Pilot Knoll Trail 1/12/14

January 12, 2014

Hike: Pilot Knoll Trail, near Denton, TX

Weather: low 50s, warming to low 70s, breezy, sunny

Hikers: Ian, Court, Biff

Length: about 8 miles

We couldn’t have asked for better weather for the first hike of 2014.  It was somewhat chilly to start the hike, but it quickly warmed and ended up being extremely pleasant.  This is the sister trail to the Elm Fork Trail that we did back in October.  Starting at the same place, Old Alton Bridge, we went south across the bridge for this hike.  It was muddy in the morning and we had to stop regularly to scrape our shoes so the mud didn’t build up too much and add pounds to our feet!  We also tried out the new camelback water bladder that Brian got us for Christmas and it worked great.  I think I will stick to water bottles, but Court really liked the camelback.

The trail started off parallel to the road for a while, but eventually turned into the woods.  The ground became sandy rather than muddy about a mile in and was much easier to traverse.  One of the big differences from the Elm Fork route is there is much more horse traffic on this trail.  We ran into a really friendly horse named Casey that wanted to stop and say hi instead of moving on down the trail.  A few nose rubs later he went on his way.  Biff was a bit nervous.  He doesn’t like horses for some reason.

We didn’t see much wildlife on this trail either.  I think the horse traffic probably kept a lot of animals away.  At one point, the trail went alongside a horse farm and we saw a few horses actually fighting!   One young black horse kept messing with another horse and had to be reprimanded by one of the older horses.  Court got some video of it and it was quite the sight.  Edit – Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF4hOKOEUq8&feature=youtu.be

The trail eventually led down to the lake and ran alongside it for a while.  We turned back just past the 4 mile mark and headed back to the car.  The app claims we only went 7.73 miles, but it really should have been slightly over 8 if we turned around at 4, so that’s what I am recording.  This trail wasn’t as wild as its sister, but still very pretty and a good hike for the DFW area.