Sourland Mountain Preserve

 

As when I lived in Ossining I sometimes take walks in nearby parks on weekends weather permitting.  In general I liked the trails in the Ossining area better than the ones around Princeton.  One problem with New Jersey is that the trails can get muddy.  However I have found some satisfactory places to walk near my new home.  Recently I have been venturing a bit further afield including to the Sourland Mountain Preserve which according to google maps is 23 minutes from my house.  A trail map can be found here.

I have mixed feelings about this park.  The trails have a lot of rocks and exposed roots which can make hiking unpleasant.  In addition while you are walking up a mountain (or what in New Jersey passes for a mountain) with several hundred feet of elevation gain the area is heavily wooded so for the most part the views aren't very good.  There is one exception, a natural gas pipeline cuts through the park and the right of way has been cleared of trees.  This leads to some good views including one on a clear day of the New York City skyline which is about 40 miles away.

Referring to the trail map linked above starting from right-hand-side of the parking lot the skyline view can reached by following the trails through the points labelled 1,2,3,C,4,5.  Then looking downhill on a clear day the NYC skyline can be seen from the right-hand-side of the cleared area where the bench is.  It is on the horizon beyond the nearby white domed building.  It is then an easy albeit a little steep in places walk down the pipeline cut back to the parking lot (through locations labelled C,13,TH). 

I took photo Sunday, May 7, from near the bench.   I used a cheap Canon camera which does however have a telephoto lens.  Photos taken using my phone or my camera without using the telephoto feature didn't show the skyline very well.  The photo is about what you can see with the naked eye.  I also had a pair of binoculars which gave a better view.  The big tall building above the center of the white dome is One World Trade Center (aka the Freedom Tower).  This was a relatively clear day, I have been there on two other days when the skyline was just an indistinct smudge on the horizon although still visible if you knew exactly where to look.

Snow Day

It appears that perhaps 6 inches of snow fell from Monday through Tuesday morning at my residence near Princeton, New Jersey. This is not nothing but is not at all unusual for a winter storm in this area and was nowhere near the alarming prior predictions. These predictions were bad enough to induce my employer to announce Monday evening that my work location was closed Tuesday. Perhaps this decision was a little premature but it is nice to get notice as early as possible.

It is not too surprising that the predictions of potentially record breaking snowfall totals did not materialize (at least not in New York City and areas south and west). For a record snowfall everything has to go just right (or wrong depending on your point of view) which means most potential record breakers will fall short.

Utility Rates

When I moved from Ossining NY to Princeton NJ I didn't notice much change in my utility (gas and electric) bill.  This was a bit of a pleasant surprise as my new townhouse is considerably bigger and is also an end unit with much more exterior wall exposure (compared to the middle unit I had in Ossining).  I had some vague thoughts that perhaps my new unit was better insulated or had more efficient heating and cooling systems but upon investigation it appears the main reason is that utility rates are much lower in Princeton than in Ossining.

In 2012 I paid PSEG (my Princeton gas and electric utility) $998 for 890 Ccf of natural gas while in 2011 I paid ConEd (my Ossining utility)  $1090 for 562 Ccf.  So my average rate dropped from $1.94 per Ccf to $1.12 per Ccf.  Similarly my PSEG electric bill in 2012 was $947 for 5193 kWh while in 2011 ConEd charged me $890 for 3451 kWh.  So my average rate dropped from $.258 per kWh to $.182 per kWh. 

I was aware that New York utility rates are high compared to the national average but the difference with New Jersey is more than I expected.  For context the national average natural gas rate seems to be about $1.10 per Ccf  and the national average electric rate is about $.12 per kWh (in both cases for residential users). 

Local Supermarkets

Early this year one of the supermarkets near my townhouse, the Super Fresh in Plainsboro, closed.  This didn't bother me much as I think I had only shopped there once.  However this week I learned the Stop&Shop a few miles up Route 1 is also going to close.  This is more bothersome as I had shopped there fairly often and will miss it.  According to the article at the Stop&Shop link there are plans to build a Shop-Rite supermarket a bit south on Route 1 (which would be closer to me) so maybe things will eventually work out for the better.

Apparently the Stop&Shop is the third supermarket to fail at that spot in a 20 year period.  This is a bit surprising as it seems like a good location with easy access to Route 1.   But perhaps the population density in the immediate vicinity is not as high as it could be.  I hadn't seen any indications of distress at the store, although in hindsight perhaps the fact that (at least at the times I was there) most of the checkout stations did not need to be staffed was a bad sign.    

Millstone River Park

There is a new hospital, University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, near my townhouse.  As part of the deal to construct the hospital a park, Millstone River Park, was created next to the hospital complex.  When I first checked it out last April I wasn't too impressed, it seemed kind of barren and boring.  But just a couple of months later in June it was more impressive with a spectacular display of wild flowers.  A lot of the wild flowers have gone to seed but it still looked pretty good when I took the photo last Saturday.  The park does have some issues.  It is quite close to Route 1 and part of the park gets quite a bit of traffic noise.  And while the park is near the Millstone River for the most part it is separated from the river by a strip of private land.

The main park trail is a paved loop about one half mile long with some gravel spurs going off towards the river.  Along with the flowers quite a few trees have been planted.  Time will tell how well the trees do, some them don't look so good at the moment although perhaps some attrition has been allowed for.