Bridge Camp Campsite in the Shasta Trinity National Forest

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.

The Happy Hooves Motel - Anderson, California

I was driving to the Happy Hooves Horse Motel and stopped when I came to this narrow bridge. After the fiasco with the awning, I am feeling a little tender over the prospect of driving through narrow and tight spaces. So, Ari swapped places with me and he drove over the bridge just fine. Phew!

The bridge passes over this picturesque little creek. It is just darling and it somehow hinted at what it would be like staying at the Happy Hooves Horse Motel.

In addition to being a horse motel, the place is a tortoise sanctuary. They care for rare and injured or abused tortoises.

When I went into the LQ (living quarters) after we had unloaded the horses, I discovered that one of the cabinets had opened up during our drive and several cans and bottles had fallen on the floor. A jar of sauce broke and so we had sauce all over the floor as well as the containers. Lesson learned. I am now putting a hair tie over the cabinet knobs and hopefully that will hold them shut.  Otherwise, I will have to get something stronger. 

While I restored our kitchen to order and cleanliness, Ari took a tour of the sanctuary with the owner, Ken. Ken is just wonderful. He is a real sweetheart and he enjoys sharing his experiences. He obviously loves animals - all kinds - and the animals love him back. He showed us a video of one of the tortoises following him around like a dog. 

While Ari got the grand tour of the sanctuary and I was wiping down cans and cleaning up spillage, our horses enjoyed a large arena.

Ken stopped by our trailer afterwards and one of his dogs hung out in the trailer while we chatted. Ken breeds and shows dogs as well as horses.

To add to our list of Things That Go Wrong, one of the electrical outlets on the side of the trailer has no power. Ari uses the outlet to provide power to our Bale Bucker.  I have reported the issue to SMC and hopefully they get back to me in the next day or so with ideas on how to get it fixed. Maybe it can get fixed at the same time we do the awning repair.

On the agenda for tomorrow:

Wake up

Feed the horses

Ari follows Ken to a repair shop and see if the shop can figure out what is wrong with the oil pressure gauge. Ken gives Ari a ride back to Happy Hooves. 

Ari & I go on a trail ride and check out the local trails.

Lunch

Pick up the Truck

Load up and make our first virgin trip to a dump station...

Our gray water tank is already 2/3 full. Ari is upset with me because I filled up the tank cleaning the dishes and prepping our meals. We are living in the COVID-19 times so I spend a lot of time cleaning and sanitizing. This needs water. Plus I used water to clean the floor from the sauce spillage. We are only on Day Two and we already need to go to a dump station. This does not bode well for us. I need to figure out how to be more conservative with water usage and still keep everything clean. We aren't able to shower and believe me when I say - it has been almost 100 degrees and we have been doing some serious exercise taking care of the horses and organizing the LQ - we both need a shower. We are using a wet wash cloth right now to clean up a bit...but a shower is scheduled for tomorrow one way or the other. It won't be a great shower, but I hope to get at least one layer of sweat off my skin.

If we don't get the truck back tomorrow, we will stay one more night and have to wait one more day for a shower. Ack! 

I have broken two nails already trying to open the latches on this trailer.  At some point I need a couple of hours to make repairs. Ari says he is breaking nails as well...but his nails are short and nobody is looking at his nails. 

Our next stop is supposed to be Shasta Trinity Forest....I want to call the ranger tomorrow and make sure we can get our humongous behemoth into a campground. 

The Start of The Trip - From Home to Woodland to Anderson

Well, we finally got our trailer on Saturday. We got the two hour plus tour from our sales guy, Ryan, and then I wrote one of the largest checks I have ever written in my life - except for when I was buying real estate.

The plan was that I would drive the trailer from the dealership to our house. Then, we would load up the trailer with our clothes, cooking gear, food, etc. Then drive to the barn to get the horses and then head out to our first stop in Woodland, CA.

We live on a really narrow street. It is basically a single lane and even less wide when vehicles are parked on both sides. Well, this is a 35 ft trailer and I totally miscalculated the turn onto the street. I scraped one side of our awning on a car parked on the street. The car was seriously damaged - I took out the guy's tail light as well as the rear panel of the vehicle. The awning was damaged, but it definitely won the fight.

The damage was pretty bad, but Ari spent about an hour wrestling with it and got it to the point that we can extend and retract the awning. I have an email out to the service guy at the factory. I am expecting our insurance will cover the cost of the repair. Fingers crossed the repair won't keep us off the road for more than a day or two.

By the time, we loaded up the horses and headed to our first stop it was well into evening, but we got to Sugarland Horse Park - a horse motel around 9:30 at night. They charge $35 per horse per night. No hook-ups for the LQ, but there is a nice bathroom available, but no shower. They did allow us to fill our water tanks, so that was something.

The parking lot was a good size so plenty of space to turn around. 

We slept for the first time in the trailer, turning in around 11 pm. We were dog-tired and slept until 6:30 in the morning the next day.

Before we left, we turned both horses out in the arena and they had a blast running around and rolling.

On the way to the next stop, our truck decided to act up - showing no oil pressure even though there is plenty of oil. 

So, tomorrow morning Ari will drive the truck into Anderson and hopefully, they can get it fixed by afternoon...otherwise, we may end up spending an extra day at the Happy Hooves Horse Motel. Not a bad choice. The people here are super nice. There are local trails to ride and the horses are getting the best of care.

More pictures and details to come....

Time to Start the Big Adventure

The first leg of our journey

You can click on the link above to see the route for the first leg of our journey.

