Emptying the Dreaded Black Tank

Before we arrived at our next stop, we stopped at a KOA to empty our black water tank. This is the tank dedicated to collecting what goes in our toilet. Our tank supposedly holds 35 gallons of yuck, but it has been showing 2/3 full almost from the first use. Our clean water tank shows Full or 2/3 Full. Our gray water tank shows 2/3 full and our Black water tank also shows 2/3 full.  As Ari says, "our trailer doesn't know how to do math." 

Any way, I belong to a Facebook group for full-time horse people living in LQs and I asked them how do they make sure that they really empty their tanks and nothing is, well, stuck inside of them.

One of the group members suggested this method - which strikes me as brilliant...

Empty the tanks at the dump station as you normally would. 

Basically, you pull up to a dump station and there is a small hole in the ground with a cover on it. You remove the cover, you connect the sewer hose to the LQ. You open the valve for the black water first and let the tank empty. You close that valve, then you open the valve for the gray water (water used for bathing, cleaning dishes, cooking, etc). You empty the gray water and that helps clean the hose. If water is available, you can also rinse the hose.

Then, before you pull away, you dump a bag of ice down the toilet, add 1/4 cup of Downy softener and 1/4 cup of Dawn dishwasher liquid, and flush.

The ice and cleaners go into the black water tank. As you drive down the road, the ice slushes around with the cleaners and scrapes any remaining crap off the sides of the tank. Then the next time you empty the tank, it should be well and truly empty.

You can also purchase a device called an RV swivel stik which you stick on the toilet and basically hose down the tank, but I like the ice method better because it seems less likely to damage the toilet or tank.

Our tanks still show as being full - even after being emptied - so I am hoping a few cycles of emptying and ice will resolve the math problems.

The Living Memorial Sculpture Garden

On our way to our next stop, we took a slight detour to the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden just north of Weeds, CA.

The stop was recommended to us by our friend, Bob...and we thank you, Bob! It was a great suggestion. We really enjoyed our visit here. It was hot - low 80's and it is a lot of walking, but we saddled up our horses and actually rode through the entire garden.

Ari's biggest fear was the parking lot. But the parking lot is huge with plenty of space to turn around The Monster LQ. This place would not be a bad choice for a layover with the horses.

There are small grave sites scattered through the garden. I am not sure what process is required to get a burial in the garden. 

We could see Mount Shasta in the distance as we rode through the garden.

Ari took a moment to view the memorial wall. I love this photo. It looks very patriotic.

Visiting this garden on July 3rd - right before the 4th of July - felt very appropriate.

We rode the entire garden. The horses enjoyed the break from the trailer and we enjoyed the sculptures very much.

Riding Mount Shasta

This morning after breakfast, we got to take a trail ride here at Mount Shasta. You can ride out of the Iron Horse barn, which is our preference. We don't really want to hook and unhook the trailer if we can avoid it. Some places we will be staying will have bumper pull trailers on loan so we don't have to drive The Monster if we need to trailer out.

The horses really like their corrals at the Iron Horse. They are in the shade and they love the water.

The trails are primarily old logging trails.  They aren't too rocky and they are pretty wide for the most part. Ruth, the owner, provides three different trail routes to explore. She also has put up pink ribbons to mark the trails which provide warm fuzzies to ensure that we didn't get lost.

The trailer parking is pretty nice and level. Easy to back into and get out.

Relaxing in the Iron Horse arena

The owner doesn't allow turn outs in the arena, but Ari was too tired after the drive for a ride. So, we waited until the end of the day to turn both horses out in the arena while Ari mucked out their stalls.

The horses also were tired from the trailer ride and enjoyed getting to stretch out and relax a bit.

Shasta Trinity Nat Park

During our ride on the Stuart Fork trail, both horses stopped to drink from the stream. They loved the water - snow melt!

After the ride, I made us smoothies in my LQ kitchen. This is not something I would have been able to do before. Now I can actually use a blender in our kitchen and make relaxing drinks after a hot ride.

Iron Horse Horse Motel - Mount Shasta

Our next two days - July 1 & 2 - are at the Iron Horse Horse Motel in Mount Shasta.

I love that I just have to look in the right direction and I see Mount Shasta.

No issues driving into this horse motel and the campsites are perfect. It is a great place to stop with the horses. We have electric and water hook-ups for the trailer - which means we can run the air conditioning and take showers without using propane or water. We did need to get more electrical cables as the cable we had wasn't long enough to reach and we didn't want to move the trailer. 

So, we drove into town to do some shopping.

We stopped at this roadside eatery called Poncho & Lefkowitz. I picked it because of the name. I figured any place with that sort of name would be interesting.

The menu was a mix of Mexican - tamales and nachos - and American - hot dogs. Ari had a chili dog and I had the Crocodile Tamale. The food wasn't great. Service was super slow. But, the place is pretty popular.

We ate at the picnic tables after everybody left.

At the hardware store where we bought supplies, I saw this and thought of my friend, Midge. She makes tapestries. Her tapestries are much nicer than this kit, but I thought it was cool that you could buy a kit.

I also saw this little water gun in the shape of a pelican. It is so cute! I thought about buying it for our grandson, Zane, but realized he would prefer a super soaker.

Ari was able to set up a water filter and pressure regulator at this campsite and that should help keep our LQ plumbing clean. Although, I think the water here at Mount Shasta is probably pretty good.

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.