Welcome to our Motocross website! We are Eric and Annelise Turner, owners and Director of Iron Horse Country Ranch.
Summer Camp Season 2023 marked our 16th and last year to offer our motocross summer camp program to children. The closing announcement we sent out to our families back in 2023 best captures our sentiments:
“Dear Iron Horse Families,
We are ending our Summer Camp.
We have made the decision to end our Motocross Summer Camp after 16 great years and will not be offering a 2024 season next summer or beyond.
Please know, we did not make this decision lightly. It’s something that we have discussed over the past several years. We know what Iron Horse has meant for our campers and families since 2008. It has meant the world to us to be able to provide this type of community for you.
Simply put, as with everything in life, we’ve always known there would be a time to end and wanted to do so feeling good about how we finished. As you might imagine, running this type of camp involves tremendous effort and responsibility and we feel that after almost two decades of doing so, it’s time for us to transition into doing something else. . . “
We feel a deep sense of gratitude and affection for all of our families. And, as we have expressed to all, we have many, many good camp memories to hold dear.
Although we are not retiring and going away just yet, we have decided to take some time in 2024 to think about and explore how we can best use the resources and experiences we have to offer. Stay tuned!
What We Did as a Motocross Summer Camp
Our life experiences, passions and backgrounds led us to the concept of this camp and to its opening in 2008. Eric is a Motorcycle Safety Foundation Instructor (MSF) and Annelise holds a Masters Degree in Social Work, Child & Family Specialty. We are proud parents of two now grown daughters who were our original “Junior Counselors”. To this day, they both talk about how participating in summer camp life at Iron Horse has helped them in their adult lives with self-confidence, social skills and a strong work ethic.
At Iron Horse Country Ranch Motocross Summer Camp we provided a good, old-fashioned, real summer camp experience for kids. Our campers learned how to ride off-road motorcycles – known more commonly as “dirt bikes” – in part as a way to teach them an exciting skill they will keep for life, but mostly as a way to get them into the great outdoors doing something active and fun with other kids.
The way we did this was through our Motocross Summer Camp program for kids ages 8-13 years. We grew from being a day camp only in 2008 into transitioning as an overnight (sleep away) camp. Our camp sessions were one week long each, Monday through Friday. Boys and girls had separate sleeping quarters. Camp size was small – less than 30 kids each week. We maintained a high level of supervision throughout all weeks thereby creating a structured and safe way to learn how to ride and have fun.
We hired adult coaches/counselors over the age of 21 to help lead instruction. Our junior coaching staff, ages 16-18, worked as our life-guards and assisted our lead adult coaches throughout the day. Together, we formed a team that covered all the bases in providing a fun and life-affirming experience for our campers.
Where We Are
Our physical location is 9100 East FM 243, Bertram, Texas 78605. We are on a real ranch setting with 100 acres of beautifully rolling, wooded terrain nestled in the iconic Texas Hill Country. The Ranch includes cows, chickens, a horse named Bella, our ranch dog Bandit and two barn cats named Indie and Harley (of course!), fully vaccinated. We are 30 minutes from North Austin, 25 minutes from Georgetown, and 20 minutes or less from Cedar Park, Leander, Liberty Hill and Burnet, Texas. For GPS: “9100 E. FM 243, Bertram, Texas 78605”. (Note: PLEASE DO NOT just enter our name as it takes people to an incorrect location near Liberty Hill.
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