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Lone Star Hiking Trail
Outdoors

Lone Star Hiking Trail

Did you know that north of Houston there is a 96 mile hiking trail (with an additional 32 miles of loop and crossover trails) in the Sam Houston National Forest, the longest continuous trail in Texas in fact? It’s the Lone Star Hiking Trail. I find that very few people know about it. Truth be told, I only found out about it about a few years ago. The trail starts west of I-45 just south of Richards, Texas and ends east of I-45 northwest of Cleveland, Texas.

The trail is broken down into sections. Maps for each section can be found on the Lone Star Hiking Trail Club’s website.

  • Section #1 – Little Lake Creek Wilderness
  • Section #2 – Kelly
  • Section #3 – Stubblefield
  • Section #4 – Huntsville
  • Section #5 – Phelps
  • Section #6 – Four Notch
  • Section #7 – Big Woods
  • Section #8 – Magnolia
  • Section #9 – Big Creek
  • Section #10 – Tarkington
  • Section #11 – Winters Bayou

Over the past few years I have hiked sections here and there, either by myself or with a Meetup group I join from time to time. This past spring (3/17) I set out to hike the entire trail, including the loop and crossover trails, over the course of the spring. Be nice if I could just take a week or so and hike it end-to-end in one long hike, but that just isn’t something I can take a week and do. So I would out and hike 3 – 7 miles of the trail at a time. Which means 6 – 14 mile hikes because I have to hike back to my parking spot each time. So when complete, I should have over 200 miles of trails covered.

So it’s October, how was the hike of the entire trail you ask? Well… I got sidetracked at the end of April and decided to buy a house. So all of May and June were eaten up by the house buying and moving processes. Then there were other things to be done, vacations to be taken, a daughter to move to school, blah, blah, blah. It wasn’t until September that I started hiking the trail again. I’m currently finishing up Section #7 (Big Woods), and have logged 122 miles so far. One thing I found once I got to the west side of I-45, there are a lot of parts of the “trail” that are just walking along road to get to the next part of the trail in the forest. After walking a few miles on these, I decided I wasn’t going to do those “trails” along the road anymore. It just wasn’t enjoyable, and in some spots, it was quite dangerous. Because of this my mileage total is not going to be as high as I expected when I set out on this endeavor. And I guess I won’t be able to claim that I completed the entire trail end-to-end, I’m OK with that.

In the spring when I started in Section #1 (Little Lake Creek Wilderness), things were starting to green up and the scenery was quite pretty in areas, especially around Lake Conroe. Since starting back up in September, I have been dealing with a lot of downed trees and washed out trails due to Hurricane Harvey and the scenery hasn’t been as nice. From past hikes in this area, I knew it wasn’t going to be the most beautiful of hikes, but with the storm damage and a lot of areas where the trail is not visible due to overgrowth, it hasn’t been nearly as enjoyable as the hikes in the spring. That said, I still enjoy it, being out in the woods, away from everything, a time to re-center.

While out on the trail I haven’t run across a lot of wildlife, mostly snakes. So far this year I haven’t seen too many snakes while out. I have run across one Copperhead, a few Coral Snakes, a couple Rat Snakes, a pretty Bluestripe Ribbon Snake, and a couple Garter Snakes. While out in years past I have seen a lot more rattlesnakes, a couple Water Moccasins (Cotton Mouth), and Hognoses. Can’t say I’m disappointed that I’m see less rattlesnakes and no Water Moccasins. This year for the first time I did run across a Snapping Turtle and a few Box Turtles. And though I always see the rutting of wild hogs, I have never seen any (knock on wood), I DO NOT want to have a run in with those. As far as birds go, have seen Cardinals, Blue Jays, Woodpeckers, and a few other various types. As always, I’ll be on the lookout for more.

One cool area I came across in the Four Notch section was this cool, creepy little grove. Had a bunch of thorny bush/trees with what looked like little lemons. After some research I’ve found these are called Trifoliate Oranges. Also found these crazy looking green bumpy grapefruit sized things that a friend called Horse Apples. I guess they are technically Osage Oranges. I cut one of each open to see what they looked like. As bad as I wanted to, I didn’t taste them. You can see them in the pictures below.

