Weekend In Sargent, Tx.

I recently had a chance to get away again. So Brenda and I decided to check out Sargent. It's a very quite and laid back fishing town. There's also alot of waterfowl hunting areas.

The town it self doesn't consist of a whole lot. There's a fire station, a general store, and a couple of bars and resturants/ bait camps. What more does a guy need? The general store seemed to be the central supply with anything you could need. It was kinda like a minature Loews, Academy, Pizza Hut, Citgo and Specs all in one.

The town is mostly weekend getaways built along Caney Creek and across the intercoastal on the peninsula. The creek has very little current as it winds it's way to the gulf. It's pretty wide and deep and also crowded with residental piers and bait camps along the way.

We stayed at the only RV park..Caney Creek RV. Nice place, boat ramp, propane, full hook-ups, and a few rental units.








We ran the creek out to the gulf on our jetski. Pretty cool and only a few "no wake zones".
Brenda wasn't too impressed with this sign!


The mainland doesn't have that much for Dualsports. I wasn't surpised since I'd viewed the area prior to our trip. It does have a few isolated county roads.




And lots of buzzards!


One road I really wanted to ride was Sargent Ranch Rd. It started out long and boringly straight.


And just when it started to get twisty...a locked gate!


The sign is pretty well shot up with a few at close range. I can understand why. This is a private gate on federal land.

So...It was off to the peninsula. I decided to check the west end first and followed a very fun road that was well travelled. It twisted it's way through the dunes and around the marshes.After a few miles it came to the Caney Creek Cut.




The laws on driving in the dunes seemed to be a little relaxed around here. I found out why. Some sections of the beach a very muddy! This is some really slick messey clay snot! There's not miles of it but enough to justify a really cool road back in the dunes.


I headed to the east end about 15 miles away. The beach was mostly narrow with lots of stuff to bounce off of or [some very close calls] crash into.


I made it to the San Bernard and it was similar to my trip to Matagorda...isolated, 4wd only, and very few people.
The curvature of the earth is very significant out here.


Also like Matagorda, there were "roads" on the ditch side without fences or signs.






Along the cut and the intercoastal.


There's actually two roads. One just behind the dunes and the other along the intercoastal. I did some jumping from one to the other and followed the second one back in. I was able to get a pic of the same boat several miles later.


I previewed this area on GE prior to leaving the RV park and noticed a very straight road running for miles down the middle. Seemed a little strange.


It doesn't do much erosion wise and it's kinda bumpy to ride on with some serious rim wreckers!


The next day I took Brenda on a ride to the San Bernard Refuge. It's pretty neat and worth the time.






The trip was well worth it and there was some great offroading on the peninsula. I'll probably go back when it cools off and combine this with Matagorda and check out the Jones Creek Area.

Cool report Tim as always. I wish I could get out and ride as much as you do, I like the self portraits...you need to carry around a little tripod with you.

Thanks Bryan, glad you enjoyed my report. I bought a small tripod awhile back but I keep forgetting it. It sure would make things quicker. No telling how many pics I've deleted due to curvature and alignment problems.

Just caught this one. I would like to hit the coast before it gets cold, My days are numbered. Do you have a name of the campsite?
Nice ride.

R.....

I was the resident deputy sheriff for Sargent in 1990. Plus, I grew up just up the road in a little community called Cedar Lane.

I buried a 4WD in that clay stuff within sight of the San Bernard one trip down. Had to walk most of the way back till I ran across a guy on a 4 wheeler who was nice enough to take me back to Sargent. There used to be a lot of hard sand dunes along the beach to the San Bernard, they were a lot of fun on my old XL-185.

When i was resident deputy a few of the business owners would ask me not to mess with the 4 wheeler and dirt bike people that much. They were a lot of the beach business then, Sargent wasn't really known for it's nice beach attraction.

