Rockin U Equine Solutions
Women's Weekend Spring Ride
When:
June 21st-23rd 2024!
Where:
Tamarack Horse Campground
Hinkely, MN
St. Croix State Forest
About Tamarack
The campground is considered primitive, designed to furnish only the camper's basic needs. The campsites consist of a cleared area, fire ring, and table. Also, vault toilets, garbage cans, and drinking water are available.
All sites are on a first-come, first-served basis for a fee.
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Highlights: Tamarack Horse Campground offers pull-through campsites, picket lines at each campsite, and manure bunkers. There is also a day-use rider parking lot.
Approximately 25 miles of horse trails exist within St. Croix State Forest. The Matthew Lourey State Trail, a multi-use trail open to horseback riding, also passes through the forest toward Duluth
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MN DNR Web site:
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_forests/forest.html?id=sft00044#cmp00045
Campground Fee:
Equestrian campsites are $22 per night.
There are 56 equestrian sites, first come first serve.
A MN Horse Pass is Required! As is a State Park Pass! Links below
A comment from other visitors:
"What To Expect-Trails can be challenging depending on equine & rider experience. Trails cross the Tamarack River so depending on water flow & level crossings can be easy or difficult. Trails are rocky in some areas and traverse small bridges, hills & wet terrain. For longer rides a section of trail connects with the Gandy Dancer ATV Trail giving access to an ATV bridge crossing the St. Croix River & leads into the town of Danbury, Wisconsin where there is a horse picket line."
Rules for the weekend:
1. No Men!
2. No Minors!
3. 1 Dog per Rig!
We will have a group potluck Saturday night. All other meals you will provide for yourself, although we normally pack too much and love to feed people. We suggest plenty of snacks and drinks for the trail. We will be drinking but there will be NO tolerance for drunken antics on horseback! We love to have fun but please ride safe. We will be doing more than a walk/trot, so if that is to risky for you please find another ride, we will understand. We have heard these trails are more challenging, so be prepared for thick, steep, rugged trails! Hopefully the bugs will not be terrible by this date but there is no guarantee.
Hope to see you all there!
For more fun adventures check out this website!
https://rideclimb.com/map/?fbclid=IwAR0Y5zjh1imDxCGeUQUdvEJ1es8-6bWVhO34YjBryuuM_B5udE5ndlVkpqA
~2024 ReCap of Tamarack~
Well 2024 Women's Weekend started off with Tornado warnings and flash floods! Why not ride?!?
​Seriously, I did go and a few brave souls followed me there but not after I spent the better part of two days riding and camping by myself! No cellphone reception, no body else in camp or on the roads. You wanna talk about peace and self reflecton time?.......OOFDA, I had plenty of "ME" time.
Let's set the scene.......
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One Independent woman + One Loyal dog + One very smart Mare finishing her 90 days with us= Lot's of 1st's and Tons of Memories!
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After pulling in and setting up camp, which is really easy when no one else is around, I got a lay of the land and decided on a quick evening ride. The ground was fairly soft considering all the rain we had in the past 24 hours so hoof boots were not needed.
Now the mare I was riding was finishing up 90 days ground-up training with us and although we train for as much as we can, there are a few scenerios that we just can not prepare for.
One being "ditch like trails" or "cow ruts" as we used to call them when I was younger due to playing in cow pastures and following their ruts.
Anyways, she had never experienced those so was not a real fan of walking in the rut........until she slipped riverside down the embankment, after that - Ruts were A- OK!
With trails being slick or washed out I decided to stick to the more accesible ATV trails you can also ride while in Tamarack. We encountered a pretty neat bridge that lead to a very steep incline on the opposite side that was paved.
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After crossing the river we were able to find a nice horse trail with only a few water crossings and came out to a breathtaking overlook.
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We did have to ride back down the same trail and brige to camp but while riding alone, best to keep things simple and safe.
Enjoy this clip from day one at Tamarack Horse Camp!
Day 2 started very optimistic! I had a game plan of staying high ground away from the raging river. The trail I decided on was Boulder Loop North and by all accounts should be fine....... Let's just have you watch the video which will help you understand why pictures from this day are pretty much non-existent!
Enjoy!
By day 3 I finally had some company!
After I PROMISED to not take them on the 'bad' trails they happily agreed and saddled up.
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We rode out south on the trails and had a wonderful time crossing bridges, ravines and overcoming fears! My lil training mare proved herself time and time again on the steep hills and muddy tracks.
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She played pony horse so others could get across areas their horses did not want to go while I jump rode on theirs and got them over the obstacle we were stuck on.
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And although a few stayed that night I called it quits and headed home. We had covered as many trails as we could, created memories to last a lifetime! My lil mare went home a Broke trail horse like no other and I was happy it all went as smooth as it did under the conditions we had.