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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Lone Star Hiking Trail

This has been a beautiful day in eastern Texas.  I especially enjoyed my early morning quiet devotional time with my cat in my lap while sipping my own coffee.  Quite a contrast to yesterday morning.
Me with Joe Patterson, founder of Escapees RV Club


We got the full Escapees Welcome Tour this morning.  It was very informative and we got to see what seemed like every inch of this place.  Gene was taking the pictures and from the number of photos of the mail room that must have been the most impressive to him.  It was quite a production.  Escapees has the largest mail forwarding service in the United States.  They have their own private zip code and the mail comes in a truck from Houston just like the post offices around this area.  As we toured the park, we stopped at Joe and Kay Peterson’s home, the founders of the club.  Joe came out to greet the group and Gene was right there with his camera.
One of several mail rooms at Rainbows End

After lunch we drove a little west of here to Sam Houston National Forest for a hike along the Lone Star Trail, a linier trail which runs form Cold Spring to Richards, Texas, a distance of 128 miles.   Boy, was I impressed.  The trail was very well maintained.  There were several blow downs, probably from Hurricane Ike, but they had been cleared from the trail.  Our hike went past one of the backcountry campsites.  It was clean and well maintained; even had a trash can.  There wasn’t a sleeping shelter, however there were about 4 camping pads large enough for 3, possibly 4, backpacking tents.  It was great.  Appalachian Trail Conference could learn from these folks.



We hiked for about 2 miles, then made the return trip to the truck.  We haven’t been out on a trail for several months and it felt good to stretch and enjoy the great outdoors.  With the tour this morning and the hike this afternoon we have over spent ourselves and tonight we are both pretty tired puppies.
Backcountry campsite
Would have loved a trash can along the AT


Tomorrow we are heading in the opposite direction to see what we can find in the Big Thicket National Preserve.

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