Trail Scouting on the Trail Between the Lakes

For anyone that wants to jon in, just show up on Friday. The plan is to set up teams of two or three to hike trail sections between road crossings that are 2 to 4 miles long with drop off and pick up so there is no need to double back. It should be one of the more "& More" hikes we've done.

The Trail Between the Lakes runs 28 miles through the Sabine National Forest between Toledo Bend Reservoir and Lake Sam Rayburn. It is similar to our nearby Lone Star Trail, but is lightly used and unevenly maintained. So while we are camping nearby, I am going to go out a day early to scout the trail and am looking for a few good scouts to join me.

The plan:

After checking in the HATs campsites At Martin Dies State Park, we'll drive to the trail and split into teams of two or three to walk as much of the trail as possible. I have what are supposed to be good tracks for the trail and have made a map from that information. However, reports of the on trail conditions are sparse and old. I am hoping that as teams we can get a long enough section of the trail walked to come back as a HATs weekend trip later to hike the trail for the first time as a group. Exactly how we approach this will depend on the number of teams we can field on this Friday hike.

I have a campsite for Thursday night at Martin Dies. PM me if you would like to join in on the camping too.

Weather Forecast:
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-93.8569-&lat=31.1960

Meeting Location Martin Dies Jr State Park:
https://goo.gl/maps/NLLur5kTUts

A trail overview on Google Maps
https://goo.gl/maps/y5cXUsqG2Un

More about the trail
http://www.toledo-bend.com/national-forest/index.asp?request=trail

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/texas/trail-between-the-lakes

• What to bring
For each team, at least one GPS or a tracking app that can load a GPX file on a smartphone will be needed as trail blazes have been reported missing in some areas. If you need some help with electronics setup, please ask. Otherwise just the usuals for a hike and the weather.

• Important to know
This is a special event on Friday, not our usual weekend hike.