Retirement property with trails??

[CanterQueen]

Husband and I are avid trail riders and we are thinking about buying retirement property in or around Tryon, North Carolina (south west part of NC) Anyone have any ideas of where the best trails are? There’s FETA and CETA (both private trail systems) and of course the Smokey Mountains and national forests. We would love to have ride-out from our property . . . .

Any ideas??

[katarine]

Big South Fork

Leatherwood

[katyb]

I was thinking the Cumberland Plateau too. There are so many incredible places in the area.

[Guilherme]

In addition to the public lands on the Plateau there is also a lot of privately owned timber lands. These are often open to public use (hunting, trail riding, etc.) as long as you don’t violate their One Big Rule: No open fires.

Concur that it’s a nice place, and a bit cooler than the Valley or trans-mountain areas.

G.

[Ridge_Runner]

I used to go up to Tryon a lot for the Horse Trial back when I was eventing. It is a nice area with lots of horse activities and farms. I’d think it might be a bit more expensive than some other areas…I used to hear it called the Southern Pines of Western NC. I was up there in '93 for the Blizzard and got stranded at the Horse Trial show grounds. What a mess that was! Quite a few memories.

When we retire…and our land hunt will hopefully start well before that…we want to be near one of the large State or National Forests like Mt Rogers or the Smokies, Pisgah State Forest, etc… Here where we live now, trail riding is almost non existent. We have to haul somewhere to ride longer than 45 minutes unless we are willing to road ride on really bad Virginia roads with no shoulders lined with ditches…no way to get off the road if you need to. Not my idea of fun for trails.

[xeroxchick]

Landrum

My cousin lives in Landrum, near Tryon, and I have really, really enjoyed visiting her there and riding the trails. We also hunted from fixtures only ten minutes from her house (compared with my 1 - 2 1/2 hour drive to hunt).

Having a house there on the trail system is like having beach front property. She abuts both trail systems and both are very reasonable, but no dogs allowed and sometimes they are closed due to wet or deer hunting. Such a lovely area and not quite so mountain-y.

Lots of different kinds of horse farms and disciplines are all around. Horses are the main industry there for the county.

Best tack store in the world is near there: The Farmhouse. Just love that area. If anything ever happened to my DH I would move there in a heartbeat, but as it is we have an almost ideal place here in Rosco

[GotMyPony]

CanterQueen, I sent you a PM.

[CanterQueen]

Thanks

Thanks everyone for your comments. We are heading down to Tryon to see some properties. Wish us luck!