Quote:
Originally Posted by baytownbert
West Texas: How about an updater. I'm wanting to hike this entire trail in sections, starting at the Cleveland end.  |
We did finally do the last leg after much discussion about the crossing at the SanJac east fork. I had gone a few weeks prior, just after some pretty heavy rain. I shot some video, link below...
YouTube - Lone Star Hiking Trail: East Fork San Jacinto River
As you can see in that video, the river was pretty darn full, and running pretty hard. Hard to tell in the video, but the water was about 10-12 feet deep here, as the river trench is pretty deep. We went back about 48 hours later, and it was down about halfway, but no log crossings to be seen anywhere near. We actually stowed a cheap inflatable raft on one side to try the crossing with.
But when we came back a week later to do the actual hike, the river had gone down quite a bit and we did find a big log right just north of the old bridge. The water was pretty shallow, and we considered just fording it, but the issue was the mud. It wasn't a nice sandy bottom and felt like trying to slog through quicksand. And even with the log you have to get down one bank and up the other. Not too bad if it's been dry.
You can see that it will be a long, long time before they rebuild that bridge. It was a pretty significant structure and was totally wiped out during the big flood a few years ago.
After that, the rest of the hike was uneventful. But I'd watch the weather. The trail follows along the San Jac east fork for a ways after the bridge on the east side and if the water has been up, the trail can be swamped in a few areas for about a half mile or so.
TX