiet road, mostly through a neighborhood, until the trail hits a busier road at Moore’s Mill Mount Rose Road.

Wow! Just rattling all that off impresses me!

Then it’s a mix of road and trail (a lovely trail section through the woods, btw) over a few miles to close the loop. And plans are afoot to turn those road sections into something better suited for all ages, whether on foot, bike, wheelchair.

In another words, an even more magnificent trail.