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

01-16-2006, 11:06 AM

I'm looking for a nice 3 day 2 night loop or end to end hike on the Lone Star Hiking Trail. Sometime in late Jan or Early Feb. Maybe 10-12 miles/day.

Any suggestions and advice for the section you suggest will be appreciated.

CLM

copuswalker · 01-17-2006, 07:01 AM

That has been discussed here but I cannot remember the suggestions? Try the search feature and see what comes up?

ploddinTod · 01-17-2006, 01:28 PM

Actually this would be a good time of year to thru-hike the trail. The trail is so flat that you could knock out massive miles per day. In a normal year, the trail would have large sections under water from the usual wet winter. I was out on the LST last week and it is extremely dry. This means that you'll have to cache water near road crossings, of which there are many.

You can get maps from the Lone Star Hiking Club website to plan your hike.

greggammon · 01-18-2006, 06:03 PM

The only loop trail i know of that is any good distance is the west end...richards, sandy branch, and north and south wilderness loops that all connect....should be able to get about 15 miles or so in...and you could extend that by going up the main trail and backtracking. You can get maps at http://www.lshtclub.com/

Need any company? Im looking for partners or a group to do some of the LS trail.

Bigblue30 · 01-20-2006, 12:59 AM

Has anybody thru-hiked the lonestar trail. Was wondering what the average mileage somebody could put in on a day.

01-26-2006, 10:45 AM

Thanks for the replys.

After printing out all the maps and staring at them for a while it seems like you can make a decent loop using the North Wilderness/South Wilderness/Little Lake Creek maps. This loop would combine the outside portions of all the smaller loops in the area and allow no backtracking with pretty easy caching of water via FM 149.

Does anyone know of what a through hike of the LSHT would consist? The western part is full of loops. Would you have to walk all the loops then head east? In any case you could probably backpack the entire trail in 4-5 days (or less). The whole thing is really confusing for me. It seem like there are people down there actively maintaining the trail (and I salute them!), but the official interface is lacking, to be generous. I tried contacting them via the email address on the site, but got no response.

greggammon, we are set for this trip, but I'll keep you in mind this fall when I get back from the AT. Are you a student at A&M? I'm class of '98

Chris in Austin

ploddinTod · 01-28-2006, 02:46 PM

Chris,
As I understand it, the Main Trail is something like 100 miles long without all the loop trails. East of I-45 there's a loop off of the main trail called the 4 Notch Loop. In my opinion this loop is the most primitive part of the whole trail. FYI, there is also a yahoo group called the "lonestarhikers" that you might be interested in joining. You should be able to get your questions answered quicker that way.
Are you preparing for a thru-hike of the AT?

WestTexas · 01-29-2006, 07:31 PM

The Lone Star Hiking Club website is..
http://www.lshtclub.com/

Great info, maps, directions, waypoints, etc.

I've done about 70 of the total 96 miles. Three of us started at the west end (Richards) and worked our way east. We broke the first 70 up into 3 weekends. Two we camped over a Saturday night, one was a day hike only. The last 25 or so will be about two days.

Like any Texas trail, it's best done fall, winter, early spring. Especially so with this one because the woods can get pretty dense in summer, and the mosquitos will eat you alive.

There are many loops, some shorter ones on the west end, longer one or two on the east end. Great day hikes. You don't have to do the loops to do the thru-trail (in fact the 96 miles doesn't include the loops).

rgds,WestTexas

ploddinTod · 01-29-2006, 09:54 PM

West Texas,
Did your group carry all of your water with you or did ya'll cache some at road crossings? What was your pace? Was there any particular section that you liked more than the others?
Another thing I noticed when hiking this trail when the weather gets warm: huge spiders patiently waiting in their web across the trail. I carry a walking staff and just brush them aside but something to watch for.

WestTexas · 01-30-2006, 06:59 AM

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. If you've got enough time, you can cache water at road crossings, but the logistics of getting it there in advance is time consuming.

As far as best areas for loops, I like the west end, the area between Richards and Stubblefield park at Lake Conroe. There are several different loops and you can craft a hike of any time/distance that you wish, the trails are good and well marked and the scenery is nice.

I agree on the spiderwebs. We always carry hiking poles for knocking down the webs and climbing down and up the numerous little creek crossings you'll come to.

01-30-2006, 11:13 AM

PloddinTod, yes I am preping for an AT thru hike (start date March 14). Thanks for the info on the yahoo group.

Chris in Austin

WestTexas · 02-01-2006, 11:57 AM

With regards to the overall time for a thru-hike, the end-to-end distance, without the loops, is 96 miles.

We could do 8-10 miles/day very comfortably, 10-12 miles a day on average not slacking off, and 12-15 miles a day if we were pushing it pretty hard. Just figuring 12/day, gives you 8 days. If you can pump out 15 a day, you can probably get it done in 6-7 days.

The trail is pretty well marked on the west end, not too bad on the east, but markers can get somewhat scarce. If you've had a lot of rain, you may have to do a little wading.

I've got GPS routes (Garmin Mapsource) if you're interested, for the primary trail.

Now is the best time. Hunting season is over so you can camp off the trail wherever you please.

PS...if you get the latest / greatest version of the USGS topos of the area, the trail is marked very well on it.

I've got the CD version of Texas from National Geographic. The trail is marked clearly and I can trace the trail with the route tool and download it to my Garmin eTrex.
rgds,
WestTexas (Class of '88 TAMU BS, '02 MBA)

ploddinTod · 02-01-2006, 01:58 PM

West Texas,

Did your group do the road-walks also? There's significant road walking around the Big Woods section due to private property.

WestTexas · 02-02-2006, 07:03 AM

I'll confess that we did NOT do the road walks. I broke our weekends up into sections that started and ended with the actual trail, and we parked vehicles at both ends. One of those weekends had a stretch in the middle and we used three vehicles. It's the section that begins on the east side of I-45 at the Huntsville State Park. For that one, we didn't start were the west trail ends on the west side of 45 just north of the park entrance. Our next weekend we started across 45 one the east side a mile or two back down the roads where the trail actually enters the woods a few hundred yards down Evelyn Ln. If you go a hundred yards or so past the trailhead you'll see a little parking cutout on the left side of the road to park a vehicle.

We then did that section until it comes out on FM2296 a little south of Pine Valley. We had parked a second vehicle at that trailhead, and then drove up to Pine Valley, turn right on Four Notch Loop Rd. and go south to the Four Notch Loop trailhead. You don't want to walk that road section. Cars, dogs, hard walking.
You'll want to park your last/third vehicle at the little Big Woods parking area at Joe Warner, Ira Denson roads intersection that is a mile or so north of 150.

You'll then want to drive the section from that parking area down Joe Warner Rd., the short stretch up 150 to Evergreen, and then down the long stretch of 945 to where the next trailhead picks up at Butch Arthur Dr.

To sum it up, basically everything west of I-45 is trails and hiking. Then if you skip the two road sections I mention above, doing the trail in between, then everything starting at 945/Butch Arthur to the end is good hiking again.

rgds,
WestTexas

ploddinTod · 02-02-2006, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WestTexas

You don't want to walk that road section. Cars, dogs, hard walking.

I should have clarified in my question that I didn't think it was a good idea to do the road walks for your reasons stated. I found out the hard way in the face of a territorial guard dog on the road in the Four Notch vicinity.

Did you guys stay in any of the primitive campsites along the trail? I believe there are three. I hope that the Lone Star Club develops more.