For hikers and bikers who have conquered the Triple Crown – the Pacific Crest, Appalachian and Continental Divide trails – there's a new adventure trail in town.
It spans the entire Lone Star State and will be passable by spring.
“This is a rugged, isolated, rural and therefore romantic route,” Charlie Gandy, a retired community design consultant and former state representative, told Fox News Digital.
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Gandy announced plans last month for the Cross Texas Trail or “XTX” – a 1,500-mile route trail for hikers, bikers and, because it’s Texas, equestrians.
Adventure enthusiast Charlie Gandy is leading the effort to create the XTX trail in Texas. (Mélissa Balmer)
“As a native Texan, I am a 66-year-old who loves to challenge myself and achieve ambitious goals and adventures – and it seemed to me that it was time for Texas to have its own Pacific Crest. adventure course.”
Gandy and some friends got together with Bike Texas, a nonprofit bicycle advocacy and education organization, to plan a challenging but scenic backroad, a gravel, single-track route that stretches from Orange in El Paso.
“It winds through the bayous and lowlands and the Big Thicket National Preserve,” Gandy said.
“It runs from the hills around Navasota up to Luling and New Braunfels and into the Hill Country, through Fredericksburg. It descends toward Concan then west into Big Bend National Park, then through Big Bend Ranch to Marfa and Fort Davis.
“From there you reach the highest peak in the state, Guadalupe Peak – and it's still about 150 miles to El Paso,” Gandy added.
A working map of the Cross Texas Trail, called XTX. (XTX)
For now, the team has drawn up a proposed route and is testing it.
They also recruit sponsors and supporters who help them lead the way.
“What we find is that sometimes the road doesn't go all the way through and we have to reroute it,” Gandy said, adding, “…then in other cases we have people saying: 'Well, that looks good,' but have you considered going that route? Because I own property here and I would love to be on that legacy route.'”
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Riders will have the opportunity to travel 1,500 miles and enjoy stunning yet panoramic views of the state of Texas. (iStock)
Ninety-six percent of the territory in Texas is privately owned and currently the longest continuous trail in the state is only 96 miles long and crosses Sam Houston National Forest in East Texas.
Gandy said the XTX Recon Team takes advantage of gravel backroads and one-lane highways in rural Texas.
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“These roads are only used by the people who live on these roads,” he said.
Instead of hiking the trail with both legs, people are also encouraged to ride horses on the new Texas Trail. (iStock)
“So they're quiet and picturesque. And that's exactly where you'd want ride a bike or a horse or walking rather than driving,” Gandy said.
The route does not pass through any major towns.
By design, it does the exact opposite of that, taking adventurers not only through diverse landscapes but also interesting and sometimes quirky historic towns.
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“I can start with the story of La Grange and the Chicken Ranch. There's a reason we pass by La Grange, and ZZ Top told the story pretty well,” Gandy said.
Teaming up with Gandy on the XTX in Texas is Bike Texas Executive Director Robin Stallings. (Bicycle Texas)
But Robin Stallings, executive director of Bike Texas, said proximity to metro areas is a plus.
“It's convenient for Houston. It's convenient for San Antonio and Austin. And of course, it ends in El Paso. So I think it’s a real opportunity for all these urban Texans to get out,” Stallings told Fox News Digital.
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Texan or not, this apparently bodes well for more than just hardcore hikers and bikers looking for an extreme challenge, according to Gandy.
Gandy imagines that various hikers and runners will hike the Texas Trail over the course of a week or weekend. (iStock)
“We will have people remotely who want ride a bike the full distance, and these are real athletes who are eager to run this course so they can test themselves,” Gandy said.
“We'll have people who will do a section hike or a 100- to 300-mile section ride over a week or a weekend. And then we'll have day hikers, people who have heard about the XTX and who will want to go get a taste of what it's all about. So we'll show them how to tune in on a perfect spring day to see the bluebonnets.
The XTX is billed as a serious winter challenge, as no one should try to deal with Texas heat in July or August.
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Halfway along the trail is the Devil's River, which leaves another 750 miles of desert to reach El Paso.
Gandy and Bike Texas are still working on how best to replenish those on the trail when there are miles and miles without water. (iStock)
There are 100-mile stretches without water or other resupplies, but Gandy and his team are working on that, too.
“It’s really a big part of our mission right now,” Gandy said.
“Identifying our friends along the route, people who support the trail because they want to hike it, bike it, or ride it, or they have a bed and breakfast or a restaurant along the way, and they can see the economic benefits of people coming to their city,” he added.
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Gandy invested $10,000 of his own money in the project and he is working with Bike Texas to find more sponsors as part of a local effort to have the digital and printed maps in place by spring, a- he declared.
Grandy said he has already invested $10,000 of his own funds into the project and hopes to find more sponsors with the goal of having the trail in place by spring. (iStock)
While it may seem like an overwhelming task — carving a passable path through rugged terrain in a state with as much land mass as France and England combined — Gandy said it all starts with a vision.
“One hundred and twenty-four years ago, Benton McKay envisioned a route that would go from Georgia to Maine and that became the Appalachian Trail,” he said.
“In 1938, Clinton Clark imagined a route from Mexico to Canada on the West Coast, and that became the Pacific Crest Trail. So all of these trails start with imagining a route,” Gandy said.
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For Gandy, the XTX is a legacy project.
Grandy considers this Cross Texas Trail, XTX, his legacy and something that will outlive him. (XTX; Mélissa Balmer)
“For a lot of Texans, it's a point of pride. And all we do is harness the energy of that pride and turn it into something we can share. Trails like this are healthy efforts for a whole bunch of reasons. That's why I'm investing my own money in it and I feel good about raising money from others. »
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If they do it right, Stallings said, XTX will scale.
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“I think in five years it will be better,” he said.
“And in 10 years, it will be even better. It’s a generational project that is just getting started.”
