Before we left the Happy Hooves Horse Motel, we wanted to get a trail ride in.
Ken advised us that the trails are really rocky. So, Ari opted to put socks and boots on Lennox.
We keep our horses barefoot because it is less maintenance and healthier for the horses. Not every horse can go barefoot, but ours have done well without shoes. When the trail is rocky, we put temporary shoes on the horses. Last summer I purchased Scoot Boots for both horses, but Lennox did not do well with the Scoot Boots. His hooves are round - the same width and length, which means the boots would twist around. They gave Lennox sores. So, I checked with some horse friends and they recomended Cavallo. Cavallo looked like a better choice because they make a temporary boot for round hooves AND they sell socks to help prevent sores.
The socks just slip onto the hoof. They are very easy to put on and take off.
Ari really likes the Cavallo boots. They are well-made and fit beautifully. Lennox liked them too and they stayed in place during the ride.
The trails started out pretty nice and wide. They never got that narrow or rocky, but they weren't anything exciting.
We left the Happy Hooves Horse motel feeling a little sad. The hosts are so very very kind.
The plan was to stay two nights at the Shasta Trinity National Forest, but the campsite I had originally selected stated it could only accommodate a 15' trailer. Our behemoth would not make it, so I called the ranger station and asked for recommendations for a campground that would allow our 35' LQ trailer in and out. Ranger Peggy recommended Bridge Camp Campground.
Well, we curse the day Ranger Peggy was born. The road into the campground was a single lane with no pull-outs or places to pass. It was overgrown with rocks in the road and seriously narrow and eroded in spots. We got our cardio work-out for the day just with our heart rates going up from the drive-in.
Once we got to the campground, it was fine. There were vault toilets, water, picnic benches, and barbecue pits. The horse corrals were large and in great condition. The trailer parking was large enough to allow us to turn out trailer around and settle in.
Our horses - ready to go out
We rode - and hiked - the Stuart Fork Trail. This trail is very popular with back-packers. We did not like the trail that much. It was so narrow in places, we ended up dismounting and leading the horses, so it was half the time in the saddle and half the time on the ground.
Ari couldn't get to sleep the first night of our stay. He was too worried about how we would be able to drive out of the campsite without damaging the trailer or falling off the road. There was no cell reception at the campground, so no way to call anybody. We have a satellite phone but I wasn't able to get it working properly.
Finally to get him to go to sleep, I told him there might be another way out of the campsite and we should find out tomorrow about it. I reminded him that this is an equestrian campsite, so they must have a way for trailers to come in. That calmed him down and he went to sleep.
The next morning he went around asking other campers about alternative routes out only to be told that the way we came in was the only way in or out. After he had confronted me for lying to him the previous evening, he came up with a plan. We drove through a resort on the way into the campsite. He would walk to the resort - doing road maintenance along the way, clearing rocks and brush. Once at the resort, he would call Ranger Peggy and chew her out for getting us into this mess and negotiate a car to stop traffic coming the other way so we would be able to get out without killing someone else or damaging our trailer.
The resort manager offered to stop traffic through the resort at 7:15 am the next morning and we were to allow 15 minutes for the last vehicle to arrive at the campground. Then we were supposed to leave the campground at 7:30 am and have a clear path to the resort.
As we were packing up to leave, this stock trailer pulled into the parking lot. Ari spent a few minutes talking to the driver to try and get pointers on navigating the road out. Basically the other driver said - don't look at the trailer tires worrying if they were coming off the road and pray.
The road was greatly improved from the two days before when we came in. Ranger Peggy had sent a team out to clear the rocks and brush. That, along with the road maintenance Ari did, improved the road immensely. It was still narrow, but there was no danger of the trailer wheels leaving the road and with traffic blocked by the resort manager we didn't need to worry about incoming traffic.
The resort manager greeted us when we arrived at the resort and we thanked him profusely. He told us that the rangers had come out the previous day to get the road in better shape and they felt really badly about Ranger Peggy's poor recommendation.
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