Wild trolls and great pizza: A bike ride around Mount Holly

I’m loving Burlington County’s Troll Trek — a local riff on Thomas Dambo’s Big Rusty, all made from reusing materials that otherwise would have ended up at the dump.

And I’m really enjoying showing the trolls to a group of women who join the group rides from Sourland Cycles in Hopewell.

On our first ride, we more or less followed the Delaware River, finding 5 trolls between Bordentown and Delanco (a variation of this ride, with that same pie stop). This time we opted for a loop ride from Mount Holly to find 7 trolls made by local artists — and then an extra out-and-back to find Big Rusty, living down an unpaved road in Hainesport since June 2023.

I’d seen many of these trolls on an earlier ride, but it’s always fun to see them through the eyes of others. And I did get to see two for the first time.

We found Tommy the Tetanus Troll with his pet owl outside his “house” (under an uprooted tree) early on the gorgeous trail in Arney’s Mount Park. Is he doing some cleanup work with his “wheelbarrow”? His eyes were once locks, and his fingers are made of springs.

A few miles away in Juliustown Park is Kevin, happily waiting for a game to start. He’s into heavy metal — what was his head in a previous life?

Of course we had to stop in Historic Smithville to see bike troll. And the gardening troll. Plus the pair in Mount Holly and the troll by a school, all of which I saw on my first troll ride.

I’ve now seen all but 2 of the 18 new trolls.

How to get to Big Rusty

But everyone was most excited about seeing the OG, Big Rusty himself. A word of caution about this part of the route: this is not for those who hate traffic. I looked for a way to get to the other side of Route 38, and it’s not easy. In hindsight, coming from Mount Holly I probably should have had us turning left earlier, onto Hainesport Mount Holly Road. Instead we went to Creek Road, a turn that is so easy to miss (look left for the railroad underpass), and then used still Hainesport Mount Holly Road to cross Route 38 at the traffic light. UPDATE: I’ve tweaked the route link (below)/

We wove our way through a couple of neighborhoods before we were back at Route 38 by Bancroft Lane. You can cut through the shopping center parking lot or use the sidewalk, but at one point you will need to use the super-wide shoulder for about 200 feet. Turn right by the law office sign and keep going all the way back — and there is Big Rusty!

Extra bonus for us: area officials were holding a site meeting to kickstart a project that will improve the “park” by Big Rusty and eventually include access from Bancroft Lane. Maybe in three years?

Love this little ditty about Big Rusty (had not thought of her as a she until now) from Thomas Dambo:

“For every piece of trash, she eats
she grows so big and thick
So careful not to feed the beast
one day, she might grow sick”

Pizza time!

Now we’re getting hungry! We retraced our route to Lillo’s Tomato Pies (it’s actually a touch closer using my original route, but you can also just follow Hainesport Mount Holly Road to Marne Highway).

This place makes NJ.com’s 2023 list of best pizzerias to try. Here’s the description: “I’m torn about Lillo’s. Is it a pizzeria that makes outstanding cheesesteaks or a cheesesteak joint that makes really good pizza? After all, Lillo’s did finish No. 3 in our latest ranking of the state’s best cheesesteaks. The pizza is first-rate; the margherita makes for an honest, saucy pie. But don’t forget to pick up one of those cheesesteaks.”

I thought we’d be sharing one 18-inch pie, and I was ready to try to talk everyone into one with mustard just above the crust. But they sell slices! OK, not of the specialty options like the mustard one. But thin, crispy crust (unless you want the Sicilian), none of that bready, doughy stuff. And yes saucy. Yum!

No one in our group of 4 got a cheesesteak, but plenty of other customers did.

Here’s how you know it’s a good place: it was packed at 2 p.m., long after the lunch crowd should be gone. I didn’t count the number of tables — maybe 10? It’s a small roadside place.

Here’s our route. Thanks to Walt’s tip in the comments, I have updated the route using “straight line” to retrace that section of Route 38 using the wide shoulder (or grass if you prefer) and the sidewalk. 800 feet total.

We started in the Acme parking lot in Mount Holly — easy to reach from I-295.