- Scenic Beauty: 3.0
- Difficulty: 2.0
- Steepness: 0.0
- Technicality: 2.0
- Dog Friendly: Yes
- Water: Yes
- Location: FR 513 Bienville National Forest off US Hwy 80 – Mississippi
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A ccording to the National Forest Service brochure, “The Shockaloe Trail is a nationally recognized trail and is listed in the National Register of Trails”. It’s a 23 mile loop trail with 2 campgrounds along the way.
I only ran about 4 miles of the trail; more on that in a second. The trail itself was very flat and very wide. It is open to both foot and horse use. The 2 pervious sentences are important. Flat trail and horse traffic. Add in a lot of rain to the clay soil and you’ve got lots of mud and a torn up trail.
40% of the trail was rough shape from either standing water which made mud that was hard to run or even hike through. 10% of the trail was covered in 3 to 8 inch holes made by horse traffic… a lot of horse traffic. To preserve the trail it should have been closed to any traffic… man or horse. How they intend to repair that I have no idea.
Aside from the trail, the first campground called Base Station 1 was in good condition. There’s a single loop and the sites were large enough for a horse trailer or big motorhome. The gravel road getting to the campground is only .2 miles off the main road and we easily went down it with our motorhome.
As for a trail I can’t recommend it much give the condition… even after it dries out.
Hay people, its been quite a while since i used this trail, but as a horseback rider, and especially with a young horse, it is GREAT…as far as i know the trails were originally intended for Horses, hince the ruff course and horse tracks! Hikers beware, or runners, its the NATIONAL FOREST and wild. YES it will be muddy,dry, messy depending on the time of year and how many are using , which grows larger every year. I LOVE THE PLACE.