Trail Riding, Oregon Coast or Corvallis ~ Suggestions?

[Lydia_Bosley]

First of all I am THRILLED to discover this forum :), just stumbled upon it somehow this morning and followed a long thread about someone looking for horse amenities in the Corvallis/Philomath area ~ Cool!!

I live in Logsden (farm/logging country) about 20 miles east of Newport. My husband and I trail ride and so far we keep going to the same places ~ the logging roads off Mill Creek (great riding except that the roads are gravel so occasional trotting or loping, which we enjoy, is hard to do), or trailering down to Newport’s South Beach (had a glorious ride yesterday! perfect weather! not crowded! no scary kites, parasurfers, windsurfers, tide was WAYYY OOUTT, etc.)

We would like to know of other areas within, say, an hour’s trip by trailer to ride… we want to try the trail(s) off of the Corvallis fairgrounds but don’t know anything about them… we saw horse trailers parked in the lot near a trail access so realized we could probably ride there, and there appear to be pedestrians and dogs as well, no problem, but we’re hoping there are not road~bikes on the trail as our horses are unfamiliar with and spooked by them. Is anyone familiar with riding there?

…and what about other nice areas, with easy in/out trailer parking, either up or down the coast, or in Corvallis/Philomath.
If anyone wants details on riding on South Beach, or on the logging roads off Mill Creek, I’m happy to provide them.

Looking forward to a dialogue, thanks ~ Lydia Bosley

[Lisa_Preston]

Molalla’s close, isn’t it? They’ve a great ride every October, Foothills of the Cascades, I think it’s called. I’ve done their 25 as a R&Ter a few times and found speed-worthy single track dirt trails you’d love.

[Lydia_Bosley]

Hi Lisa! Delightful to get such a quick reply, I’m glad to know there are people listening, this is fun… By saying you’ve done their “25”, does that mean a 25 mile ride?? We’re not doing endurance, just trail rides for 2 or 3 hours is about our style, but maybe a trip up there sometime would be worthwhile… our horses are getting used to longer trailer trips but we’re only up to about an hour now, I think Molalla would be more like two, but thanks for the tip!! (and what’s an R&T’er?)

[Lydia_Bosley]

P.S. Aha, Ride & Tie… I checked out your website, now I’ll have to read your books!

[Lisa_Preston]

Hey, However long you want to ride is cool—I just meant that they certainly have nice trails, not that you’d have to race LD or endurance (or R&T). And you wouldn’t have to wait 'til October, but you can find the RDs on-line and get more info from them about access.

I totally undestand not wanting to haul to trails. I’m spoiled with vast wildland super close.

[BayRoan]

Probably one of the most popular riding spots around Corvallis is McDonald/Dunn Forest, which is the OSU research forest. You can access it from Peavy Arboretum, Oak Creek, the Lewisburg Saddle, Soap Creek and Chip Ross Park. The trails from the fairgrounds are in Bald Hill park, if you want to look up information on them. You are likely to encounter bikes, mostly mountain bikes, anywhere you ride around Corvallis that is open to the public.

A great resource for trail information is Oregon Equestrian Trails. http://www.oregonequestriantrails.org/ With membership they provide a great book about Oregon horse camps and trails and they maintain an email listserv with lots of very helpful people participating. Kim McCarrel also has written two books about horse trails and camps in Oregon that are quite good. She participates in OET.

I live an hour from Newport in the eastern foothills of the Coast Range. We have nice riding out here, but right now most of our trails are closed due to fire season. Forest Capital closes all of their ground to all public entry during fire season since some idiot started a fire a couple of years ago firing tracer rounds at a stump. Most of our longer trails cross Forest Capital ground, so we respect their closure and stay mostly on roads and shorter trails on other property.

There are also still some organized rides left in the season. The Waldo Hills Heritage ride is Sept 11th east of Salem. There is a poker ride Labor Day weekend at the Flying M Ranch west of Yamhill. It’s a bit of a haul, but it’s a gorgeous place to ride. There’s also a prize ride at Warrenton in September. The Waldo Hills ride and Warrenton ride are on the OET calendar and the Flying M Ranch has a website.

[system]

Horse Riding Beach near Corvallis

Hi Lydia,

We are visiting the Corvallis area soon and would love to ride our horses on the beach. Do you have any ideas where we could go? We rode near Tillamook last year and the kids had ablast with their horses!

Thanks,

Gina

[Fillabeana]

I know it’s a ways from the coast to Bend, but up here in the Deschutes National Forest there are some neat options. There are horse camps and trails at Newberry/Paulina and East lakes. If you don’t need much for amenities, you can ride out on the forest. Where our cows are grazing, there’s pretty much NOBODY around until deer/elk season. There’s no water, so you would want to either bring a bunch of your own (for the horses) or call me to find out where our cows are getting water. But you can ride, and ride, and ride. There are deer, elk and antelope out there, and unfortunately some cougars, too, but they’re pretty hard to find b/c they’re night-active as well as shy.

[Halcyon_Days]

Make sure you join OET (Oregon Equestrian Trails) and you will get a fabulous book of trails and horse camps in Oregon! They also have a online email chat at OET-trailmail@yahoogroups.com

You can also join PNER@yahoogroups.com and ask for fun local trails, the endurance riders always have them scouted out and I know there’s some in y our area!

I"m in Molalla and we have super trails out here as well, and yes, fun endurance ride in October, lots of locals come out and ride the 10 or 25 mile distance for fun

[Lydia_Bosley]

Riding at Newport’s South Beach

Dear Gina,

I’m so sorry, I only just now saw your message on COTH!! I just joined with my original post and I thought I would be notified if/when I got replies, now I see it doesn’t work that way!!

Okay, if it’s not too late, to ride at South Beach, you just drive south across the Yaquina Bay Bridge, take the first exit right (toward the Aquarium, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Rouge Brewery, etc.) and then the second left toward the south jetty, before the right curves around to the right.

Drive straight forward almost to the end and you will see the Equestrian Parking area ~ plenty of room for numerous trailers, several hitching rails, portapotties, etc. Tack up there, and the trail to the beach (at the SW corner of the parking area) is clearly marked. You ride through the dunes & grass a short distance to the beach, and of course, you want to ride on the firm sand close to the water (or in the water off and on if your horses will go in!).

Any other questions, please feel free to email me at LFBosley@Q.com or call 541 444 1265… again sorry I didn’t see your message until just now!

Lydia Bosley, Logsden, OR