North Texas - Chaparral Bike Trail

[kipyoung]

Hey gang,

Thanks to another fellow bikepacker (wisaunders) on this forum I'm scouting out a trail tomorrow in North Texas. This is an approximate 27.5 mile ride from Farmersville, TX to the Caddo National Grasslands where I'll setup camp.  I'm leaving Plano tomorrow around 11AM to drive to Farmersville with the hopes to be on the trail by 12:30 at the latest. I'm estimating about 4 hours for the ride as I intend on taking my time.  If anyone is up for a last minute overnighter let me know and we can meetup.  For more info on the trail check out wisaunders page here:

https://sites.google.com/site/memorialdaybiketrip/

[Rabid Hillbilly]

Have fun Kip,give a trail report.i might be heading to denton this fall. happy trails. danny

[bueller]

This may be too late for Kip but may be of some assistance to others.  I road the southern 5 miles or so with family, would be great to see it get some further development/use.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/497683-Chaparral-Trail-Farmersville-to-Paris

[wisaunders]

We ended up doing an out and back on this trail Saturday & Sunday of last weekend.  This was our first time bikepacking so we really had no idea what to expect.  We had a total of 6 people in our group.  Here's who went along with their ages.

Me (33) and My wife (31)
My brother (25) and a college friend (34)
My sister-in-law and her boyfriend (both 34)

The trail starts out with 3 miles of pavement, then 3 miles of double track, a very nice beginning.  After that there is around 10 miles of very loosely packed dirt and gravel, this was the worst part.  Drifting around in the gravel really wares you down after a while.  After the gravel it returns to pavement for a mile or so while it passes through the town of Celeste where you can stop at the Exxon for more water.  From Celeste to Wolfe City was awesome (~10 miles), great, hard packed double track and mostly downhill or flat. From just shy of Wolfe City we took dirt roads to the campground as kipyoung had reported that the trail was unrideablely overgrown from there. 

The next day sister-in-law and her boyfriend called for extraction from her father.  The rest of us headed out of camp around 9:00 and were back at the car around 2:00 (I bonked and had to take a lot of breaks coming back through the gravel).

All in all it was tougher than I had expected (mostly due to the loose gravel) but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  I need to work on my packing and get rid of a few pounds as well.

[kipyoung]

How was the camp ground??? Glad your trip was successful, that gravel was like going through a thick bowl of chili...

[wisaunders]

Campground worked, just a barb wired off section with a small fire ring.  There was a little shade but not a lot.  No water, pack in pack out.

Thanks again for your help kipyoung, by the end the group was starting to rebel a little and I might have had a full blown mutiny if I took them through all the crap you went through after Wolfe City.

[bueller]

Thanks for the info, sounds like it might be worth a shot.  Although I would prefer riding it when it is a little cooler out.

[kipyoung]

I just realized I hadn't posted my own trail report of my trip.  I sen a PM to wisaunders, but neglected the rest of you folks.

The description above really fits the bill, the several miles of freshly plowed earth was a beating.  After Wolfe City the trail is ridiculously overgrown my arms and legs were raw from the beating of weeds, tree branches and underbrush. Several points here I had to dismount and crawl over/under stuff. One cool thing to note is that on the entire trail from Farmersville to Caddo National Grasslands, you cross about 8-10 railroad bridges.  That was cool to see, some are quite high.  There is one section that has been covered in trumpet vines that is very cool to see when you aren't expecting it. Easy water stops/refueling in Celeste and Wolfe City.  I'm hopeful this trail can get more use and eventually see some love from the surrounding cities.  I apparently can't read maps well so when I ended up at what I thought was to be my campsite it was actualy a cemetary. Yikes!!  I ended up calling in the wife as covert camping isn't quite my style just yet. Here is some pictures I took along the way:

[Bill in Houston]

That looks like a really great adventure.  I would love to do it sometime in the fall once it's not quite so hot.  It would be great to try to make it all the way through.  Can someone meet me in Wolfe City with a chain saw? 

On a recent vacation I followed some train tracks for a while.  The gravel was, well, like thick chili, and bumping over the ties was, umm, bumpy.

I am having a hard time finding a map of the Caddo grasslands that makes any sense to me.  Any tips?  Does the trail go through some part of the grasslands, or just nearby? 

[wisaunders]

It really just goes nearby the grasslands (Ladonia Unit(public hunting grounds)).  That being said, I took the roads from Wolfe City to the campground which can be seen on this map:

Ladonia Unit of Caddo National Grasslands
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/public/lands/table_contents/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0112a_64.pdf

[Bill in Houston]

Very helpful map.  Thank you!

[Bill in Houston]

Would this segment that they say they just cleared, graded, and compacted be the segment that had been loose, deep gravel?
http://www.farmersvilletimes.com/articles/templates/news.asp?articleid=4225&zoneid=4

[wisaunders]

That's it and those jerks cleared out about 10 miles, not 8.  They need to take a backhoe to it and scrape a nice 1 foot wide path down to the dirt!

[Bill in Houston]

I bet they didn't expect you to be so attached to the gravel! 

You can ride off to the side.  We'll warn you when a bridge is coming.

[wisaunders]

It was not gravel before they "cleared" it.  It was beautiful, hard packed double track.  I don't know why I'm so upset about it.  Oh now I remember, because riding through that crap sucks!

[Bill in Houston]

Oh, I thought they had removed the stuff that I have seen described as "loose deep gravel" and "like pedaling through thick chili".  If they removed stuff that was already good doubletrack that is a shame.  I guess it saves on mowing that strip down the middle?

What is it like now?  Is it decomposed granite?  That stuff packs down pretty decently.  If they just put in a bunch of same-size crushed rock that is a bummer.

[kipyoung]

I'm wondering if it's been compacted now, making it less "chili" like.  

I'm hitting the Ray Roberts Greenbelt for a gear shakedown trip tomorrow night if anyone is up for joining in. Plan on hitting the trail around 5:00-5:30 all the way to Isle du bois branch of the state park. It's about as smooth as it can get with only one steep ascent at the dam towards the end.

[Bill in Houston]

I'm wondering if it's been compacted now, making it less "chili" like. 

Hoping wisaunders can clear that up for us...

Trying to get together a crew for a ride:
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,3880.0.html

[wisaunders]

Hoping wisaunders can clear that up for us...

I would not count on it.  But, as time quickly fades memories, I guess I'll do it again.

[Bill in Houston]

I would not count on it.  But, as time quickly fades memories, I guess I'll do it again.

No, wait, the question is whether they removed the deep loose gravel.  Did they?