Lone Star Trail 3 day loop - Page 2 - Wild Texas Forums: Parks, Travel & Recreation

WestTexas · 02-02-2006, 09:35 PM

Our end of the day hiking never seemed to coincide near one of the few primitive campsites. I have seen them and LSHT Club has done a nice job. We pretty much hiked until about an hour before dark and had found a decent area near enough to water. We pulled off the main trail a ways and set up camp.

Since we did it right after hunting season, we could pretty much camp anywhere.

ploddinTod · 02-07-2006, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WestTexas

Our first time out we carried a lot of water (5-6 liters each). But as it turns out you'll cross a lot of little streams, most of which have at least a small area of moving water that you can pump filter. After the first time, we brought enough water for on the trail drinking / lunch, and then planned to camp near water water for dinner/breakfast. In the January / February months, I probably only carried 2-3 liters in my hydration pack. Then we'd camp and pump/filter a few gallons into a collapsible container for dinner/breakfast and refilling hydration packs.

West Texas,
You guys are my heroes for filtering and drinking the water from those streams and, obviously, living to tell about it.

I've seen areas where the water was actually foaming in the bend of a stream. My thinking was whatever caused that can't be good to drink. Maybe I was over-reacting but there is a fair amount of private property that abutes the trail. And who knows how careful those people are with how they handle their grey water?

copuswalker · 02-08-2006, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ploddinTod

West Texas,
You guys are my heroes for filtering and drinking the water from those streams and, obviously, living to tell about it.

I've seen areas where the water was actually foaming in the bend of a stream. My thinking was whatever caused that can't be good to drink. Maybe I was over-reacting but there is a fair amount of private property that abutes the trail. And who knows how careful those people are with how they handle their grey water?

People filter out of stock tanks so the stream should be just fine....Or at least that's what they say

I filtered a nice cool litre of water on the 4c trail and looked at it condensating on the Nalgene bottle..It looked so good, but I decided I had enough water when I started thinking about all the cattle pastures I had passed. That coupled with all the East Texans who seem to think it is normal to run septic outside or into waterways

WestTexas · 02-08-2006, 05:08 PM

Yeah, so far so good

! I've been relying on my MSR MiniWorks EX to filter out anything bad, with the exception of viruses of course. While the area does border some private property, it's pretty doggone empty out there, and we've been playing the odds that there's only a very, very small chance that something really nasty is in the water. There's always pills and boiling of course, but I have been thinking about upgrading to a 100% water purifier. Just haven't dropped the bucks. I have seen the water foam out there in the small streams, but most of that is probably just due to natural "pollutants" such as pollen, dust, etc.

Although I haven't tried it yet, my MSR MiniWorks EX (like most MSR EX pumps) incorporates a charcoal core to remove bad tastes like iodine, so you're supposed to be able to iodine-treat the water first for the really bad nasties and then pump it to remove the bacterias and bad iodine taste. I might have to try it at home to see how the water tastes.

If so, then that is pretty much as close to 100% as you can get.
rgds,
WestTexas

copuswalker · 02-09-2006, 06:54 AM

Sweetwater also sells a virus killing additive. I have been told that it is not needed in the U.S.?
When I do the Rancherias I am thinking of the kahtadin pills and avoid the weight of the purifier? Haven't tried them but they are rated highly?

02-22-2006, 11:46 PM

I was also looking at a 3 day hike on the Lone Star Trail for Spring Break but I would like to go point to point (dropping off a vehicle for the end). Could someone recommend a section of the trail to cover? I checked out www.lshtclub.com but to me it's not exactly clear where the best section to begin is.

ploddinTod · 02-23-2006, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I was also looking at a 3 day hike on the Lone Star Trail for Spring Break but I would like to go point to point (dropping off a vehicle for the end). Could someone recommend a section of the trail to cover? I checked out www.lshtclub.com but to me it's not exactly clear where the best section to begin is.

According to a thru-hiker who did the trail recently, the Big Creek Scenic Area is one of the best sections. :rolleyes: I've dayhiked it also and it is very pretty with the trail following the creek for at least five miles. At the end of this section there are some small loop trails that take you to some worthwhile scenery like majestic southern magnolias.
One caveat is the section to the south of Big Creek (Tarkington, I think) has recently had a "controlled burn" by the Forest Service.