Troop198

For those looking for a bike ride away from everyone,
winding through ranches and farms, and ending and starting in small TEXAS towns this is it. The trailway is on a old railbed. It's 20 miles long (one way) and 10 feet wide. It is made of crused limestone and is slighlty uphill towards Weatherford. (Trail runs from Minerals Wells to Weatherford) Nice rest stops along the way. Has 4 trailheads if you don't feel up to the entire ride.

In Mineral wells its mostly a paved trail and does cross some busy roads that do have controlled stop lights. Crushed limestone is well maintained so you could try it with a regular bike.

We took the bikes up there for a long day. The state park is fine we camped there a few years back. It has a 2 mile hike to some primative camping if you need to get away. There is access to the trailway from the park.

DayTripper

This is a good trail. Wife and I hiked the east end a couple of years ago. I have a short report and pictures at Texas Hiking (username of kcameron at that site). Also have some pictures of the trails at the park. We keep saying we need to return with the bikes and do the entire trail, but haven't yet. It's really better for biking than hiking. You can start at Weatherford, bike to Mineral Wells and have lunch at a fast food joint, then return. Good day. High point on the trail is about 3 or 4 miles west of Weatherford, so you can just about coast in from there.

__________________
DayTripper

toejam

I always start at the Weatherford side because it goes through the woods and not along a road for 11 miles. The bad part about that is they lock up the parking lot at at sundown and you will be in trouble if you don't get back to the car by then.

The tiny town of Garner, 11 miles from Weatherford, has one store that gets a large gathering of locals for lunch everyday. I ate there once and got an over-cooked hamburger.

Once I rode on into the state park and found myself 3 miles into the backcountry with two flat tires - used up most of the patches in my tire kit to get out of there.

I've had a lot of fun on that trail.

Motorman355

I hiked the trail from Weatherford to the state park in Mineral Wells. Was planning on staying a couple of nights in the primative camping area, but got a dang cell phone call right about Garner from work. As soon as I reached the visitor center in the park I had to call my shuttle pickup. Needed to be in Florida in two days.

Troop198

If you want to see a short film(3/2008) on the Trailway and the park, view the film at this link TPWD: Lake Mineral Wells State Park & Trailway

The trail bed itself looks like that, the part filmed is only a small part, near Weatherford as was noted.