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| | | Quitaque Canyon Trail, TX | | | |
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Quitaque Canyon Trail, TX
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| Hiking | 15.24 Miles |
358 AEG |
| | Hiking | 15.24 Miles | 5 Hrs 23 Mns | | 3.09 mph |
| 358 ft AEG | 27 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | A couple months ago I hiked along the Caprock Canyon Trailways, the old Fort Worth & Denver rail, to Clarity Tunnel. Today I hiked the 8 mile west end of that route for a 16 mile round trip hike. This section of the FW&D, called the Quitaque Canyon Trail is where the train made its ascent (or descent) up the Llano Estacado. This 20 or so mile section of rail is quite impressive but the walking can be a little mundane in sections. The Caprock Canyon Trailway is a 300 mile trail along the FW&D of which the west 20 miles ascends the plateau, I do not intend to hike the east 280 miles of the trail as it is just flat walking through a lot of farm land.
This is not an exciting trail but the history and engineering of the route kept me occupied most of the time, the rest of the time I was in my head. Sometimes that's a scary place but today it wasn't. I did run into a skunk that I kept my distance from, a couple of deer and one dumb cow that didn't know how to get off the trail to avoid me. This cow was resting in the shade when it saw me coming, got up and started walking along the trail till it got about 100 yards ahead of me then watched and saw I was still coming and took off down the trail. It repeated this for about a half mile before it finally just got off the trail. Hope it wasn't too comfortable where it was at before I came along because it has a long trek back, but then what else does a cow have to do. I noticed in Caprock State Park the buffalo did the same type thing, must be a bovine thing.
The weather was in the mid to upper 80's with a light breeze so sounds like good hiking weather but I forgot to add in the higher humidity factor. Half way into the hike I was feeling kind of yucky and decided to add some electrolytes to my water, seemed to work quite well. It was still hot but I felt better. Lesson learned again, don't head out on a hike with only a light breakfast and lots of coffee. The problem was I thought this was going to be a walk in the park with little elevation gain on a good trail. Being a little dehydrated can make even the easiest stroll a challenge. |
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