Sports & Recreation
Happy Trails at Medoc Volunteers rein in old lumber land for bridle paths
F
or years, park ranger Ed Wilkerson pondered a frustrating contra diction: How can a park founded as a bridle trail park have no place for horses? No deep mystery was involved in Medoc Mountain State Park’s missing bridle paths. As the demand for hiking trails grew with the park’s popularity, building bridle paths took a back seat, eventually becoming nearly impossible to develop around existing trails. Fortunately for the area’s equine community, a happy turn of events in 2007 solved his conundrum. “When I first came to Medoc originally, I was eyeballing potential solutions to our bridle trail problem, but there just weren’t any,” says Wilkerson, one of the park rangers in charge of the leafy green park in the Hollister area of Halifax County. “When the parks department acquired an additional 1,500 acres in 2007, that was our opportunity to put new trails on the new property.” A trail rider himself, Wilkerson was thrilled at the chance to enhance the park with bridle trails, but realized that designing, building and
maintaining the trails cut through old timber land would require more than just his efforts. “We had to start from scratch, in terms of correcting problems on the property, such as drainage and erosion issues. I spoke to a friend in the highway department. He put me in touch with Deck McCain and a trail riders’ group called Cowboys for Christ. I told him I needed a volunteer trail group. They jumped at the chance to have a place to call their own.” The Twin Counties chapter of the group, and other trail riders, spent the next two years working with Wilkerson. Wilkerson designed 11 miles of looping bridle paths, following old lumber roads. For two years, volunteers dug up stumps, filled dangerous holes, removed rocks, cut back brush, marked trails and painted. In October 2009, the
Bellamy’s Mill
new bridle trails officially opened – to great response from the public. “As trail riding goes, there is less and less property available to riders because of trespassing issues and hunting,” says Wilkerson. “Before, many local riders had to go to the Uwharrie National Forest – a long drive. Now we can offer something to the six or seven counties right around us.” Wilkerson’s dedicated volunteers carefully maintain the park’s trails, which are open from 8 a.m. until an hour before sundown year-round. Though there are rocks on the trail, Wilkerson says unshod mounts that wear trail boots have had no difficulty with the paths, which are particularly well-suited to riders and horses that have not had long experience with trail riding. – Laura Hill
Fishing Creek
Enfield Peanut Festival
Oldest Town in Halifax County Affordable housing • Full-service town with reasonable utility rates Easy access to I-95, beaches, mountains, lakes, hunting, fishing & golf Home of the annual Enfield Peanut Festival Member of Tree City USA • Excellent retirement community For more information, contact us at (252) 445-3146 or visit our Web site at www.enfieldnc.org
R oa n o k e Va l l e y
45