Mt. Madonna Archery Range
Hike Review
We hiked about a mile to the archery range from the Tan Oak Campground. There, we had a great time target-shooting with bows and arrows that I had borrowed from the girls’ grandparents.
The hike was mostly along the side of the road, so it wasn’t the nicest walk. The saving grace was that there wasn’t much traffic, so it wasn’t so bad.
At the archery range, we shared the range with another family who seemed just as inexperienced as us, which made things less intimidating. It was good that both groups were familiar with range rules though, as we only collected arrows after ensuring that everyone was adhering to a cease-fire and only starting again once both sides repeated an all-clear.
The archery range is a “roving” style one that is similar to a golf course, with 28 different targets along a trail. We were only interested in learning how to shoot, however, and so we stuck to the practice area.
The range was well-maintained and free. There were even paper targets available!
What I Learned
It had been about 10 years since I shot my last bow and I relearned pretty quickly. It was really fun teaching all the girls and Cassie how to shoot (Dave taught Florence). I think my proudest moment wasn’t anything I shot, but seeing how much fun everyone else was having.
I have only shot primitive bows before, so I was at first a little intimidated by the fancy options that were on the bows that we borrowed. One of them had a 3-pin scope and brush arrow rest that were new to me. Thankfully, they were intuitive to use and I quickly got the hang of it. Having used them, I’m not sure if I want to use anything else—they were so nice!
Friends
The Prives family came along. Dave and I were the only ones who had any archery experience (with Dave having learned when he was a Boy Scout). The girls were so good about sharing the single recurve bow while the adults shot on one of three compound bows. One of my distinct memories was how encouraging the girls were to each other—every time one of them shot, the others would clap and say encouraging words. They are such good kids.
What Happened?
2.2 miles, 2 hrs 4 mins, 237 ft of ascent
After a calm morning and a delicious lunch, we headed down to the archery range. The mile walk was pleasant, if a little warm, and non-eventful. As we neared the archery range, a ranger driving in the other direction smiled at us and told us to have a fun time at the range.
When we arrived, we stopped at the picnic table outside the archery range to drink water and apply sunblock. The picnic area at the archery range was rather nicely furnished with lots of picnic tables and grills—I can picture the fun events they could host at this place.
We stepped onto the practice range with a group of people shooting on the two left lanes. The two right lanes were free, but since we were all beginners, I guided us into the right one and started teaching the girls how to shoot one by one. The first person up was Annabelle, who held the bow carefully and pulled the string back and let go... but the arrow stayed notched. She pulled it back again and shot—and again the arrow stayed notched. I noticed that the arrow hold was extra long on this arrow, so I replaced the arrow with a short notch and it fired! She did not quite hit the target, but at least the arrow flew. The girls took turns with the one recurve bow that we had and by the time we were done, all had hit the target and their form looked good. The adults also took turns and our forms improved over the day too.
We were having lots of fun, but there was no shade and we were shooting during the hottest part of the day. Feeling hot and having had a good introduction to archery, we decided to hike back. The hike back was also uneventful, besides seeing lots of horse dung on the single-track trail we found that was parallel to the road. My girls loved it though and I think we’ll be going back to the archery range sooner than later!