I hope I have piqued your curiosity and you venture out to hike at least a part of this trail if you are in the area. If you have any questions I might be able to answer, send me a message. More to come…

MORE PICTURES

HIKES

I will be updating this with new hikes as I progress through the trail. You can click on the “LHST Hike #” to see an image of each hike with my hike highlighted.

  • 3/19/17 – LHST Hike #1
    • Section #1
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #1
    • Distance – 12 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 12
  • 3/20/17 – LHST Hike #2
    • Section #1
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #3
    • Distance – 8.4 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 20.4
  • 3/28/17 – LHST Hike #3
    • Section #2
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #3
    • Distance – 7.5 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 27.9
  • 4/5/17 – LHST Hike #4
    • Section #2
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #6
    • Distance – 6.9 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 34.8
  • 4/11/17 – LHST Hike #5
    • Section #3
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #6
    • Distance – 8.8 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 43.6
  • 4/12/17 – LHST Hike #6
    • Section #3
    • Starting/Ending Point – Near Stubblefield Campground
    • Distance – 5.6 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 49.2
  • 4/27/17 – LHST Hike #7
    • Section #3
    • Starting/Ending Point – 1374 Shoulder
    • Distance – 6.6 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 55.8
  • 5/1/17 – LHST Hike #8
    • Section #4
    • Starting/Ending Point – Cotton Creek Cemetery Rd.
    • Distance – 7.2 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 63
  • 5/1/17 – LHST Hike #9
    • Section #4
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #7
    • Distance – 5.6 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 68.6
  • 9/9/17 – LHST Hike #10
    • Section #1
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #4
    • Distance – 13.3 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 81.9
  • 9/16/17 – LHST Hike #11
    • Section #2
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #4
    • Distance – 11.8 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 93.7
  • 9/23/17 – LHST Hike #12
    • Section #5
    • Starting/Ending Point – Shoulder of Evelyn Lane
    • Distance – 10 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 103.7
  • 9/30/17 – LHST Hike #13
    • Section #6
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #8
    • Distance – 10 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 113.7
  • 10/7/17 – LHST Hike #14
    • Section #7
    • Starting/Ending Point – Trailhead #9
    • Distance – 8.8 miles
    • Cumulative Miles: 122.5

 

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October 12, 2017 0 comment
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Lake O’Hara, British Columbia
OutdoorsTravel

Lake O’Hara, British Columbia

One Saturday morning I was out hiking on the Lone Star Hiking Trail with a Meetup group I sometimes hike with and a woman and I had a conversation about places we’ve hiked. As part of this conversation, she said her and her daughter had gone to Banff and done some hiking. “Oh really, my daughter and I are going there in July”, I said. She continued to tell me about her trip and said there was a lake that they hiked to that was amazing. She said they have a bus that goes in, but it’s hard to get a ticket, BUT… You can hike in, about a 6 mile hike in, and when you reach the top you are greeted by this amazingly beautiful blue/green lake surrounded by mountains. She continued telling me that it was better than any of the other lakes they visited, including Lake Louise. She couldn’t remember the name of the lake, but promised to get back with me and let me know the name. A few days later I received a message that this lake was Lake O’Hara. I started doing some research and quickly found that it was somewhere my daughter and I should strongly consider while we were there.

In doing my research I found that you can purchase a bus pass when they go on sale in the spring and that they go VERY quick for the entire season, usually within minutes. Long story short, I didn’t get bus passes for us. 🙁

Initial view of Lake O’Hara coming from the road in

When my daughter and I discussed Lake O’Hara as a possible destination we should visit, we quickly both agreed it was going near the top of our list. Secluded, hidden, glorious amphitheater of mountains, picturesque,  these were a few of the things said to describe it. And the fact there is only one way in, an 11km (6.8 mile) access road you either take by bus or hike it. A 6.8 mile hike isn’t too bad to get to something so amazing, but it’s enough that it culls a LOT of people out. And the fact that there are only 4 buses daily, there are not many people at the lake. Based on this, we knew we had to go.

My daughter taking it all in.

