1 /5 G M: We visited 1/15/25 and what a waste of our day. It was difficult to get to but we hoped worth it from other reviews. It was not. Maybe this should just be a place for horse riders and not walkers.
There is no signage at the road to confirm this is the preserve and not someone’s farm land. The trail map was removed and trails were unmarked except for a few metal posts with red tape along a mowing track.
We started walking through a gap in the fence and along what looked like fresh bush mowed “trail” along the fence next to the road. The path was a little grass but mostly trunks of the cut-off sapling trees which was unstable/difficult to walk on. We came across a small dead tortoise near the fence line that had gotten cut in several places by the mower blade. Not great at all.
We walked under the power lines to connect with what appeared to be an another part of the preserve and the “trail” turned into overturned and uneven dirt making walking much more difficult and unpleasant. I was very worried we would see even more dead tortoises in the plowed under road but thankfully not.
The “trail” just seemed to follow the fence line taking you next to people’s homes. It started to get dark and we ended up pulling a map off the web to find a different way back through the woods. We finally found what seemed to be a different trail made by vehicles. Actually, that trail cut in for a bit then we realized it just followed the same boring path but maybe 20’ in so it didn’t save us any time following it back out near the beginning of the second preserve annex. Other than the poor tortoise, some giant snail shells, we saw no other animals in this preserve. Our shoes were so full of dirt and our shoes, socks and feet were blackened by dirt from the ridiculous plowed under path. If you are planning a walk, go elsewhere than this difficult to get to and unmaintained place.
