The Ohio Trails Partnership

      Pleasant Hill Lake Park - March, 2008  

 

The Ohio Trails Partnership is a loosely formed coalition of organizations dedicated to preserving trails used by muscle powered user groups.  It primarily consists of  the Ohio Horseman's Council, the Ohio and International Mountain Biking Associations, and the Buckeye Trail Association in cooperation with land managers from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) and the United States Forestry Service (USDF).  The organization has sponsored one work weekend a year for the last seven years at different locations within the state.  
This years project was the positive result of several years of discussion with Pleasant Hill which is part of the Muskingum Water Conservancy District. An old ball diamond is being converted to a horseman's camp and a trail system is being established which will connect to both the Mohican State Forest and Malabar State Farm trail systems.  The horse camp will be located right next to the lake and is initially slated to have 40 spaces. The trail system once complete will create a 70 mile loop of trails connecting  Mohican State Forest,  Pleasant Hill Lake and Malabar Farm.

 
While the weather can never be predicted for any event planned this far in advance, this year mother nature really put a kink in things when she decided to give us a "blizzard" on the pre-scheduled date.  Conditions were terrible in all parts of the state with 17+ inches of snow. - so the event was moved back two weeks.  While the change was disruptive, many volunteers were able to re-arrange their schedules and when the time came over 65 folks were there to lend a hand.

The day started on a cool note with a heavy frost - but it wasn't long before people were shedding their coats - using the trees as coat racks. With the help of some trail clearing equipment donated by Rayco Mfg of Wooster.  The work crew was able to set a new record by completing their assigned task in one day instead of the usual two.  This project is off to an exciting start.  Thanks to OHC Vice-President Mike Gerard for heading up this project along with the staff at the Muskingum Water Conservancy and Pleasant Hill Lake Park and to all the volunteers for making this new project possible..

Thanks to all for a job well done.