Elijah Bristow, Mildred Kanipe Horse Camp, and Mt. Pisgah, Oregon

If the weather is going to stay nice in the fall, I will always sneak in as many camping trips as possible. The high country is still snow free, but too many trees have fallen during heavy winds, so I figured a visit to a few parks in the valley would be a nice little getaway.

Mildred Kanipe Horse Camp.

I started at Elijah Bristow which is a state park near Eugene. There is a separate trailhead for equestrians with lots of room for trailers, a bathroom, a set of corrals, although you can't camp there, potable water, a round pen, a manure bin and a mounting ramp. There is no fee at this park, it is 847 acres and they have a map of the 10 or so miles of trails.

The Elijah Bristow equestrian parking area.

I arrived on a Thursday and it was pretty obvious this is a popular place for equestrians. I had plenty of  other horse people as company on the trails. So much so that my horse, who is old enough to know better, was acting pretty silly with all the horses trying to go past us in very close quarters. I guess she has gotten used to all the wide open space we normally have in Central OR. Either that or she was was trying to point out that I don't need to look for a young, green horse any time soon, since she can still act like one on occasion!

My goal was to ride over to Dexter Reservoir first and then come back and loop around on some of the other trails closer to the trailhead. The trail follows along the Middle Fork of the Willamette River until it gets to the dam and then you can ride up onto to the dam to observe the reservoir.

On the trails at Elijah Bristow.

The Middle Fork Willamette River.

Dexter Reservoir.

The trails are all marked with different animal signs, but that meant nothing to me since the map didn't have the corresponding animal named trails on it, so I just looped willy nilly around until I had seen everything. 

Trails are marked at Elijah Bristow.

Then I headed off  to Mildred Kanipe which is a new-ish horse camp on the way to Roseburg. They don't have the best signage to find the camp, so coming from the north on Elkhead Rd. I came upon the day use area first, where the old farmhouse and barns still stand, but the next turnoff after that is for the horse camp. (GPS coordinates at the end of the blog)

Mildred Kanipe has 15 equestrian spots and another small loop with 5 separate spots for non horse people. This is a large open area with plenty of room and all of the sites are pull through. There is livestock water from spigots at each corral and also several separate potable water spigots. Five of the corrals are just for one horse, and they are much roomier than the other sets. There are two manure bins, three bathrooms in the whole camp area, and a mounting platform with stairs. It is $27.00 per night, and you can make reservations. The camp is open from mid March through October, and I had the place to myself, other than the camp hosts.

Mildred Kanipe Horse Camp.

The day use area has it's own bathroom, manure bin, loading ramp, and a picnic pavilion. There is a fee for parking but they were waiving it when I was there. There are also hitch rails, mounting blocks, garbage cans, and a map of the trails. 

One of the camp hosts came over to say hi, and was very nice and welcoming. I was told they had just turned off the pump the night before for the livestock water, but I was still able to get a dribble to slowly fill my bucket. I enjoyed the full moon that evening, as my horse happily mowed the lush grass.

A full moon at Mildred Kanipe.

The next morning I woke up blanketed in fog. When I walked over to the bathroom I could barely make out the faint outline of my truck and trailer. I bided my time and eventually it cleared up, there was sun for about 3 minutes, and then the rest of the day was cloudy. 

A foggy morning at Mildred Kanipe.

There are 1060 acres to explore and it is pretty straightforward since it's just a large fenced piece of land. Some of the trails are marked, some are not. The map has all the trails color coded, and so there are corresponding colors painted onto trees on the various loops. The scenery is varied, with some sections of oaks, then pines and ferns, as well as wide open spaces and creek crossings.

On Mildred's Forest Trail.

A pretty Arab mare came to greet us.

On an unnamed trail.

On the Fern Woods Trail.

A picnic spot on the Underwood Hill Trail.

The old school house, on the School House Trail.

After dinner I walked over to the other non equestrian day use area. This was where Mildred Kanipe used to live and there is information that you can read about her life. For example when she was a kid she would hitch her Shetland pony Pete to a buggy and drive him 7.5 miles one way to school every day. In the photos Pete looks much larger than a Shetland, and he has a "woe is me" demeanor about him.

Reading about her, I became quite fond of Mildred, she was clearly a tough old broad. She never married, she managed the entire acreage alone, and had sheep and cows. She absolutely loved horses, and wanted her land to become a park, that everyone including equestrians could enjoy. Her grave is on the property and she left very specific instructions on how she was to be laid to rest.

The restored buggy that Pete used to pull.

Peacocks at the day use area.

I was all out of trails to ride the next day, so I drove back over towards Eugene and stopped at the Howard Buford Recreation Area. There is a separate horse trailer parking area at the north trailhead, but it does not have a pay station so I downloaded the Passport Parking app, and was able to pay the $5.00 fee that way, easy as pie. 

Horse trailer parking at the North Trailhead.

This is the biggest of the three parks I visited, at 2,363 acres. Although not all of the trails are for horses, you can ride to the summit of Mt. Pisgah. I started out riding in the Bottomlands first, along the river, then came across the horse arena, did a few canter laps around it, just for fun, and then headed uphill. Although mountain bikes are not allowed on the trails, it was a Saturday, so there were plenty of hikers.

Along the Coast Fork Willamette River.

Riding in the North Bottomlands.

Once I got to the top, it was very foggy, a group of teenagers were agog to see a horse materialize out of the mist. As we approached the monument, my horse stepped in a hole and nearly fell flat on her face, giving a nearby hiker a good startle. Another couple eventually hiked up as well, and I told them they were going to have to describe to me what the view normally looks like. The lady mentioned that you can see the Three Sisters on a clear day. I figured I wasn't missing much, since I can see the Three Sisters at home from my front lawn.
I decided to go back down a different way, and somehow I ended up on a not particularly horse friendly narrow, rocky, steep, slippery trail for awhile, but after negotiating that I made my way back to the trailhead.

The summit of Mt. Pisgah, all fogged in.

Heading back down.

Views on the way back down.

This concludes what I assume will be my last trip of the year. With Covid, the fires and everything else going on, I still managed to get in some good camping trips in 2020.

 

GPS COORDINATES TO ELIJAH BRISTOW

GPS COORDINATES TO MILDRED KANIPE

GPS COORDINATES TO MT. PISGAH