I’m not certain that this report is appropriate to post on this forum, but since my son and I used this outing as a shake-down hike in preparation for our BIBE trip in June, here I go.
We arrived at the Juniper Point recreation area and set out hiking around 2:30 PM on Saturday. The Cross Timbers trail begins here and follows the shorelines of Lake Texoma to Rock Creek Camp for a total of 8.9 miles one way. The trail has lots of elevation changes going up and down from around 600’ to 760’. This is by no means the terrain we will find out west, but it is about the roughest I know of within an hour’s drive of DFW. And it was a good workout for the both of us. We have used this area in the past to prepare for our trek to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.
My son lovingly named one big rise around the halfway point “the beast” and the big hill closest to the trailhead “death”
The weather was perfect. A nice breeze blew in off the lake all day and it got into the upper 50’s Saturday night. There were quite a few people out hiking along with us. The trail was tacky and even muddy in spots due to the rain we had on Friday night. A lot of people had dogs with them. At one point I thought that we had seen more dogs than people. One woman had a huge great dane with dual saddle bags on it. The dog was carrying all her gear. All she carried was a hat and a water bottle. I couldn’t help thinking of The DFW Bender party and Leigh’s comments on dogs on the trail in the National park….
At one point, around mile 1.5, the trail has eroded and collapsed off the 30’ cliff down to the lake shore and rocks. We had to work our way around this. It looked like some people had been jumping across the washout, but I wasn’t about to try that with a full, heavy pack. We each carried around 8 liters of water (practice like you will have to play) we reached the 5 mile campsite area (which is actually around mile 6.2 ?) and decided to camp there. There were quite a few people camped in the area so we doubled back for about ј mile and found a nice little spot overlooking the lake. I recently bought an ultra light hammock and Matt tested it out for quite a while. We made a small campfire and ate our supper as the sun set over the forest to the west.
We got up early and were on the return trail by 7:00 AM, stopping for breakfast at a scenic campsite on a point back at about mile 5. At one point the trail crosses a road near a marina that you pass on the trail. We met an older woman who was walking her little dog down the road. She told us about a “shortcut” trail that was up the road a short ways in the opposite direction. We thanked her and took off on her suggested trail. After winding around for about a mile and going up and down 3 big hills, the trail dumped us back out on the same road almost where we had started out. Wasted time and effort, but the exercise was good for us. Later, after not seeing a soul on the trail for an hour, I stopped to apply baby powder to unmentionable areas, only to have a whole scout troop suddenly come over the hill and catch me in the act. . .
The rest of the hike was uneventful and we were in the truck on the way home by 10:30 AM.
Lessons learned:
-Don’t overeat before hiking (Son’s lesson)
-Never listen to advice of old women walking little yappy dogs
-If you stop to reapply baby powder, do it on top of a hill rather than the bottom, so you can see anyone approaching
Moderator note: followups on baby powder alternatives have been moved to the General Outdoor Stuff & Camping Equipment forum
