As I am looking at the snow, my mind is thinking of spring and riding and places to go. Have been wondering if anyone has ridden the Pine Creek Gorge in PA and what they thought of it and is there anyplace nearby to stay with the horses as it is nearly a 4 hour drive from my home.
Check out the TROT website for places that are closer, and think Spring! PM me once the weather breaks and it warms up and dries out a bit, I have access to the Gunpowder SP /Hereford area and you can come here and ride with me. Much closer than PA and we saw a bald eagle back in October.
we are close to gunpowder sweet air and have ridden there quite a bit. have been curious about the Hereford area. please send me a reminder in the spring as this old brain tends to forget
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As I am looking at the snow, my mind is thinking of spring and riding and places to go. Have been wondering if anyone has ridden the Pine Creek Gorge in PA and what they thought of it and is there anyplace nearby to stay with the horses as it is nearly a 4 hour drive from my home.[/QUOTE]
The best riding in that area is above the Pine Creek Gorge (Black Forest), as the Creek itself, and the mountains surrounding it limit places to ride. In addition, the Pine Creek Rails to Trails runs along there, which is bicycle and walking only in that area, horses not permitted until you get to Ansonia, which is quite a ways past Pine Creek. The Black Forest (which is off of Route 44) area has a lot of great trails, and places to camp with horses. We stopped at the Sproul State Forest office to get information. As far as I know there is not a horse specific map for that area, you have to use the general use maps, which can be a challenge. They are improving horse access to that area tho, and I think there is a horse friendly B & B up there too, but I’d have to find that out for sure if you are interested.
There are lots of great riding places closer to you than that. There is the Bald Eagle State Forest, which has a Shared Trail use map (horse, Mt. bike and hike) which is quite good, the trails are well marked, and there are several places to camp with horses, tho all are dry camps IIRC. If you choose to camp there, I would be glad to bring you water, I live nearby. I believe that trail system has over 26 miles of trails, tho some places you do have to ride dirt roads, but they are not very busy.
The Eagleton Mine Camp trail system is one of my favorites, and has a spectacular ride in June when the Mt. Laurel is blooming. http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=6415800028/a=4058316028_4058316028/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/ Hopefully you can see those, for some reason when I try to share Snapfish photos and uncheck the sign in box, it gives me guff.
Anyway, EMCT is a beautiful ride, but we were quite disappointed this fall to see that they are now logging that area. They are currently logging the Northern end of that trail, so where the laurel is should probably be OK this June, but I imagine they will work their way in that direction next summer. EMCT is also in the Sproul State Forest. Maps are hard to find, but they should have some at the District office. I think there is dry camping up there as well.
You can also ride the Black Moshannon trails, which are in Centre County, near Penn State. I’ve only ridden that area once, as it was too busy for my tastes, so someone else would have to chime in there.
There is a book, Ride Pennsylvania Horse Trails, by Carolyn Cook. It was published in 2005 so it is a bit dated, but she lays out rather well the trail systems, parking, camping, and roads leading in, as well a trail descriptions. I have both the Eastern and Western books, as I’ve ridden both. I think you can order them from the Pennsylvania Equine Council.
Pennsylvania has miles and miles of wonderful horse trails. I know they are continually trying to improve/add to them, which is greatly appreciated. If you do ride in PA, please give feed back to the District offices, if they don’t hear from us, they tend to think we don’t exist, and we get shoved aside for the more vocal groups, like the Hikers.
Be aware that horses are NOT permitted on the Mid-State Trail, and there is a new one, the Great Eastern Hiking trail, or something like that that is also banned to horses.
Pa traails
If you follow the 81 corridor north …
First stop … east of Chambersburg is the Michaux State Forest.
If you continue east on 30, is Gettysburg with camping at the Artillery Ridge Campground, caabins and stalls/paddocks for your horse! Reservations are best.
Back on 81 north, at the Harrisburg river, take 322 north to the Weiser State Forest! and also north a short ways on 322 to the Stoney Vally Rail Trail (30 miles) > that actually would take you to the Swatara Rail Trail further north on 81 x 90.
At the 81N/78 split>to Allentown, in Bernville, is the Blue Marsh Park, 30 miles around the man-made lake of drop dead beautiful trail!
A bit south of all these in Lebanon is the Gov Dick and the Lebanon rail trail system ..
so, how long did you want to camp in pa?
There are LOTS of aerc/ectra members in this area to join for a ride and escort!
Do let us know when you come this way.