The orange trail is best accessed either from one of the other trails (red, yellow or green) or from where it intersects with the gravel Peavine Falls road. From this point there are two sections to the trail, a north east and north west section. The north west section (about 3 miles) makes a large loop. I think this loop is the primary place used by the horses they rent from the stable in the park. I have just plotted this trail using a GPS track and as expected found that the trail is much shorter than the map says (10.7 miles). The profile of this trail is not accurate, there seem to be some problems with the height data on the MapTech map. The north west section is not flat and there are more and steeper ups and downs on the north east section than indicated.

From Peavine Falls Road the north west loop heads down hill and over a creek. The trail is not in great shape due to heave horse usage, and the markings are not consistent. However, you should be able to follow it with little problem. Once over the creek the trail turns into a loop, you will be able to go straight or north east. Going straight you climb up to a ridge between the lake and the road. The trail follows this ridge for nearly a mile until you can see the dam for the lake. There are some ups and downs along the ridge. There is never really a good vantage point for seeing out in either direction, although when the leaves are down you get some view. Then the trail goes down near the lake and follows the lake back. You get some views of the lake here, and there is lots of trash that has washed up from the lake around. I found the loop to be fairly unimpressive, it gets a two star rating, a little better when the leaves are down, pretty boring when they aren’t. It is easy to moderate and trail maintenance is okay but the markings are inconsistent.

The north east section of the trail rarely is traveled by horses, or anything else. It ends at the red bike trail near the park road and near the yellow trails and the yellow/white connector trail. This trail starts off heading up the mountain, follows some small ridges, then crosses the yellow and green trails along a pine ridge. From here it goes down and up and down and up, going through the wildlife rescue center, and back down almost to the lake. Crosses the paved road to the wildlife center, and then heads back up, and down, and up, crossing the yellow trail several times and a large stream. It is similar in nature to the yellow trail, although more difficult to follow since it is seldom used. The trail gets a three star rating and is moderate to difficult. Trail maintenance is lousy. There are signs along the trial in a couple places indicating that it is closed to hikers, use your own judgement although there appears to be no good reason for it being closed to hiking.

Last Hiked: January 2000

 

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Last Updated: April 2003

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