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Lone Star Loop (2,180 DS loop)

Joined
Dec 15, 2012
Messages
73
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83
Location
Lubbock, TX
I’ve been following with great interest the progress of the Red to the Rio Loop on TWT.
Thought I’d share some info on the Lone Star Loop I just finished developing.
The Loop is 2,180 miles in length. I haven’t verified the numbers but my guess is it is 70% dirt county roads and 30% pavement. Of that 30%, probably 10-15% is blacktop county roads. My goal was to include as much dirt as possible but when you get close to highly urbanized areas, and much of East Texas, it’s hard to find dirt even on county roads.
I have ridden about 98% of the stretch from US 82 west Of Benjamin south to Rock Springs, a little over 600 miles. The rest of the Loop I have verified on the TXDOT County Grid Map and have “flown” the entire loop on Google Earth. I have attached a snapshot of the Loop and a Goodle Earth kmz file.
The numbering of the routes begins at Jayton, 90 miles east of Lubbock. I have a master .gdb file consisting of 17 routes and 49 tracks. Also, I have broken the master down into three segments, i.e., three separate .gdb files in order to keep the track total under 20 to fit my Garmin 60 CSX limitations.
If anyone is interested in the .gdb files email me and I’ll send then. Also, if anyone has opportunity to ride a portion of the Loop I’d appreciate any feedback. My plan is to ride the entire Loop next fall as weather wise that seems to be best .
 

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  • Lone Star Loop.jpg
    Lone Star Loop.jpg
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  • Lone Star Loop.kmz
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That was not an easy task I bet. Nice route. Nine Mile Rd in Sabine County is closed . Need to work around that part of the route. I will try and ride some of the East route if some other are interested in a little ride sometime.
 
That looks like a lot of time spent putting this together. Thanks for putting it out there. Yes, sadly, Mr. Bean assured us that Nine Mile is fenced. :doh:
 
Thanks for the input guys!

I've been emailing back and forth with the Sabine Forest Service ... they sent me a PDF map of all "open" roads in the park. According to the map Nine-Mile Road is open westward from the junction with Reeves Road to Nf-121 then on to TX 2261. The map shows no road from Reeves east to the peninsula.

It would be great if someone close to the area could verify if it is open to the west ...
 
Now, you need to form a nonprofit like the BDR fellows did and get Sterling Noren to film it and produce a DVD. Ill direct it naturally from onboard a fully sponsored BMW 1200 Adventure...

:rider:

Thanks for great work!
 
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Riding Henderson to Paris tomorrow.
No video, only phone camera. I'll get vid cam sometime.
Just plugged my gps in to look at route I had loaded in last night
and it's not working now.just went out. freaking electronics.

If something interesting will snap pic.

question on part of the route;
you loop way back to west to Center, there is 139/2787 that you can follow up to 84 pretty close to the bridge at state line, actually lot switch backs to do that.
Back to south of 84 (texas side) there a camping area on the river. A big picnic/launch site that you can put a tent. I assume you still can.
----
Not too sure the weather is going to be like it was suppose to earlier.
Weather man was wrong about today. Sunday looks better and Monday even better.
 
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I rode about 30 miles of it yesterday, then it turned colder and wetter.
Just a suggestion as this is your route. I would move that Rusk/Henderson to the East.
Was looking at Google Earth and looks like there is some dirt roads to move it to.
Have two choices there about getting over/past the Sabine. Go into La and turn north to route back on Hwy 31 (short dirt road for part of connection), or go something like 50 miles to the west of Logansport and cross, then back to East to pickup North route (don't remember the route I saw).

Going to try to go back out Monday, tomorrow. Don't know at this time.
I want to get up to Caddo lake and check out the state park there.

At the Toledo Bend dam (maybe 3 or 4 miles from it), there use to be a place to rent cabins w/kitchen/cookware. This place was right on the water.
That would be a nice layover.

Wondering if a separate thread is needed just for posting suggested changes and pic of the route.
 
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JB, this actually made me get up off my duff and join TWT. Funny, not two weeks ago I got out on a Saturday and tried to map a route from my neighborhood (north Dallas) to the OAT via dirt. I made it as far as the Oklahoma border. My path crosses yours up near Whitesburo. After the first, i'll be buying an actual GPS and prolly asking you for this route. I'd like to test east and west of I35 as soon as the weather breaks.
 
This is a pretty sweet route, you obviously took a lot of time to put this together. I hope you are looking for input, but in the area north of Houston there is a route that has potentially more dirt that goes through Sam Houston National Forest. No worries, just a suggestion.
 

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  • Alternate Lone Star Loop Houston.gdb
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  • Alternate East.gpx
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This is a pretty sweet route, you obviously took a lot of time to put this together. I hope you are looking for input, but in the area north of Houston there is a route that has potentially more dirt that goes through Sam Houston National Forest. No worries, just a suggestion.

Is the OHV tag required for that?
 
Hey guys,
Thanks for your interest and input on the Loop!
Let me respond briefly to some of the questions and input:
To Irish Coffee: I’m not sure where Scrappin Valley is. Nine-mile Road is near theToledo Bend Reservoir in the Sabine NF. If you trace SH 87 to FM 276 you wind up on a narrow peninsula on the Toledo Bend Reservoir … that’s where Nine-mile begins headed northwest. Again, my understanding from the Forest Service is that it is open from the junction with Reeves Road westward.
To Bajaexplorer: My rationale for drifting west towards Center was that in the area north of FM 139 that you mention there are very few roads that would connect to the Loop further north. I don’t have much context for East Texas and wasn’t sure of the locations in your other suggestions. Maybe you could work up a small secondary loop that would connect to the Loop as it is. Appreciate your ideas.
Jfink: I agree with you idea about the Sam Houston NF. I didn’t like the original that went through Huntsville either. I have revised the Loop to go south of Huntsville through the Sam Houston NF. I have verified on the Texas Grid map, National Forest map, and Google Earth.
 
Thanks Jerry for the revised version. I am taking bits and pieces to use over the next month or so.

RB
 
I have routed what I mentioned in above postings.
Maybe have time to post it this evening.

Unsure if it adds value to the org route, if consensus is that it does, I will document it
better and verify some items that are questionable in my mind. My thinking is that the percentage of dirt on length to org off the bypass is less.

The bypass route pretty much hugs Toledo Bend, with two bypasses showing on where to cross the Sabine at, one in Logansport and one to the west of there, both meet at hwy 31 and continue up to intersect with the existing trail at CR1313 and Hwy 31.
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After thinking about it, this route is not in keeping with the original idea of the OP.
I am going to post an image of it anyway to see if any interest. Could be used as a short cut for around.

alt_route.jpg
 
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