Place to stay: Horse Camps at Otter Creek
Nearby trails: adjacent to Otter Creek Horse Trail System, 65 miles of fantastic riding.
Location: Lowville, NY
Horse Trail Chicks’ rating: 5 carrots out of 5
Otter Creek Horse Trail System is a wonderful place to spend several days (or weeks!) riding your horse in the beautiful Adirondack Park in northern New York State. Whether you prefer the comforts of a cabin or you own private campsite, Horse Camps at Otter Creek is the place to stay.
Abbey Lane 
The Bunkhouse
The camps are owned by Liz Hirschey and Karen Giroux and their business developed organically, starting with Liz’s love of the Otter Creek Trail System and her wish to share it with others. She rode at Otter Creek for many years and eventually bought an old hunting camp, to which she added running water and electricity. Her friends loved going there to ride with her, so she built extra paddocks.
She purchased more hunting camps as they became available, which she improved and started renting out to riders in 2010. She met Karen, who also purchased land and built a cabin and a campsite. Together, they developed their businesses and now share a website, where you can learn about the cabins and campsite and book your stay.
There are a total of 5 cabins, each with accommodations for 4 (or more) people and 4 horses, plus a campsite with 2 paddocks. The cabins have fully-appointed kitchens, bed linens and towels, washer/dryer (no horse blankets allowed!) TV and DVD player, and a screened porch. Horse facilities include 4 paddocks for each cabin (2 for the campsite) – each with a covered area, tack shed, hay shed, and wash rack. Karen and Liz go out of their way to ensure you have everything you need including a hose, buckets, wheelbarrow, manure forks, and mounting block. There is even a sand riding arena. You can pre-purchase hay that they will have stacked in your hay shed for your arrival .
Hay shed and tack room at Abbey lane 
Stalls with paddocks
One important thing to bring is a hay net. The soil is very sandy so placing hay on the ground could lead to sand colic in your horse. On our last visit we brought rubber mats to put under each net to catch hay that dropped on the ground. This is not a necessity but it kept things even tidier.
We absolutely love staying here. The cabins are gorgeous. I (Monica) am a cabin-snob. I can’t stand cabins with plywood paneling and linoleum floors, which you so often find. The Horse Camps at Otter Creek cabins all have wood floors and sport wood beams and wood walls or wainscot. Some are log cabins. All have at least one screened-in porch. The decor is very horsey and tasteful.
There is also another cabin available, Camp Kanarondack (“Camp K”), which is owned by a couple, Bob Boeckman and Mary Delton. It is not part of Liz and Karen’s business, Horse Camps at Otter Creek, but it is managed very similarly and offers the same type of accommodations. It is slightly farther from the trail system, but only by an extra a 5-minute ride on a beautiful trail through the woods.
From each cabin you can access the trail system via a 1- to 5-minute walk on a private dirt road, trail, and/or short bit on a paved road with a good shoulder (dead-end so almost no traffic). One of the nice things about staying here is that it is in the northern section of the trail system, which gets less use than the central and southern sections so although you will run into other riders from time to time and – rarely – a hiker or mountain biker, you will mostly have this pristine wilderness to yourself. The trails are also sandier in this section, which in the Northeast is a blessing. You can read all about the trail system on our trail page, here.
The cabins are so popular that they book up, in many cases, more than a year in advance (but don’t hesitate to try if you have less time). By the end of our stay, we’ve already booked our next year’s cabin. Booking, which is done by email or phone, can be a little confusing because each owner books their cabins separately. If you go to the website and don’t know or don’t care which cabin you want, we suggest emailing both Liz and Karen to find out availability for your dates. They work together to find a cabin or camp that meets your needs. Camp K is booked totally separately, through their own website.
Cost: For the cabins you pay per person and there is a 2-person, 3-night minimum. As of 2020, Abbey Lane & Stayabit cabins are $96 per person per night, with a discount for 7 nights ($610 per person). Dig It, Bunkhouse, Roc-a-Hoo cabins are $74 per person per night, $470 for 7 nights. The Buckaroy Campsite is$70 per rig per night, $440 for 7 nights.
To help you decide which cabin to rent, click on the links below for video tours of some of them.
You can read about and see pictures and video of the Horse Trail Chicks 2019 trip to Otter Creek here, and our 2020 trip here.
