Route: Trail Between the Lakes (TX)

Summary: The Trail between the Lakes was a trail like no other I have run before. The weather was great and the terrain was like a rain forest without rain. There were at least 50 creek crossing over the 26+ miles I ran. Many of them you could cross dry and others would leave you wet up to your arm pits unless you could find a tree to cross on. Overall the trails were a great place to enjoy a run or a leisurely walk/hilke.

Trail maintenance: There were a few sections were the trail markers were a little hard to follow because the paint had faded away completely. The section between 16-14 and 22-26 need a little more yellow paint. I noticed that some sections using red triangle markers which are harder to spot for a color blind person like myself. This trail was very clean and very little human impact except for one camp site where people left their trash behind. This should be picked up by the trail stewards this next week, hopefully. Overall I loved how wild the trails felt and how the challenges kept coming around every bend. You could not predict what was going to happen next.

Trail People: I didn't see anyone while on the trail for the first 4 1/2 hours, then I heard then saw some hikers with 3 dogs. They were very friendly and offered up information about some up and coming sights to see about an hours ahead by a lake. 

Mobile reception: I have Verizon service and had fairly good reception between Pineland and Yellow pine ( Hwy 87 ) but the when I got near Toledo Bend I didn't have any data services. This meant I couldn't send someone my gps location from my iphone maps. After my run I had to walk about 3 miles toward Hemphill before I had good enough reception before I could send my coordinates for my pickup person. 

Elapsed time versus Moving Time: My elapsed time on Garmin watch was 6:49:10 at 26.9 miles. The moving time reported on the Strava website was 5:44:00. That means I spent about 1 hour and 5 minutes being lost and taking pictures. I really did get off the trail a lot and there were some inspiring view to take pictures of along the way.

Bugs and Wildlife: I sure I ate about 100 yards of spider web silk on this trail. I grabbed a piece of cane to catch the webs for a while but then gave up because it didn't get enough of them to matter. I didn't know about the ticks on the ground until some hikers told me not to stop because they would leap on you if you stopped. This was true, so I kept running until the end. I loved hearing all of the birds, wood peckers, and many other bird calls during the morning. I ran up on a few wild turkeys along a creek near section 18-17 that nearly gave me a heart attack. I saw many deer early in the morning near markers 26-25. I did not see any hogs or snakes, so I assume the hogs ate the snakes.

I'll come back and try to try and beat this time if I keep at it.