We’re heading to Southern Pines for a weekend with horses. Can anyone share any tips about riding in Walthour Moss? It looks gorgeous!! The interactive map on the website only helps so much. Is there a good smaller mileage loop or loops to do?
Have a reliable GPS tracking system/app. So many of the trails look the same. I had a local be my guide. He admitted to still getting lost occasionally. It is a fabulous place to ride!
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Do pay attention to the map as the trails all look the same, sand, sand, pine trees, scrub oaks and lots of trails some just 15’apart. But its basically a large rectangle with highway 1 on one side and then Young’s road makes a large loop around the rest of the park. If you can learn the fire roads from the map then its easy to stay oriented . The fire lanes are well marked. If its a sunny day then you can orient to the sun remembering where you parked as the big pines make excellent sundials. Sadly you can hear hwy.1 from most of the trails. If you go the North country then its more confusing and you are riding on small parcels around farms so not so much fun though the Lakes are beautiful.
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As another annual visitor, I second this. I have also learned to make waypoints of the barn and major fire road intersections. Also, put fresh batteries in. The aforementioned tips are useless if the batteries die. I plead the fifth on whether that has happened to me. Or how long we wandered around before we found our way back to familiar ground.
The nice thing about this system is you can just go out and “get lost” and then find your way back to familiar territory fairly easily. Unless your batteries die. Just sayin’…
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Yay- thank you! Great tips! Especially the battery one, DMK, lol.
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My 5 year old daughter and I just come back from a horse trip to southern pines. We rode in the foundation. Originally I wanted a guide and then she got sick so we were on our own! We had a great time though. We stuck to the main trails on the map and it was super easy. We rode for about 2 hrs a day. We also rode on the other side of youngs road where there were some cross country jumps in a field then we rode out through the surrounding farms. We parked at the “mailboxes” one day so we didn’t have to cross the road. Youngs road is fairly busy especially when you are ponying a small child! Where are you staying? We were at a lovely horse friendly airbnb.
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If you enter the foundation by way of Henry’s field, which is off Youngs Road opposite Goodwill Road, go on in to the trees and keep bearing right until you can hear car sounds. That is Route 1 that you are hearing. Then start bearing left at each split in the trail and you will make a big left swoop and come out into Henry’s field again. The loop takes about an hour at the walk and is a good introduction to the foundation. If you really get lost remember that you will end up on Youngs Road if you keep the Sun at your back. In the afternoon. Of course this doesn’t work well on a cloudy day.
Lord Helpus, is there a trailer parking spot near Youngs Rd across from Goodwill?
The best parking spot is the “mailboxes”, in my opinion, for the main foundation. Most people park near the NC State Satellite Clinic along Rt 1, but it’s hotter (no shade) and potentially more dangerous (high speed traffic and loose horses have direct access to roadway).
There’s also good parking off of Furr Rd for the North Side.
I strongly recommend the Map My Ride app! It’s free or nearly free. It’s designed for bike riders but works for horses, hiking, etc. I haven’t figured how to overlay it on the WMF trails map, but it shows ‘breadcrumbs’ of where you’ve gone, so you can always work your way back to the direction of the start point/parking.
I’ve lived IVO SP and ridden in WMF for years, and I still use it every ride. Even if I don’t get lost, I like knowing how many miles we went and our average pace.
Along the side of the road. When the hunt meets at Henry’s field, horse trailers are lined up along there. But I agree that it might be better to park by the mailboxes.
Please stop talking about the mailboxes its not a “legal” place to park and the neighbors are getting sick of us and some …leave their manure there which is going to shut it down.
Main parking is Equestrian road US1, lots of parking there and of course plenty options for of parking in the North country
Hey play by the rules folks or yea we can lose this place to . I’ve seen riders get us kicked out of so many places we used to ride because of this attitude.
Moss is wonderful lets keep it that way!
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OOPS. It never occurred
to me it was private land. What about parking (and being a good citizen) on the Hunter Trial Field?
WMF is the best riding after a rain. The sand means No Mud and the damp means no dust clouds.
