East Texas

[Traveler]

So I'm going to be doing the primitive deal real soon. I'm in Houston right now and I'm not sure of any good close spots for camping. I have a few small spots picked out in urban areas but I'm still looking for better, more remote spots. I have most of the gear I need, have to go buy a few things in the next couple days though. So, anyone else in the area want to wander out with me? Dogs and smokers are welcome.

 

[travelin]

hey, check out texas state game managment areas. there is a permit has to be bought to use them, but outside of hunting season few will be on those tracts. some are open use for hiking and camping and whatever and some are only for hunting certain animals in season.

check em out, get the permit and do it all legal.

national forest, davy crockett up outta conroe. look north and see the road heads west from new waverly, dont remember the name. look along it past the lake crossing and you will see on the topo a couple of creek bottoms. this is where you want. flowing water and hardwoods, not the sandy, dusty, dry dry dry pine flats.

further along that road three ways into a road going north and south roughly. again i dont have the road name(s) to hand but its impossible to miss where im talking about. if you follow to the north then west you come to a tiny old ghost type town that has a store or two.

take plenty of water carrying capacity. have a good water filter. get some kind of folding shovel. i recomend the mil issue aimes or ames and i think there is a gerber thats mil issue also. whatever brand, just dont get one of the cheap chinese knockoffs that will break the second time you use it.

know what a dakota firepit is and how to construct one.

mosquito netting is essential.

normally in the western part of east texas one does not have to worry about bears but there ARE a very few in the region. they were pretty much killed out in the twenties and thirties but there was always a few. in my first 21 years of running the east texas woods ive actually seen two and sign of a couple more.

id advise to be as stealthy as possible but whatever you wanna do, do it. its your trip and your adventure!

 

[valiumcake]

just got in to houston , but i'm hopping over to new orleans soon. if you just want to hang out for a bit, can do that.

 

[cavemansailor]

I spent two weeks running a trapline in Sam Houston National Forest, but that was in winter during hunting season. My base camp was just outside of Kelly's Pond on the side of the dirt road. When its not hunting season, you can legally camp almost wherever you want for up to 2 weeks at a time. As long as you move camp every 2 weeks, you can legally stay there indefinitely. There's plenty of coons, possums, armadillos, feral hogs. Take about 40 wire snares and set them along the creeks and washes and you'll never go hungry. I used conibears too, which are far more effective and easy to set, but they are only legal during commercial trapping season.