Tucker Lake to Pattridge
For location and trailer parking information please see Tucker Lake.
Trail Map
There is no official map of these neighborhood trails.
Chosen Trail
There are also lots of other way to ride from Pattridge to Tucker or Tucker to Pattridge. If you take the right forks there are some other lovely options to get to Pattridge.
Footing
The trail at Tucker lake is soft with packed dirt. As you go up the hill to Pattridge the trail is mildly rocky. My barefoot gelding was uncomfortable on the rocks and did better on the grass. I would recommend all four shoes for more comfortable riding.
Horse Hazards
The biggest hazard is the model airplane flying around the model airplane airport. Both of my horses did just fine but they are pretty solid trail horses. Sam ate slower around the planes and did not want to eat as long which is a sign he was a little nervous. Bailey could care less, grass was his major concern.
Trail Experience
We will start our trail description headed west from the Tucker Lake parking lot. The path is a grassy double-track that you follow up the hill toward the power lines. When you reach the power lines at the edge of the housing community there is a trail fork that goes right up the hill. You have to walk around the power line achors and you can hear the buzz of the electricity.
Heading up the hill you can enjoy a good trot along the edge of the fence-line. The trail veers away from the houses and goes up a fairly steep hill.
Go straight at the fork continuing up the hill along the power line to ride besides the housing development. We did have a few barking dogs in back yards and one house with a trampoline.
The trail is nice and soft and a double-track.
At this fork we continued straight as the trail transitioned to a single-track. You can also go right to go through the neighboorhood to reach Pattridge Park. We continued left or straight.
The single-track followed the edge of the house and the power-line.
When we reached the fence-line there was a gap at the east end by the houses. We went through the gap and continued west on the single-track to head north toward the model airplane airport.
We passed a pond and could see the model airplane airport in the distance.
We went through another opening in the fence and had to decide between two trails. We could continue west and go down a pretty steep hill to Pattridge but that meant walking closer to the model airplane airport. Alternatively after going through this fence there was another opening in the fence that took us east again away from the airport and down a more gradual hill to Pattridge Park. We opted to recross the fence and go North to find the other trail that led east.
We headed east and could see Pattridge Park below us to the left in the picture.
It was a pretty trail up on the hill looking down at Pattridge Park.
This is the gradual hill that goes to hook up with Pattridge at the first pond. Alternately, you could also ride a loop from Pattridge, up the hill by the airport, across the hill on this trail then back down by the pond. We turned around to ride back to Tucker Lake since we parked in the Tucker Lake parking lot. For a longer ride I could have gone down the hill to Pattridge, ridden to the end of Pattridge then up the switch back to ride through the neighborhood to go back to Tucker Lake.
We turned around and retraced our steps. We took the trail the hiker is on. She told us this other single-track to the left dead ended.
Walking back toward the airport you can see the other trail that goes past the airport and down a steeper hill to reach Pattridge Park.
We headed back to the housing development and ate lots of grass on the way.
Going down the hill back to Tucker Lake the view was pretty awesome.
We stopped here for quite a while enjoying the lake and the green grass.
Rating
Moderately difficult. This is because of the model airplane airport we walked by. My horses are really good but most horses lose their mind about planes or drones. The footing was rocky and there are alternative ways through the neighborhood to get to Pattridge Park.