Late in July of 2013 a friend and I headed to Kelsay Valley Horse camp in Southern Oregon.
I had done some research ahead of time and wanted to ride a trail on the way there that brought us to the base of Mt. Thielsen.
The Howlock Mt. Trailhead is right off of Hwy 138 at the Diamond Lake Recreation area sign. There is a guy there that runs a dude string and he has some overnight camping spots, but we just parked in the day use area and did a 15.7 mile loop, which gets onto the PCT for awhile.
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| Mt. Thielsen |
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Howlock Meadows, me on my pony.
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| Diamond Lake from the PCT. |
After our ride we drove to camp, after a slight detour, going the wrong way. The older OET book I have does NOT have the right directions. The best and quickest way is to follow Hwy 138 (if coming from Bend like we were) past Diamond Lake about 5 miles, then take a right on Windigo Pass Rd. It turns to gravel but it is a nice road without much washboard. At a 4 way crossing take the little red dirt road to the right which gets to camp in one mile. There are no actual horse camp signs until you are at the camp.
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| Site A5 a two horse site |
This camp has different types of corrals in every site. There are only a couple of four horse ones, the rest are either three, two, or one horse corrals, and there are also some sites with no corrals. Non horse campers can camp in the ones without corrals. The spots are all pretty shaded and close to the creek for stock water. We had a lot of privacy since we did not have neighbors. Mosquito's were a problem near the creek and on a lot of the trails near water. Obviously it is better to go there later in the summer to avoid them.There are wheelbarrows and garbage cans, but no potable water.
On our second day we headed east on the N. Umpqua Trail, and did 18 miles round trip to Maidu Lake. The trail signs have mileage on them which is convenient for planning rides.
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Maidu Lake....yes that is me!
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We tied up the horses and gave them a long break while we frolicked in the water. Although refreshing, this lake was a little sludgy!
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| Horses getting a well deserved break. |
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Heading back from Maidu Lake. Courtney and Gracie.
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On our third day we headed to Lemolo Falls, also on the N. Umpqua Trail ,but heading west this time. This was a total of 15 miles through the forest. The last mile and a half is a popular trail along the river with a lot of hikers and mountain bikers. There were some places the trail was steep and a little narrow. We used caution passing people on the cliffy parts. It is a very scenic trail, the falls are beautiful and are 165 feet high.
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| Rina checking out the falls. |
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| Hard to tell, but I took this from the top of the falls, a long drop off. |
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| Gracie and Courtney having lunch. |
On the way back from the falls we stopped at Lemolo Lake for another swim. This is a huge lake, with nice clear water.
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| Lemolo Lake with Thielsen in the background. |
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| The N. Umpqua Trail. |
On our last day we wanted a shorter ride so we took the trail to Calamut Lake for a nice 10 mile trip.
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| Calamut Lake |
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| Tired pony, resting at Calamut Lake. |
All in all a nice camp with good riding. I usually get to ride all the trails at a camp in one trip, but there were trails we did not have time for, a couple more from camp and one a short trailer ride away....so I guess I will have to return another time!
Update: I went back to this camp in 2016 and did the other rides, click on this link for trip #2 Kelsay Valley Part 2
GPS COORDINATES TO HOWLOCK MT. TH
GPS COORDINATES TO KELSAY VALLEY
