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Trail Rating:
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The difference between this year and last, night and day. The weather has been very wet in Ohio this year, and the trails deffinitely show it. There is also construction of a new pipeline being cut thru, so some of the trails have been closed and re-routed. There is also another little problem, or big one if your horse happens to step wrong. With several of the trails using the access roads, someone in their infinite wisdom has built the roads up with #2 limestone. When we hit one of these, I ended up with a horse with a stone bruise from this large, sharp edged stone. Yes I know it's cheaper, but it would be nice if somebody consider the other uses of these trails.
Since I'm airing some complaints, lets talk about the new ODNR maps of the trails. Get real folks, these maps really stink when you compare them to the old maps from Palmerosa, which are now considered to be contraband. I'll also give some credit in that I like the new marker boards, now if somebody would just get the trails marked better. Sorta fun when you come out into a five point clearing, and there isn't a marker in site so that you don't have a clue as to where you need to go. The Orange trail, out of Conkles Hallow, and where you take the white to Indian Head Rock. Lost the Orange, no markings present when we came into the clearing on the access roads. Then if you try to follow that white trail on around from Indian Head Rock, good luck, it gets down right frustrating as you keep coming into intersections of the access roads with no trail markings to direct you to the next leg. The trail markings down at Pike Lake are tremendously better than what is at Hocking Hills. When you come to a trail point marker, each of the next connecting markers is on the post, pointing you to the next post. Granted, there's a few confusing parts down there, but not near as bad as what I rode this past week.
Now, that I'm done with the complaining, this is still a place of some wonderful sceenery. Still new things to be seen, even along trails we rode last year. Also, several of the side white trails have very nice veiws that are missed if you stick to the main trails. Actually, the better sceenery can be seen off the side trails. They aren't made for speed, but sometimes you just have to ease up and enjoy the breath taking veiws. The weather has made things rough, rained every day on us in the late afternoon, but it's still a very nice place to ride and relax.
We camped at Palmerosa. The State Camp Area has been left pretty run down. It needs alot of help from those that are using it, along with some help from the state park. There was a place for manure, but it looks like it probably hasn't been hualed out in quite awhile, plus the horse tie areas really need some help, as most looked to be a better home for hogs than horses.
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