The next few days are supposed to be extremely hot and humid. Please make sure all of animals and friends have enough water etc... even if we have to feed them Gatorade by the bottle.

Don't forget to take a dip for yourself, either.

Occoneechee Equestrian Campground in Clarksville opened a few weeks ago. There are eleven campsites with a 50 amp electrical hookup only, a gravel driveway, pedestal grill, picnic table and lantern posts. Each campsite is pull-through and accommodates trailers up to 65 feet long. Water is available in three central areas. This campground also has a central wash-down rack and 75-foot diameter exercise ring. There are only eleven 12 by 12-foot covered stalls (not specifically assigned). Once stalls are reserved, no more horse campsites are reserved. The Trail is a linear trail measuring 7.3 miles in and 7.3 miles out the same way. 

This brings us to James River Park. They will be breaking ground on the new Equestrian Campsites sometime next month. The plans call for the same basic set up as Occoneechee's with a few changes. At James River each site will have water hookup as well as electric. There will be between 10-12 sites and only 12 stalls. All horses will have to be stalled. Basically if/when all 12 stalls are reserved (which can quickly happen when just a few friends go) no more sites can be rented.  

This  year we (SVSC) booked the Group Horse site for this past weekend (July 4th) the first week of January and if we hadn't  checked early we might not have gotten a weekend at all. The group site was & is reserved from mid-March thru July and from late August thru the end of October. This weekend alone we had 11 trailers, 24 horses and 27 people. So with the new campsite we can't do this anymore, nor can any other club or group. 

I talked with one of the supervisors at JRP and there does'nt seem to be much we can do about the new campsites, but, there may be something we can do about keeping the group site and possibly the lower campsites open. So far the fate of the Group Horse site has not been decided. It very well may be up to us.

The one thing she did tell me is... The reason for keeping the sites to smaller limits is wear and tear on the trails. "there is a select few that will undoubtly come and ride after torrentail rainfalls or they will make their own trails." We have to stay on the designated trails etc... that's a given. We must not be our own worst enemy. If we don't abide by the rules given how can we expect to be taken seriuosly? Petersburg Battlefield Park is a good example, constantly we are telling someone to stay out of the creeks , and still we see their fresh tracks. Why?

We would like to hear your comments/suggestions. Who's ear do we bend? Start a petition? Let's do whatever we can to keep this Group site open. Lets do what we can to keep all our trails open. We would like to hear from other clubs that use this park etc... lets get something together and remind the Va. Dept. of State Parks and Recreation. If you want to send your own comments, start with Joseph.Maroon@dcr.virginia.gov or contact the governor's office etc...   or send me whatever information you guys can gather.