Trail Review-Pleasant Hill Lake

Another review from Brenda....
Last weekend (July 19) Beth and I met our friends Carla and Tom for a ride on the new trail at Pleasant Hill Lake that connects to Malabar Farms. It is about a 1 1/2 hour drive from Powell. When you get to the park, you have to pay a $3 per person day riding fee (I think the overnight camp fee is $16) at the front entrance. They then direct you to park at the end of the beach parking instead of at the horseman's camp (which is only for overnighters). There is a big grassy area by the beach parking, so we just backed the trailer onto that.

After you tack up you walk down the drive and across a stone bridge to the horseman's camp and catch the trail head there. We rode for about 3 hours (roundtrip) at a walk and trot and still didn't quite make it to Malabar. I think you would have to commit a whole day to do both.

The trail we were on was hilly, but not steep. There was one ~ 5 foot wide creek crossing that had very deep mud on both sides, but was fine at a walk. Most of the trail is in the woods. There is a section after about an hour of riding that goes right next to the fence of a campground (spooky), then you have to ride on a road for about 10 minutes to get to the next part of the trail (we found out that empty boat trailers rattling behind trucks are also spooky). Most of the trail is very well marked. We turned back after the big soy bean field trail which is a loop.

There is no gravel, but there are remainders of big tree stumps in the trail here and there that stick up just enough for your horse to trip over if they are tailgating the horse in front of them. I would say this would be an intermediate trail. It's a beautiful area with a lot of new things for the horses to experience (people playing volleyball, boats and fisherman right by the parking lot, etc).

Added by Beth...
The trails go through a variety of terrain although it is mostly woods. If you have a horse that is not used to cars, this may be a bit challenging as part of the trail is on or near a road. The bean fields were quite an easy ride. We did see deer a couple of times so watch for those if your horse tends to spook at them.
To date, there is no map for this trail so you have to keep your eye out for markers, ribbons and marked trees. All in all, I would highly recommend this trail to riders looking for a bit more of a challenge but one with few major obstacles and intermediate level trails.