• Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!

Gates on CR/FM Roads

Joined
Aug 11, 2017
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Location
Georgetown, TX
Since I picked up my GS a few weeks ago I’ve been out exploring roads that’s appear to be dirt from Apple/Google maps satellite view. I’m finding almost all of the roads have a gates. Some of these gates are purple with no signs (the assumption is it’s “posted”since that’s what a purple fence post means), some have odd hand written warnings, and some say bridge out road closed. Looking at maps these are public roads so I’m thinking these aren’t legit gates and I can legally make my way through. What is the general rule of thumb when you come across these gates? For example today I went to explore CR110 in Burnet and about a half mile in I found a purple gate with no signs. The gate wasn’t locked so I took the chance and went in. I was then confronted with another gate about another half mile down. This one had a painted sign “Posted Only people with permission from <someone’s Name> in charge of <whatever> Corporation allowed beyond this point. It was a CR that continued on for a long ways past this section, the lake bucanon area. I took that as a sign (pun intended) to not push my luck and head back.

I also just found the thread on legal dirt roads around Austin, bummed I didn’t see that sooner. I skimmed through the whole thread and didn’t pick up on comments related to how people generally handle the gates, so I started this thread. If this is a repetitive thread I apologize and feel free to delete it.
 
I will say one thing you can't believe everything on the internet that being said some of the roads that you assume is a county or state road on google map may indeed be private or none exiting are in the wrong spot on the map are turns out being some ones driveway. If it has purple paint on it its private that's as good as a posted sign ,there a lot of county roads that have reverted back to the owner in the rural areas for one reason are another but there are place you have to go thru gates so you have to use common sense, and some people don't won't you going by there house which in some cases the road is right beside there bedroom window. They live rural for a reason "privacy"

Aaron
 
TxDOT Grid Maps are the best source for public road information. It has been my experience that Garmin and Google are wrong about 10 percent of the time in the Eagle Ford. If it's not on the grid map, it may be passable, but it's likely private. Dove Mountain Road comes to mind. Some ranches are served only by easements and those may appear to be public roads when they are not. I can think of one ex TWTer who passes through three or four other ranches to get to his place. Some ranches will not fence off a public road and have cattle guards or bump gates, so if you open a gate ,close it.

Also, property owners in Texas have very limited responsibility to mark their land as private property. Purple paint may serve as a boundary, especially in forests, but passing a fence or even row crops can constitute a private property boundary. I learned this chasing people (hunters) off of my property.

Finally there have been reports of ranchers trying to make a county road look private.

m
 
Last edited:
County roads, especially the unpaved ones, can be tricky. As said in the posts above, common sense, caution and an attitude of respect for the people who call the area home should prevail....FM roads on the other hand are state maintained public right of ways. I've seen cattle guards on them but never a gate.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the replies. I figured they were off limits but I was hoping it was something to deter people but is legal/fine to go through. The good thing is there’s a whole thread on dirt roads in the area. So no more hour+ rides just to find the one dirt road I wanted to ride is gated, which has happened more than a handful of times.
 
TexDOT's online county map service shows CR110 to be a public road. The best way to determine if it is truly a public road is to call the county commissioner whose district it is in and ask him. He will give you the definitive answer.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
In case you weren't sure Purple posts anywhere in Texas means No Trespassing so its kind of a way for people to warn you off without putting up a lot of fences, especially if all they have is a bump gate with cattle guards. If you see purple turn around because its not worth risking getting shot, and whatever the count commissioner says after you have been shot won't mean much to you.
 
In case you weren't sure Purple posts anywhere in Texas means No Trespassing so its kind of a way for people to warn you off without putting up a lot of fences, especially if all they have is a bump gate with cattle guards. If you see purple turn around because its not worth risking getting shot, and whatever the count commissioner says after you have been shot won't mean much to you.

Purple on fence posts often are for the land along sides of the road only. If the gate has a sign on it or is purple then I would not enter. I've passed through thousands of gates across public roads. I've also seen misleading "no trespassing" signs at intersections which I felt were an attempt to mislead and keep people off a public road.
 
