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Posted

Have read one or two things about this recently but saw a piece from Gear Junkie last week that said this trail is opening in spring 2026. I'd imagine that means it's only an inaugural stretch of the Cross Texas Trail. Would run from Orange to El Paso and through some iconic places -- Concan, Utopia, Big Bend, Fort Davis, Guadalupe Mountains.

It's a fine idea, but I'm not sure of the practicality of it, especially once it gets to the further reaches of the Hill Country and westward. It will be a hell of a challenge, both to put it together and to hike/bike it.

Thought about adding this to the thread on thru-hiking from a few years back or the active backpacking thread, but given that this also involves biking and is also a very specifically Texan thing, it would be interesting to track it here. I can't find any Surly references to the trail. And apparently the guy spearheading the effort, Charlie Gandy, is a UT alumnus.

Thoughts? Anybody involved in this? Can it work? Would you do it?

Posted

I saw this and not really sure what to think of it. How will they handle getting permission on all the private land? Also think going through the high traffic areas surrounding Houston and Austin could be really crazy.

i am a hiker so I will be following this somewhat.

 

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Posted
8 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

Looking at the map it crosses l35 between san Marcos and new Braunfels on paved streets.

Who the hell is going to hike on paved streets.

 

I’m doing it now on the Camino Norte. But the drivers and traffic are significantly better in Europe. 
This idea has a bit of Death Race 2000 to it.

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Posted (edited)
18 hours ago, tomahawk dunk said:

I saw this and not really sure what to think of it. How will they handle getting permission on all the private land? Also think going through the high traffic areas surrounding Houston and Austin could be really crazy.

i am a hiker so I will be following this somewhat.

 

Having a single-state trail in a place with as rich a heritage as Texas is pretty appealing, which is why I'm surprised to find no earlier references to this trail on Surly. But you're right -- this isn't like most of the famed national trails with logical paths across lots of public land (and which could rely on eminent domain like around 16 percent of the Appalachian Trail did). Most of them also avoid large urban/suburban areas, which xTx will have a harder time doing.

I live about 10 miles from the closest spot to me on Ice Age Trail, which is entirely in Wisconsin. That particular stretch has been both road walk and tread through private land in the time I've been here. It's gone back and forth because the tread portion had no formal easement agreement and the landowner had a beef with the state's Department of Natural Resources after getting fined for deer baiting. Unfortunate, because that piece of land has some of the best glacial drumlins anywhere on the trail (with those geological features being the organizing theme for the entire trail).

Other beautiful stretches, like one on the Fox River that used to be a Boy Scout camp but then got bought privately and also had no easement, have also been taken out. Others are still being added, because about 500 miles of the trail are still road walking. A lot of nice country roads, but some aren't.

Both easements and the problem of water in the western stretches of this trail are going to be massive logistical issues.

8 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

Looking at the map it crosses l35 between san Marcos and new Braunfels on paved streets.

Who the hell is going to hike on paved streets.

 

That will be a mess, but some folks will do it. The appeal of finishing a big challenge like this always grabs a few. And if it's well planned, the trail will get some good bike traffic out of those same urban areas into the surrounding country -- assuming there's enough of it that's relatively easy to get to.

3 hours ago, Bevo&Pevo said:

Similar, but smaller version of the Trans American Trail.  Give him credit for the try.

Agreed -- love the idea and he deserves huge credit. But it looks like the Trans American Trail is not at all intended for hiking. I hadn't really heard about this trail, but I'm starting to think about doing stretches of some of American bike routes in retirement.

I'm wondering if some of the western xTx stretches could even be hiked (and if other stretches could be biked). Not sure that any other national trail has a combination of that little water and public access for such a long stretch. Will be incredible to pull this off. (BTW, @Bevo&Pevo, thanks for bringing this up -- enjoyed reading about the TAT and its similarly named precursor, which was also unfamiliar to me.)

Edited by Hayduke
Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, tomahawk dunk said:

I’m doing it now on the Camino Norte. But the drivers and traffic are significantly better in Europe. 
This idea has a bit of Death Race 2000 to it.

Are you posting elsewhere on Surly about this? Wife and a couple of our friends are wanting to do this, and we're just starting to explore the idea. Here would be a good place, too, I think, but the Camino probably has or deserves its own thread.

Edited by Hayduke
Posted

I mentioned the Trans American Trail because I know we have some overlanders here.  However, depending on how hardcore you might be it could be done on foot or mountian bike.  There is also a Trans-European Trail if you get across the pond.  Any of 'em would certainly be a great way to see the country.  

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Posted
26 minutes ago, Hayduke said:

Are you posting elsewhere on Surly about this? Wife and a couple of our friends are wanting to do this, and we're just starting to explore the idea. Here would be a good place, too, I think, but the Camino probably has or deserves its own thread.

I can post in the camping thread. 
If y’all are looking to do a Camino I think Portuguese from Porto would be good one to start. You do one of these and sometimes you want to do more. 

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Posted
12 minutes ago, tomahawk dunk said:

I can post in the camping thread. 
If y’all are looking to do a Camino I think Portuguese from Porto would be good one to start. You do one of these and sometimes you want to do more. 

That's been mostly my thought, partly because I'm wary of the readiness of each potential participant. My wife is very Catholic and so are some of our mutual friends (mostly her friends, really), and they're all from Latin America. Their motivations for the trail are more spiritual. My friends who are interested in this are gringos and the husband, at least, is with me when I say, "I'm going for the beer and wine." We're going to leave it up to the serious folks to decide how much of a spiritual pilgrimage it will be. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, Hayduke said:

That's been mostly my thought, partly because I'm wary of the readiness of each potential participant. My wife is very Catholic and so are some of our mutual friends (mostly her friends, really), and they're all from Latin America. Their motivations for the trail are more spiritual. My friends who are interested in this are gringos and the husband, at least, is with me when I say, "I'm going for the beer and wine." We're going to leave it up to the serious folks to decide how much of a spiritual pilgrimage it will be. 

I would say the vast majority aren’t religious but I haven’t asked.

This is my second one. You meet people that have done several.

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Bevo&Pevo said:

I mentioned the Trans American Trail because I know we have some overlanders here.  However, depending on how hardcore you might be it could be done on foot or mountian bike.  There is also a Trans-European Trail if you get across the pond.  Any of 'em would certainly be a great way to see the country.  

Definitely not hardcore. Maybe middle -- a section-hiker and the biking equivalent, but mostly hiking. Going to do more European stuff at some point -- did a little there in my 20s and ready to go back. Have an acquaintance who wrote a book about walking the former border between East and West Germany. Not gonna take them up on their recent offer of helping me seek asylum in Germany, but would like to visit them and do some hiking. The wife, a journalist, appears to have taken up hiking/biking various trails as a near full-time gig and is apparently biking in Estonia today. (Title of the book is roughly "Without Borders: Encounters on the Green Band."

Grenzenlos: Begegnungen am Grünen Band : Flatt, Beatrix: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Edited by Hayduke
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