Review Date
July 8, 2008

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Aerobic Difficulty
 3 of 5

Technical Difficulty
 4 of 5

Ridden Trail:
Every few months

Reviewed by: jruhlen ,  Weekend Warrior

Summary:
I tried this trail last weekend and the rains have not been kind to it. However, this trail is fun, a definite challenge and offers a lot of options if you're in the area. I rode it quite a bit in 2006 when I lived in Parsons. The first time I ever rode it I battled and banged my way down it for about 2 hours before I turned back -- when I got done I looked at the map and figured I had gone about 5 miles total.

The main thing about the Big Hill trail is that it was a Horse Trail first. As such, it can be very rough to navigate on a bike in spots. However, there's a lot of fun, short downhills where the creeks and streams feed into the lake. The downhills also have a lot of loose rocks and gravel that have sent me over the handlebars on several occasions.

It's pretty well balanced out with relaxing semi-flat areas that wind through the woods and a few open areas. In parts the trail has become so rutted that it's hard to rotate your pedals, but those aren't too bad. The main thing to watch out for is poison ivy and ticks. After my first time out there I made it a habit to take poison ivy medicine out there with me so I could apply it right away when I'm done.

There's lots of wildlife out there. I almost always see deer and armadillos, sometimes other critters. I wouldn't come near this place during hunting season, however. (I think it's closed then, anyway.)

The trail and the parking areas seem to have been neglected by the horse people in recent years, although I still see hoofprints and droppings on it. It's very overgrown the further back you get. Whenever I ride it I usually stop to clear the path of impassible objects when possible but there have been some gigantic trees blown over recently that you just have to find your way around.

Don't worry too much about running into the horse folks. I've ridden this trail dozens of times and only encountered other people on it maybe twice. Like I said, it looks like they've neglected it. Since it's a Corps lake, it probably wouldn't be too hard for local bikers to get together and make improvements, but I don't live there anymore. Sometimes the trails have some filth and nastiness on them near the Rea Bridge, which is used by a lot of fishermen, so it'd be nice to see a cleanup effort.

Someday I hope to map it with a GPS but that would be an all-day effort for me, so it might take a while.

Recommended Route:
The trail is shaped roughly like an "H" -- with the horizontal part being a gravel road and bridge that connects it at the midpoint. The upper legs of the "H" can be ridden as a loop, the other two can be ridden as out and backs.

I usually start at the horse camping lot at the upper right leg of the "H" -- which would be just off Old 160 (County Road 24000). It's about 1.5 miles west of the Old 160 and Gray Road intersection, about 9 miles east of Parsons. Google it. I ride down the east side of the upper leg of the "H", cross the bridge and ride back up the west side. At the very end you can ford Big Hill Creek to get back to your starting point. In normal conditions it's only about a foot deep but the last weekend I was there (July 5, 2008) it was more than waist deep.

There's also a parking lot at the west end of the Rea Bridge at the mid-section, which can be a good starting point if you want to explore the other legs as out and backs. If you're really into some long distance riding, you can use some of the gravel roads in the area to get back to your starting point.