Tomorrow is going to be an exhausting day. We are meeting our sales guy at 8 am and he is going to walk us through our new LQ and teach us about all the different systems. This will take at least two hours - longer if Ari interrupts him, asks him questions, and makes him repeat the instructions.  Then we plan to drive the LQ and park it in front of our house and load it up. 

We don't know what we can fit, so we will have to see what we can cram into the living space and whatever is left over is going to be packed into more boxes and stored in our garage.

We live on a very narrow street, so I am crossing my fingers we don't smash into any vehicles parked on the street when we leave.

Our property manager will be coming to our home in the morning with a cleaning crew, so he will already be cleaning while we are going through our trailer orientation and driving back.

Hopefully, they will be able to clean around us as we are packing the LQ.

Once we have the LQ loaded and any excess stored, we will go to the barn and get our horses.  We'll be texting Everado, our barn hand, to meet us so he can help us load the hay into the trailer.

Then, we will drive to Woodland - our first stop. I am figuring we won't get there until after dinner and we will have just enough energy to feed and water the horses before we collapse in our bed to spend our very first night in our LQ.

A Sneak Peek at our New Home on Wheels

On Monday, we took our truck into the dealer to get the goose neck hitch installed. As we were walking in to pick up the truck following the installation, a guy drove in with our trailer attached. "That's our LQ!" I told Ari. Ari didn't believe me, but, sure enough, it was our LQ arriving into the lot all the way from the SMC factory in Indiana.

Our sales guy, Ryan, walked out of the sales trailer beaming - "did you see it?" he asked. Only then did Ari believe me that it was, in fact, our LQ - our horse trailer plus living quarters that we ordered back in January, finally getting delivered at the end of June. "Can we take a peek?" asked Ari.

"Sure," said Ryan, but he reminded us the trailer still needed to go through their inspection and get everything put in shape for us to take it.

There is a queen size foam mattress in the sleeping area. I tried it out and it is too hard for our taste, so one of the first things we will need to do is buy a new mattress. Ari prefers something extra soft.

The kitchen has a larger fridge, a cook top, and a microwave/convection oven and a dining area. Most horse people have told me they prefer the sofa to the dinette. However, I have to update my books on the road, plus I am hoping to continue to create web content for some clients, so I needed a work space with a table where I could set up my computer.

The bathroom features a teeny tiny sink, but a good sized shower. I will be missing my double sink in the master bathroom, no doubt.

We ordered a saddle rack that rotates out to make it easier to use to access our saddles. It also has bars to store the saddle blankets. Normally, we put the saddle blankets under the saddles to prevent them from falling off, so we will have to see what works best. I also have ordered fly and belly sheets to protect the horses from biting insects, so this will be a great place to store those.

I custom ordered the colors so the interior would be brighter inside the LQ and we are really happy with how the interior looks.

None of the cabinets have shelving, so we will have to figure out how to add shelving so we can increase our storage capabilities.

We also ordered a bale bucker and that is supposed to be installed by the dealer on Friday. We are hoping to leave on Saturday, so we are down to days before we start our trip. Ari's last day of work was last week, so he gets to spend the week doing the last minute errands and calling all of our stops for the next two months to confirm new dates of arrival.

From Years to Months to Days

It has been years in planning. We ordered our LQ the end of January 2020 for this trip. We were supposed to get it in April, but when things shut down in March this delayed the construction of the LQ.

This has definitely been a learning experience - prepping for this trip. Ari has added a transfer tank to our Chevy Silverado truck so we have plenty of gas as we travel through Alaska and other areas where gas stations may be few and far between. He has also made other modifications to the truck to make it safer - like added air bags to manage the weight of the LQ.

I have been ordering items, like a water filter for the LQ, special RV toilet paper, a water pressure control so we can take decent showers, items for the LQ kitchen - like a small crock pot and magnetic containers for spices, levelers, tire chocks, and special hangers that don't slide or fall off when the vehicle is moving. A lot of small things experienced RVers have recommended.

I am sure we will have a lot to learn and be frustrated, but be able to laugh as well. We are hoping to park the LQ in front of our house the day before we leave so we can pack it up. That way we can figure out exactly what fits and what doesn't.

Next weekend we are taking our stock trailer up to our retirement barn for storage. The owner has kindly agreed to let us store the stock trailer there while we are traveling. Everybody has told us not to sell the stock trailer as we aren't going to want to use the LQ for backyard trail riding after we return - too big.

We have given notice at our jobs, so no going back now. We love our jobs, so it feels a little sad. But, the horses are the perfect age and we aren't getting any younger either, so it's now or never to do this. Hope you come along with us on our journey - if only vicariously, reading this blog.

Getting ready for our next adventure!

Because we will be on the trail for more than a year, we are purchasing an LQ - a living quarters trailer. This is a combination horse trailer with a living quarters, kind of like an RV.  We have always joked that riding horses is a slippery slope. First, you take lessons. Then, you lease a horse. Then, you buy a horse. Then, you buy a second horse. Then, you buy a truck and trailer, so you can haul to trails. Then, you start camping with your horses. We already bought horse property in Colorado. The LQ seems like the last step.

In sad news, I had to put Laertes down on January 5, 2019.

He was suffering from DLSD and could barely walk. You can see how collapsed his feet were in this picture. We let him graze before we put him down. He was 29 years old. Oberon seems to be doing OK without his companion of 22 years, but we don't expect him to live much longer as well.