You know, this is probably one of those matters where Mr2Much's Hill country maps might help resolve as well. I know he's got them detailed pretty well.
 
The purple paint wasn't something I heard of until a few weeks ago when the wife and I were on Old Sawyer road heading towards Bastrop. She pointed out that she's never seen anyone actually use that before, but she knew what it was. Most fence posts out there have purple paint. The odd thing about the gate was there were no signs or purple paint anywhere else, it was just on the gate. As someone pointed out before someone shooting me is most of my fear. I can pay fines, play dumb, whatever if I get in trouble for trespassing. It might not be fun dealing with "the law" however if someone shoots me I'm done, even if I was on a legal public road I'm done. So the plan going forward, don't pass through gates....

One thing I really miss from living in upstate New York are the power line trails. Basically all of the power line access trails/roads were public land. This created a huge trail system that you can use to pretty much get anywhere in the state. We use to take our dirt bikes/4 wheelers/snowmobiles from our house in Syracuse and ride to our cabin in the Adirondacks (Forestport) on these trails. It took a while but was still super fun.
 
Thats one of the things I miss about being out west. Huge vast amounts of public lands crisscrossed with trails and forest service roads making it possible to ride large portions of the state and barely touch pavement. Texas loves it's private lands that's for sure. And what state lands we have are pretty much no off pavement operation unless youre on a pedal bike, horse or foot.

We had plenty of gates/fences out there that would force us to turn around or find a way around (in the case of Border Patrol gates anyway) to keep going. Some were ridiculous. Where you ride in from the south and you hit a gate then you ride to another road further north and could ride to the exact same gate. It was the Border Patrol trying to funnel people though check points.

I'm just glad there are plenty of unpaved CRs and FMs in the state still where I can get a little bit of a dirt fix.
 
The utility easements are technically still public land but they've managed to fence them off anyways... I'd imagine it's mostly for liability reasons or safety. Same reason they chase people off from the Trinity River basin, lol.
 
While I've heard a couple of horror stories, the few times I've found myself on private property the owner has been reasonable. Unless they have something illegal going on, and sometimes they do, most rural property owners would rather call the sheriff rather than get involved in a physical altercation. Reflecting on it, only one property owner has been a jerk. He was another hobby farmer who didn't like the wife and I bird watching along the road near his house. Some people watch too much television news.
 
Sorry if it's bad etiquette to wake up an old thread, but this is of great interest to me.

Around Abilene I constantly go down roads that on Google Maps appear to be public county roads only to find locked gates, no trespassing signs, signs threatening to shoot anyone trespassing, etc. I haven't found any way yet to determine what is or is not a public road with any reliability.

I did run across this link recently:
https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/division/transportation-planning/maps/statewide-planning.html
That seems to be a state database of "public" roads. It still doesn't match other sources and whether there's a gate/no gate through a property, but it's at least additional data.

What is the worst anyone has had happen by going through a gate or otherwise testing a road where there wasn't a "no trespassing" sign or purple paint on posts, etc? I.E. Where it wasn't clearly labeled as private? I really do not want someone pointing a gun at me, so I'm curious if anything extreme has happened to anyone else?
 
Interesting thread...didn't know about the purple gates and such.

:popcorn:
 
I first ran into it maybe 10 years ago when we lived in Missouri. It was already common there.

Section 30.05 -- https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.30.htm

(D) the placement of identifying purple paint marks on trees or posts on the property, provided that the marks are:
(i) vertical lines of not less than eight inches in length and not less than one inch in width;
(ii) placed so that the bottom of the mark is not less than three feet from the ground or more than five feet from the ground; and
(iii) placed at locations that are readily visible to any person approaching the property and no more than:
(a) 100 feet apart on forest land; or
(b) 1,000 feet apart on land other than forest land; or
 
If it is locked, I leave them alone, regardless of whether they "should" or "should not" be locked. It just isn't worth the trouble.

If they are not locked, I might go on through, but I ALWAYS make sure to leave them as I find them.

