Epic adventure trail planned for Texas: 1,500 miles of rugged beauty
The breadth of Texas spans an ecological mosaic of bayous, forests, prairies, rolling hills, mountains and deserts, and soon you may be able to traverse it on foot, bike or horseback along a continuous path that would rival the Appalachian and Pacific Crest trails in terms of rugged beauty and the test of one’s mettle.
While still in its planning stages, the Cross Texas Horse, Hike and Bike Adventure Route, branded as xTx, will begin in Orange, on the Texas-Louisiana border, and stretch 1,500 miles to El Paso across nearly every conceivable topography.
If that strikes you as an impossible trek, you should meet Charles Gandy, the driving force behind the xTx. A charismatic Dallas-area native, Gandy inspires belief. This is a man who traveled the world by himself as a teenager and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives at the tender age of 23.
Splitting his time between Austin and Seattle, Gandy has dedicated considerable energy over the past year to making his home state trail dream a reality. Using maps and his knowledge of Texas’ back roads, Gandy plotted the route through what he considers to be the most scenic parts of the state. If all goes as planned, the xTx will follow a more-or-less straight line across Central Texas between Austin and San Antonio before snaking south through the Big Bend region and jutting back up to El Paso.
That’s the idea, anyway. Of course, vision and reality are often different things. Right now, Gandy and a crew of volunteers are ground testing every mile of the proposed route and making adjustments as needed
“We’re not ready for anybody yet,” said Gandy, “but we have tested the first hundred miles, from the gator-infested Sabine River across Quicksand Creek to Livingston. We did it on horses, mountain bikes and by hiking.”
A monumental undertaking with monumental challenges
Chief among Gandy’s concerns are terrain and access to water. Ideally, he’d like there to be a water source every 15 miles, be it a well or a natural spring. He also wants a path that’s rugged enough to attract the truly hardy, but not so rugged that it can’t be traveled on horseback from end to end.
“We’re not looking to pave anything,” Gandy said. “If a horse can pass through it, so can a bike and a hiker.”
Providing reconnaissance for the project was Rhea Wallace. Another Dallas-Fort Worth transplant to the Pacific Northwest, Wallace is to date the only person to have traveled nearly the entire route, making it as far as Marfa on his bike before running out of time.
It took Wallace 20 days, averaging about 80 miles a day, to get from the Piney Woods to the Trans Pecos. He followed Gandy’s map, but there were times when he got to a river or creek crossing only to find the bridge that was supposed to be there had washed away. At some places, he came to locked gates where there was meant to be public access. In those cases, Wallace made a detour and reported the new path back to Gandy.
As much as possible, Wallace stuck to scenic byways, trying to make the route as enjoyable as possible for future hikers and riders. He also did his best to avoid busy roads.
“It’s so much more relaxing to be away from cars,” Wallace said. “It was nice getting off the highway. It was really nice.”
Wallace did the trip solo, and he occupied his mind by thinking about the history of the regions he traveled through. He stopped at every historical marker along the way and often contemplated his ancestors who arrived in Texas generations ago on trails not all that different from the one Wallace was on.
“The history, the people — it came alive for me,” he said.
Throughout his journey, Wallace kept detailed notes, which will be of critical importance for future trekkers. He noted water sources and places in the desert where water must be packed in. He also flagged good local joints where a hungry traveler can find a hearty breakfast, chicken-fried steak or Tex-Mex.
“Texas really needs something like this,” Wallace said of the trail.
While that may be true, it’s still a tricky proposition, even without considering the trail’s difficulty. More than 93% of Texas land is privately owned, meaning Gandy is having to do a lot of negotiating for right of way. Having grown up in a ranching family, though, he said he has an advantage in that he can speak the landowners’ language and anticipate their concerns. He also knows that the way to their hearts, in some cases, is the almighty dollar.
“You’ve got proud ranchers out in West Texas who want the trail to go across their land,” said Gandy. “They know what an amenity this will be, and they want to be associated with it. Others supplement their income with hunting operations. They have hunting cabins and fancy lodges that can be used after the hunting season, and they see this as a business proposition, a new source of revenue.”
Pene Ferguson falls into both camps. The White House Ranch in Presidio County, in far West Texas, has been in Ferguson’s family for generations. They still raise cattle there, and a few years ago Ferguson renovated the old adobe ranch house, built in the 1880s, to rent it out to guests.
Ferguson said her father first heard about the xTx trail and assumed it would follow the route of the old Chihuahua Road, a pack trail dating back to the 1840s, which runs through the family’s property. Ferguson got in touch with Gandy, and they hashed out an agreement. Now, Ferguson said, she’s ready to host trail-weary pilgrims at her guesthouse, which sleeps up to 11 people, or offer them a spot to camp nearby.
Ferguson was receptive to Gandy’s idea because, as a lover of wild, desolate places, she saw the benefit of people on the xTx experiencing the world away from cell signals and Wi-Fi and all the distractions of modern life.
“This is something that would be good for Texas, good for people,” she said. “I’m a big believer in unplugging.”
Creating connections
Gandy envisions the xTx being a bit like Route 66 for people driven to challenge themselves physically and mentally. He also believes it will mirror the Mother Road in the way it attracts visitors to out-of-the-way places where they’ll spend money and rub elbows with folks they wouldn’t have otherwise met.
As for what those small-town locals might make of the visitors, Gandy said he and his friends have been warmly received during their test hikes and rides.
“They’ll look you over,” he said of rural Texas denizens. “You show up on a neon-colored mountain bike, and you look a little out of place. But after a five-minute introduction, they figure out that these are just interesting, eccentric people who are out to see what Texas is all about.”
Wallace agreed. He said things like the political divide disappear when you arrive as a stranger in a small town. People are generally happy to see you and talk with you, regardless of any differences.
“We need more of that,” Wallace said of those kinds of interactions.
By this fall, Gandy hopes to have a bigger chunk of the route ground tested, after which he’ll have a more concrete idea of what the final trail will look like and when it will be open to the public.
However it meanders, tackling the xTx will be a daunting endeavor — almost as daunting as getting a project of this magnitude off the ground.
“I’m attracted to impossible projects,” Gandy said with a laugh. “I’m a fifth generation Texan that has a sense of pride in the state. I don’t agree with everything that’s going on in Texas, but I believe we have some truly special places.”
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 5:50 AM.