Cross Timbers Trail, Lake Texoma 10/10-10/11/08

[bdann]

My brother Jon and I finally got around to hiking a portion of the Cross Timbers Hiking Trail up on Lake Texoma this weekend.  We've been talking about it for years.  I had been on the trail once before, many years ago when I was in Boy Scouts.  This is a great trail for anyone in the DFW area, the trailhead is slightly less than 100 miles from my house in Rowlett. 
The Eastern trailhead starts at the US Army Corps of Engineers Juniper Point West campground, which is where we started.  The campground is on Hwy 377 just South of the Texoma bridge.  When we arrived, we went to the gatehouse and asked if we needed to register to hike the trail, the response - "Not really"...perfect, we set out to find the trailhead. We arrived pretty late in the afternoon and only hiked approximately 2 miles along bluffs high above the lake to a really nice campsite that we could not pass up.  It was situated on a nice little overlook of a small cove and had plenty of shade.  After setting up camp, we cooked a quick dinner and built a small fire.  We spent the remainder of the evening talking about football, photography, and other things guys talk about around the campfire. The night was cool, wind-less, and I didn't get much sleep. 

I woke up early Saturday morning and fixed my breakfast and coffee.  I let Jon sleep while I walked around the cove taking photos.  After packing up camp, we groggily made our way down the trail.
The terrain along the trail is a lot rougher than I expected.  It is constant up and down, twisting and turning.  There are a great hodgepodge of trail signs, ribbons of various colors, tree blazes, reflectors, etc marking the route.  There are literally dozens of cross trails, detours, and bypasses (none of which are on the map). We had originally planned on hiking to the "Eagle's Roost" area and camping for the night.  However, we decided around lunch time that we wanted to head back to the truck and head home.  So instead we hiked the "Lost Loop", heading up the loop on it's West side, then looping back around to the main trail, then on back to where we'd camped the night before for a much needed break, then back to the truck.  In all we hiked 11.5 miles.  This is a great hike for anyone in the area that wants a quick night or two on the trail, but doesn't want to drive 4 or 5 hours.  Its not exactly wilderness, you can occasionally hear road traffic, cross a road a few times, and indeed walk right through the Cedar Bayou Resort/Marina (though there is a not so obvious bypass around it, also not on the map).  But there is some solitude to be found, in particular the Lost Loop area was very quiet. 
Here are a few photos:
The awesome trail sign:

Jon getting ready to head out:

The beach near our campsite:

Saturday morning:

Typical trail:

Another nice little cove:

footbridge in need of repair:

A rather confusing trail sign:

On the Lost Loop, high above the lake:

[Boojum1]

I used to live about 40 miles from there.  It was the location of my first overnight backpacking trip.  I was able to catch enough fish that I didn't have to eat packaged suppers.  If you're ever back in the area, check out Hagermann Wildlife Refuge.  Right about now there should be really good migratory water fowl observations.  Check ahead though, because they do allow deer hunting during bow season.