On the occasions where I encounter someone not happy to see me, I don't get argumentative. I simply explain I am trying to find my way, act lost, ask if the road goes through, apologize if they think I am in the wrong, and leave. Again, it just isn't worth the trouble. I have never had a gun pointed at me, although I am pretty sure there was one in arm's reach during one encounter but even that one didn't turn ugly. I have actually met some interesting people and ended up having conversations with them once they realized I wasn't a threat.

If you REALLY want to push the issue on a road you think should be open to the public, I would make a note of the road and location of the gate, then later I would contact the county commish or maybe the Sheriff's office and see clarification. They have a duty to keep public roads open to the public and prevent folks from blocking them illegally. I would not even try to contact the land owner. Let the officials handle it.

When you do go down dirt roads, treat lightly around homes. Try not to kick up too much dust if you can. Don't go ripping by at warp speed. Give a friendly wave if you do see someone. I do that a lot. After a while, many folks will wave first once they are used to seeing me.
 
What is the worst anyone has had happen by going through a gate or otherwise testing a road where there wasn't a "no trespassing" sign or purple paint on posts, etc? I.E. Where it wasn't clearly labeled as private? I really do not want someone pointing a gun at me, so I'm curious if anything extreme has happened to anyone else?

Probably the biggest treat is having a local officer coming at the request of a local rancher. TWTers used to have a yearly ride that took place around the Llano/Mason area but the local land owners finally grew tired of it and the local sheriff's deputies began writing tickets. With that said, I expect every rancher I meet to be armed.

Like I said before. Me and other landholders do not have to mark our property as private, ever. Passing a livestock fence is enough "notice" and in areas where there are row crops, not even a fence is necessary. In other words, riding down a levee between rice fields or a narrow track between corn fields should be enough warning.

Like TM says, be polite and most land owners will be polite back. To add to what he said about gates, it's been my experience that county roads through open range will either have cattle guards or bump gates. Private easements are more likely to be locked or have a chain with a bundle of locks hanging on the post. If it looks like someone locks it, and it's not on the grid maps, it's very likely private.

There was a post on ADV Rider for Texas about a section of road down near Mannville where some guys were cooking meth and warned off a rider with threats of violence. While uncommon, there is more of that going on out in the sticks than one might expect.

m
 
There was a post on ADV Rider for Texas about a section of road down near Mannville where some guys were cooking meth and warned off a rider with threats of violence. While uncommon, there is more of that going on out in the sticks than one might expect.

This can be a serious issue over here in East Texas. Avoiding dead end roads seems to help keep me away from questionable spots...
 
Those dead ends suck , especially when you realize you come to the end of someone's driveway.
 
I did not know about the purple colored signs either. That is really good to know considering I have been wandering around west of Katy in ranch country. I was so happy to actually find a gravel road on Saturday. Like you said Strom, I came around a bend only to discover I was on someone's driveway...whoops. There were no signs or fences but I bugged out quickly.

It's days like that when I am happy to have stock, quiet exhaust.
 
I did not know about the purple colored signs either. That is really good to know considering I have been wandering around west of Katy in ranch country. I was so happy to actually find a gravel road on Saturday. Like you said Strom, I came around a bend only to discover I was on someone's driveway...whoops. There were no signs or fences but I bugged out quickly.

It's days like that when I am happy to have stock, quiet exhaust.
Lots of open gravel roads between Huntsville and Navasota. Been riding them for last couple of weeks. Saturday rode for about 7 hrs...90% dirt/gravel....
 
This can be a serious issue over here in East Texas. Avoiding dead end roads seems to help keep me away from questionable spots...

RollingJ and I were riding in your area a few years ago and took off down a logging road only to find a couple of guys working on their deer camp. Nice fellows, but I'd still like to avoid those surprises. I quit trusting Garmin.


A quick test west of Houston is to ask, does the road quality change significantly either way? If you see a sudden improvement in a road with a change in construction materials, it's likely a driveway and not a county road. Sudden asphalt or concrete is a dead giveaway. Likewise if the county road or an intersecting road suddenly turned to two track then it's likely that it's no longer a county road. There is a section of road around Oakland that turns to two track at a cattle guard, runs through a guys yard and then back to county on the other side of his yard. Google and Garmin show it as a through road, but I don't think the person in the house agrees. I think it is 217, but can't remember.
 
Back
Top