Texas man invents 1.5K-mile adventure trail for hikers, bikers and horseback riders
FILE - Silhouette of ranch hand, or cowboy, riding his horse in the sunset. Getty Images
For hikers and bikers who’ve conquered the Triple Crown — the Pacific Crest, Appalachian and Continental Divide trails — there’s a new adventure route in town.
It spans the entire Lone Star State, and it’s going to be traversable by spring.
"This is a route that is rugged, remote, rural and therefore, romantic," Charlie Gandy, a retired community design consultant and former state representative, told Fox News Digital.
Gandy announced plans last month for the Cross Texas Trail or "XTX" — a 1,500-mile trail for hikers, bikers and, because it’s Texas, horseback riders.
Charlie Gandy, adventure enthusiast, is heading up the effort to create the XTX trail in Texas. (Melissa Balmer)
"As a native Texan, I’m a 66-year-old guy who likes to challenge myself to big, hairy goals and adventures — and it seemed to me like it was time for Texas to have its own Pacific Crest-type adventure route."
Gandy and some buddies got together with Bike Texas, a non-profit bicycle advocacy and education organization, to plan a rough but scenic back road, gravel, single track route that stretches all the way from Orange to El Paso.
"It meanders through the bayous and lowlands and the Big Thicket [National] Preserve," Gandy said.
A working map of the Cross Texas Trail, called XTX. (XTX)
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"It goes from the rolling hills around Navasota up to Luling and New Braunfels and into Hill Country, past Fredericksburg. It goes down towards Concan and then out west into Big Bend National Park and then up through Big Bend Ranch to Marfa and Fort Davis.
"From there, you reach the highest peak in the state, Guadalupe Peak — and then you still have another 150 or so miles to El Paso," Gandy added.
As of now, the team has mapped a draft route and they are testing it.
They are also organizing sponsors and supporters who are helping them pave the way.
"What we're finding is that sometimes the road doesn't go all the way through and we need to reroute," Gandy said, adding, "…then in other cases, we have people saying, ‘Well, that looks fine, but have you considered going this way? Because I own some property over here, and I would love to be on this legacy route.’"
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Ninety-six percent of the land in Texas is privately owned and currently, the longest continuous trail in the state is just 96 miles long, running through Sam Houston National Forest in East Texas.
Gandy said the XTX scout team is taking advantage of gravel back roads and one-lane highways in rural Texas.
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"These roads are only being used by the people who live on those routes," he said.
"So they're quiet and they're scenic. And that's exactly where you would want to ride a bike or a horse or walk as opposed to drive," Gandy said.
The route doesn't go through any big cities.
By design, it does just the opposite of that, taking adventurers not only through diverse landscapes but also interesting and sometimes quirky historical towns.
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"I can get going on the history of La Grange and the Chicken Ranch. There’s a reason we’re going through La Grange, and ZZ Top told the story pretty well," Gandy said.
Robin Stallings, executive director of Bike Texas, is partnering with Gandy on the XTX in Texas. (Bike Texas)
But Robin Stallings, executive director of Bike Texas, said proximity to metropolitan areas is a plus.
"It's convenient to Houston. It's convenient to San Antonio and Austin. And of course, it ends up in El Paso. So I think that's a real opportunity for all these urban Texans to get out there," Stallings told Fox News Digital.
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Texan or not, that apparently bodes well for more than just the hard-core hikers and bikers looking to take on an extreme challenge, according to Gandy.
"We'll have long distance people wanting to ride bikes the entire distance, and these are true athletes that are biting at the bit to get this route done so that they can test themselves against it," Gandy said.
"We’ll have people who will do a section hike or a section ride for 100 to 300 miles over a week or a weekend. And then we'll have day hikers, people who will have heard about the XTX and want to go get a taste of what that's about. So we'll show them how to connect on a perfect spring day to see the bluebonnets."
The XTX is being billed as a solid wintertime challenge — as no one should try to tackle the Texas heat in July or August.
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The halfway point of the trail is the Devil’s River — which leaves another 750 miles of desert to reach El Paso.
There are 100-mile stretches with no water or other replenishment, but Gandy and his team are working on that too.
"That'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 either want to hike it or bike it or horse ride it, or they have a bed and breakfast or a restaurant along the way, and they can see the economic benefits of people showing up in their town," he added.
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Gandy has put $10,000 of his own money into the project, and he’s working with Bike Texas to secure more sponsors in a grassroots effort to get the digital and print maps in place by spring, he said.
While it might seem an overwhelming task — charting a traversable path across 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 24 years ago, Benton McKay imagined a route that would go from Georgia to Maine and that has become the Appalachian Trail," he said.
"In 1938, Clinton Clark imagined a route from Mexico to Canada on the West Coast, and that has become the Pacific Crest Trail. So all these trails start with imagining a route,"' Gandy said.
For Gandy, the XTX is a legacy project.
Grandy sees this Cross Texas Trail, XTX, as his legacy and something that will outlive him. (XTX; Melissa Balmer)
"For a lot of Texans, it’s a point of pride. And all we're doing is harnessing the energy of that point of pride and turning it into something that we can share. Trails like this are healthy endeavors for a whole lot of reasons. That's why I put my own money into it and I feel good about raising money from others."