Big Thicket National Preserve, Texas
This route is a 13.5 out and back for a total of approximately 27 mile. I started on the north trailhead and made the turnaround at the end of the Turkey Creek trail before you go over the bridge to get on the Kirby nature trail. The bridge leading over Turkey creek to the Kirby nature trail is closed for repair [spring 2020] so there shouldn't be any issues on finding the turnaround point. The trail is made up of mostly single track and less than 0.25 miles of road.
Website description:
Six trailheads provide access to different parts of this 15-mile trail, providing opportunities for hikes of varying distances. The trail roughly parallels Turkey Creek and passes through several plant communities, from hardwood forests to cypress sloughs.
Hikers can access this trail on FM 1943, 3.5 miles east of Warren; at the Pitcher Plant Trail, 2 miles south of FM 1943 on CR 4850; on CR 4825; along the Gore Store Road, 4 miles east of Hwy 69; and on FM 420 at the Kirby Nature Trail.
https://www.nps.gov/bith/planyourvisit/upload/Turkey-Creek-Unit-Trail-Map-508.pdf
-submitted by Brent Williams
Comments
I am going to attempt this route tomorrow morning (May-13th, unsupported) as long as there is not too much rain overnight. I may delay a day if the storms come in overnight. Will update on the success, failure, or delay in my attempt. Cheers.
Completed. Did not achieve my full goal time of 03:45, but I did set the unsupported time. Trail is great scenery and a nice out & back in the tall trees. Many boardwalks and little bridges along the way. I completed the route which is just a hair over a marathon as set out by Brent Williams (see original self-supported FKT). Once the trail renovation is complete I hope someone extends this route cross the creek and all the way to the visitor information center (would result in close to 50 km (31 mi) total). My trip report can be read here: https://trevormeding.blogspot.com/2020/05/turkey-time.html.
Hi all. I plan to go for the unsupported FKT tomorrow morning, Nov 21st. Thanks to Trevor for telling me about this route. Look forward to checking out some new trails. I will give an update on my attempt soon!
Update. One day later than planned, but I ran the trail this morning. I started from the North trailhead at 7:40 and finished the round trip in 3hrs 22min 38s. A great day out on the trail and I only got lost twice!Â
Thanks to Brent for creating the route and to Trevor for sharing his blog of his attempt...in hindsight, I should have read that blog a bit more closely!
Hi all! I went for the unsupported women’s fastest known time today from the North Turkey Creek Trailhead, starting at 8:30am and ended up with a time of 3 hours, 37 minutes, 56 seconds. I will be posting my results soon.
-Megan FlanaganÂ
Hi all! Barring any injury setbacks in the upcoming week, I'm going to go after the men's unsupported FKT of the turkey creek trail next Saturday morning 3/20. I've given Trevor's blog a read through (which is quite helpful!) and scouted out the first ~2ish miles last weekend on a hike with my girlfriend, but if there's anything out there later in the run not mentioned that I should know about, please let me know!
Update: Set the new FKT to 3:06:54 in wonderful weather! Will submit sometime today or tomorrow. Dealt with some stomach issues on the way back and decided to take it easier from miles 20-25, but got excited to be back and sped up a little at the end. Only 2 wrong turns, but figured them both out pretty quickly, my final mileage on my garmin 26.4. Bridge to the kirby nature trail was still closed. Definitely think this route can be taken sub 3 hours, just takes the right day and the desire to taper + treat it like a race (for me, this was kind of randomly thrown into my training block as an extended long run and didn't want to push it too hard). Thanks so much to Trevor for his blog and for pretty much all the people who have set FKTs beforehand (Chad, Brent, Trevor, and Megan), as I checked out all your strava gps data to keep track of points where it easy to get off trail. Full write-up will be in the submission!