vettech2112

Heya Folks,

Has anyone made the Mineral Wells Trailway run recently? When it warms up a bit, I'm planning to give it a go but was wondering if anyone can give me any advice. Which end is the better starting point?

oceanus

I was at Lake Mineral Wells the weekend before last hiking the Cross Timbers Trail. I didn't get to hike the trailway, but I did see it running through town. It was a paved sidewalk about 10 feet wide. However, I would think the trailhead out of the state park would be a nice one, because it's fairly hilly around there.

toejam

No need to wait til it warms up - today looks like a good day to me! I've done this in the winter a bunch, including walking from Weatherford to Garner & back in January. The trail is on a good railroad bed and the surface is smooth enough for any bike. I have a special bike customized for this trail - single-speed, skinny tires, high handlebars, and the thickest seat I could find. There are stretches where I can coast for over a mile.

The 11 miles from Weatherford to Garner are all backcountry (I mean back of someones ranch). Very peaceful. From Garner to Mineral Wells is next to a road, and the last couple of miles is through the middle of town with tons of street crossings. I always start at Weatherford and sometimes even visit Lake Mineral Wells State Park from there.

P.S. Don't ride the Lake Mineral Wells State Park backcountry trails unless your tires are armor-plated, or don't rely on air for inflation.

vettech2112

I've not seen a really good map of the trail anywhere. Is there somewhere on one end or the other where I can get off the bike a while, maybe grab a bite to eat?

That comment about coasting for a mile had me smiling until I realized that means an uphill for more than a mile on the return trip!

I've also been looking for a mileage map of Trinity Trails. Any ideas?

toejam

There's nothing on the Weatherford end. The Mineral Wells end passes half of the restaurants in town. In Garner there's one convenience store that will have 20 pickup trucks in the parking lot every day at lunch time - they make a pretty good hamburger.

Something I forgot to mention is that they turn off the drinking water at the trailheads in the winter so you have to pack it or buy it from a local store.

Once my son and I started at Mineral Wells where he rode his bike across a patch of grass and picked up stickers. His tire went flat within a half mile of WalMart, where we picked up a new tube.

The only good map I've seen of this trail is at the trailheads. The map of the Trinity Trails you posted is by far the best that I've seen, much better than the ones at the trailheads. You may be able to blow the maps from topozone.com up enough to measure the miles pretty accurately.

toejam

And the "uphill" is relative to the area. A sign at mile 4 marks the high point at a whopping 1235 feet. The hills are very gradual with the exception of the one at the state park trailhead.