Lobdell Reserve Multi-Use Trail Improvements

GRANVILLE, OHIO The Licking Park District staff and volunteers have worked hard this year to maintain existing natural surface trails, re-route closed trails and add new trails at Lobdell.  A ribbon cutting ceremony was held November 24 to celebrate the recent work completed at the Lobdell Reserve, in Alexandria, a 210 acres reserve with 8 miles of trails and a championship caliber disc golf course.

Trail work included re-routing a section that has been closed for several years due to extreme erosion, damage and safety concerns from trail marker 10 to 13.  Additional trail work has created a new route that allows riders and hikers to once again cross through the interior of Lobdell from the northern part of the disc golf course to the northern part of the Mounts Rd side of the park, without having to retrace their path.  There has been a beautiful trail created along the ridge above the creek that allows travel from marker 13 to marker 11. From there travel is again open to hikers and horses to marker 4 or to marker 10, to cross back to the Mounts Rd side of the park.

On the Mounts Rd side, a new trail has been opened between the oil well field and the most northern field, as well as a scenic new trail branching off to the east to marker 10.  A new loop trail  has been created using the existing trail north from marker 10, which now goes across the creek and loops back..  This new loop was completed in early November.

The short section of trail from the creek north of marker 10 going up to marker 13 is permanently closed because of on-going erosion, unsustainable trail integrity and safety.  This closes approximately 200ft of trail, while the re-route and new trails have added an additional 1-2 miles of trail at Lobdell.

Thanks to all our volunteers for their trail work and monitoring efforts.  We have 7 employees at the park district and we are responsible for 26 miles of natural surface trails in addition to 46 miles of paved bike trail system. There is no way we could monitor and maintain 72 miles of trails without help from our dedicated volunteers.

We will continue to work hard to maintain and improve our trail system using established trail maintenance best practices to guide our decisions regarding which trails should be left open, rerouted, or closed.  Safety of our hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders is of utmost importance to the Licking Park District.

To become an individual or group Trail Adopter, complete the volunteer application on our website https://lickingparkdistrict.com/volunteer/ or call (740) 587-2535.

Questions? Contact us at 740.587.2535 or by email at: Info@LickingParkDistrict.com