Hey Thumper, like the report. Where is this place the names did not ring a bell with me.

phil

I grew up near there in Jones Creek, Texas. After college, I got on at Dow, had a house build down by the San Bernard just down the road from Sportsman's Span bridge on 2611, the road that goes by the prison farm. I spend some time at Sargent fishing with my grandpa and have ridden the beach and the marshes on the island part. Been in a boat on the canal, just a few miles down to the north end of east Matagorda Bay. Good fishing around there. I used to goose hunt San Bernard refuge a lot, public hunting, but need a shallow draft boat. You put into the creek and run down to the hunt area a mile or two down toward the intracoastal.

Been all over that area. Stuck a Honda Civic "dune buggy" out there off the beach once, that was a fun day. It belonged to a racing friend, Bucky Patterson and David Cheek if you're an old timer from CRRC days. David ran AMA Superbike for Sam Romeo, who owns Sam's Motorcycle Salvage in downtown Houston, did pretty well in 81 at Daytona, 7th overall and first privateer, and Bucky was WERA 250 production and superbike national champion in 1977 on Can Am motorcycles. He was a motard racer before there were motards. David worked for a Honda car dealership and got this old beat up civic and they stripped it to build a dune buggy. It worked okay, really light, until we got to a trench and drove off in it. It didn't have a lot of ground clearance. We managed to get a truck down there without getting it stuck and pull that thing out, but had to walk about 4 miles down the beach to retrieve the truck. Meanwhile, me and Bucky and David sat back with the beer cooler while another friend, Sammy Smith (brothers raced 250s in CRRC and AMA) went for the truck. By the time Sam got back, we were pretty tipsy.

Ah, that was a fun day in the sun. Thanks for reminding me.

R... and Phil, Sargent is 20 miles down the coast from Freeport. Matagorda Co. beach vehicle permits[$7 annual] are required. Camping on the beach is free, but if you want electricity you can tent at Caney Creek RV Park or LCRA RV park on the East Peninsula in Matagorda [see my post "Matagorda East Peninsula"].

thumper said:

R... and Phil, Sargent is 20 miles down the coast from Freeport. Matagorda Co. beach vehicle permits[$7 annual] are required. Camping on the beach is free, but if you want electricity you can tent at Caney Creek RV Park or LCRA RV park on the East Peninsula in Matagorda [see my post "Matagorda East Peninsula"].

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Thumper, I hope I'm not hitting you up with alot of random questions but this "permit" you speak of..is it the same as the beloved Forest Service permit that is suddenly being enforced out at Sam? Do they cross over? Does a plated bike require this? To my limited understanding a plated bike is not required to have a permit on public land. My 400 is my main adventure/exploration bike and it's plated so....??

Rman

Rman of 237 said:

Thumper, I hope I'm not hitting you up with alot of random questions but this "permit" you speak of..is it the same as the beloved Forest Service permit that is suddenly being enforced out at Sam? Do they cross over? Does a plated bike require this? To my limited understanding a plated bike is not required to have a permit on public land. My 400 is my main adventure/exploration bike and it's plated so....??

Rman

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Beach Vehicle Permit by Matagorda Co. required on all cars, trucks, etc. It's available at any convience store near the beach.

No unplated bikes or atvs are allowed on the beach.

Thank you sir.. I'm being permited to death!!

I can get the gate on Sargent Ranch Rd. open for you if you ever decide you want to ride around on the Sargent Ranch. My family owns the Sargent Ranch and it is a great place to ride.. The Ranch stretches from the gate all the way to the gulf. It has over 8000 acres .

frix said:

I can get the gate on Sargent Ranch Rd. open for you if you ever decide you want to ride around on the Sargent Ranch. My family owns the Sargent Ranch and it is a great place to ride.. The Ranch stretches from the gate all the way to the gulf. It has over 8000 acres .

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Uh... yeah, tell us more.

Rman of 237 said:

Uh... yeah, tell us more.

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Heck yeah,tell us more..............and I guess I can say this? Welcome to TWTEX.