Lake O’Hara is actually part of Yoho National Park, not Banff. So our plan was to go bright and early after a night at Emerald Lake Lodge (more on Emerald Lake in another post later).  And so we did… well kinda, we slept a little later than planned. Still got there early enough to get a parking spot in the rather small parking area. Checked in with the bus drivers to see if they had any cancellations and found that they hadn’t, and in fact they already had a few people ahead of us if that were to happen. So with that, we set out on the road up to the lake. We weren’t the only ones hiking in, there were quite a few others doing the same. The road up was just a dirt road surrounded by forest on each side, not a terrible place to be walking, but certainly not that great. We had to step aside a few times for buses or park ranger vehicles, but otherwise it wasn’t a bad hike up.

The color of the water is amazing

When we reached the top and the lake area came into view, first thing I noticed was that there wasn’t a lot there and very few people around. That went along with what I read because most people hike the miles of trails around the lake. But still, I expected to see more people based on the crowds we had seen so far, so this was a pleasant reality. When we approached the lake and it came into view with the mountains surrounding it, I was in awe, just as it had been described, it was amazingly beautiful. One thing we noticed right away is that it was smaller than we expected, I think that was because we were at Emerald Lake just the day before. I know I said this before, but as we continued walking along the trail that hugged the lake, I couldn’t believe how beautiful, quiet, and peaceful it was there. I didn’t see anyone else at all. We walked along the trail until we came to some large rocks at the edge of the water where we decided to sit down and relax on. This was one of those places that if I were to die at that moment, I’d be ok with it, this was Mother Nature at her finest. As we continued the trail around the lake, we did pass a few other people, like 4. Did I mention my daughter and I prefer not to be around a lot of people? 🙂

We could see a storm brewing off in the distance, so we decided we should continue on the trail on the around lake. Along the way there was a trail up to a waterfall we decided to go check it out. While at the falls, we met a couple that we briefly chatted with and found that the gentleman was part of an organization that stewards the lake and found out that they had recently put in the stone landing that we were standing on. That was nice to meet and talk with him as well as thank him for his work that allowed us to enjoy such a beautiful place.

Waterfalls at Lake O’Hara

After the chat, we checked on the brewing storm and it was indeed getting worse, clouds getting larger and darker. We continued on our way and at about 3/4 of the way around the lake it started raining. Not too bad right away, so we made our way along the trail and back to where we began. There is a small building that has coffee, hot chocolate, and best of all in our current situation, a roof to get under and out of the rain because as we got there, it started pouring. That’s when we started seeing more and more people. So here’s another piece of information. Even if you hike in, you can pay cash and take the bus back down… IF it’s not full of people with a spot on the bus. At this time there were only 2 buses left to go back down, the one we were hoping to catch and the last one. The chances of getting back down by bus are good if you don’t wait until the last bus. The problem was becoming clear though, there were going to be a lot of people getting on the same bus we were hoping for if this rain continued. We discussed our options and came up with our plan, we either get on this 2nd to last bus, or we hike back down. Our reasoning was that there was no way of knowing how many people were out on trails that had a spot and would be waiting until that last bus. If we waited then didn’t get a spot, it would be very late by the time we got back down. So we waited as more and more people showed up. Finally two buses showed up to take people down, they had the extra since it was raining. We patiently waited in line as those with their tokens got on the buses. Then they announced, 4 spots left. We were fortunate enough to get 2 of the spots because we were 2 of the first to show up and wait for a spot. Soaked and cold, we were both very thankful to be sitting on that bus riding back down rather than hiking down the muddy road.

Storm is coming

I am very grateful that we were able to see Lake O’Hara on our trip and I HIGHLY recommend going if you can. That said, I’d do things a little different if I do it again so we had more time to explore/hike. Now part of that was out of our hands because of the weather. I would definitely try harder to get a bus pass or even better, a reservation at the campsite. If that didn’t work out and I hiked in again, I’d do a better job of getting there very early to start the hike in much sooner. Certainly hope to go back again.

 

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October 9, 2017 0 comment
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About Me

About Me

father :: music addict :: explorer

Hi, I'm Mike. And yes, as the title suggests, I have one arm, though that is not the focus of this site. Hiking, photography, music, travel and whatever else comes to mind is what you'll find here.

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