Posted 2010-08-20 5:50 PM (#123864 - in reply to #122711) Subject: RE: Harmon Den - Pisgah Nat Forest
Member
Posts: 37
I ride there a couple times a year (it's within an hour's drive of my house). The horse camp is primitive, vault toilets, no water, no electric. Horses are kept in pipe stalls at each site (4 stalls in a row, each stall about 8 feet long and 3 feet wide). Good for a horse who will stand quiety. They might also have picket lines at some sites. You must make advanced reservations to get the combination to the padlock at the entrace to the campground (no on site management, you let yourself in and out of the campground). There is day parking available nearby open at all times. Both have direct access to the trails.
There are 15 or so miles of single track trails with another 8 to 10 miles of gated fire roads (closed to traffic). Also, there are 10 to 15 miles of gravel roads that are open to traffic, but not heavily traveled. Used to be you had to ride some gravel roads to access one trail to the next, but they have been building trails to run parallel to the gravel roads so you no longer have to ride on the road (you can if you want, just not required). There is enough riding for a full day and a couple half days (unless you're into hard and fast riding, then you might be able to cover almost all of the trails and gated fire roads in a day, but that would be a real feat!)
Harmon Den is nestled between the Cherokee National Forest and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, both of which provide many more miles of riding with just a short trailer ride from Harmon Den. For those that really know the area, you can actually ride your horse from Harmon Den into the Smokies or Cherokee, but that makes for a pretty long, hard day.
I really enjoy riding there from early spring to early summer, then again from early fall to early winter. Some of the trails are out in the open with no shade, so not a place I would go ride during the blistering heat of this summer. There is usually at least one creek crossing on most trails, so horse water is not too much of a problem. In the fall you do have to watch for yellow jacket nests, but I guess that's a problem everywhere.
Posted 2010-08-31 1:06 PM (#124256 - in reply to #122711) Subject: RE: Harmon Den - Pisgah Nat Forest
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 391 Location: Columbia, KY
Yep, we had a wonderful time camping at Canebrake and riding the trails! It only cost $12/night for elec. hook ups too. If any of you live near there and want to go for a few days soon send me a PM and maybe we can work something out.
Harmon Den - Pisgah Nat Forest
