kellyjcook
Member
I bought my Raptor about two weeks ago and have been itching to get it off the pavement and dirty, so this morning my family and some good friends of ours packed up and headed out. We took my wife’s 4wd Sequoia and my Raptor down to what is known as Lost Highway 87.
For complete details on this piece of Texas lore check out KaiserM715’s thread on Texas Trails:
http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f59/texas-trails-9201/
or directly here:
TexasFreeway > Statewide > Photo Gallery > Texas 87 Closed
For those who don’t like to follow links: Highway 87 is 20 miles of eroded coastal highway that the state has allowed nature to reclaim because there isn’t enough land between the beach to the South and the wildlife refuge to the North to build a road anymore. At low tide, there can be 40 feet of shell covered sandy beach in some places. At high tide, there might be less than a car width of tar-like asphalt clay between a 2 foot drop into the surf and a barbed wire federal trespassing sign.
The first 8-10 miles of the trip were very easy. We saw maybe 5 or 6 other vehicles on the beach fishing around mile 3 but after that we were all alone. In this stretch you are running next to a fenced wildlife refuge where there is a service road that runs along the fence in pretty good condition. Typical washboard of sand and shells. It was pretty easy to get the Raptor up to past 65 for some high speed beach cruising and even topped out on the road. The kids loved that part of the trip and kept fighting over who got to ride with me.
About 10 miles down, there’s an abandoned oil depot and the conditions got a bit rough for several miles with only a few places to really open it up. There’s about as much storm debris as there is asphalt/dirt/goo in some places so you have to watch what you drive over (at one point I rolled over an old diesel engine head – thing Caterpillar - that I thought was drift wood). This part wasn’t hard at all. It made for a mild trail run. I even let my buddy drive the Raptor a bit while I tested out the Sequoia.
At the end of the line we came to a very nice and very open beach where we could again open things up for a couple of miles before hitting the state park. No dunes and no air worth talking about, but enough bumps to make going fast worth the effort.
It’s a fun and relatively easy trip right now, so if you have a chance – check it out before the next hurricane rearranges the place.
TIPS: Mosquitoes are TERRIBLE and everywhere but the open beach. Take lots of Off.
After we got to the far east end of the highway, we drove in to Port Arthur for a pit stop and decided to turn around and come back. The setting Sun was beautiful, but we quickly ran into trouble.
We met an older guy and his grandkids who had gotten his F150 stuck in the asphalt trying to dodge the rising tide. I pulled him out easily with the Raptor, but when we took off we discovered that the electric diff in the Sequoia had decided to puke on us and put the truck in 2x limp mode. Oh well. One good run anyway. Wife is demanding I beef up the Sequoia so she can keep up with me now
Al in all it was a great day.
KC
FYI UPDATE TO SEA RIM State Park Info: The park is actually open and you can camp down there - I think your flesh would be stripped clean by the mosquitoes, but you can stay if you want.
Google Maps I created: http://g.co/maps/saqy3
For complete details on this piece of Texas lore check out KaiserM715’s thread on Texas Trails:
http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f59/texas-trails-9201/
or directly here:
TexasFreeway > Statewide > Photo Gallery > Texas 87 Closed
For those who don’t like to follow links: Highway 87 is 20 miles of eroded coastal highway that the state has allowed nature to reclaim because there isn’t enough land between the beach to the South and the wildlife refuge to the North to build a road anymore. At low tide, there can be 40 feet of shell covered sandy beach in some places. At high tide, there might be less than a car width of tar-like asphalt clay between a 2 foot drop into the surf and a barbed wire federal trespassing sign.
The first 8-10 miles of the trip were very easy. We saw maybe 5 or 6 other vehicles on the beach fishing around mile 3 but after that we were all alone. In this stretch you are running next to a fenced wildlife refuge where there is a service road that runs along the fence in pretty good condition. Typical washboard of sand and shells. It was pretty easy to get the Raptor up to past 65 for some high speed beach cruising and even topped out on the road. The kids loved that part of the trip and kept fighting over who got to ride with me.
About 10 miles down, there’s an abandoned oil depot and the conditions got a bit rough for several miles with only a few places to really open it up. There’s about as much storm debris as there is asphalt/dirt/goo in some places so you have to watch what you drive over (at one point I rolled over an old diesel engine head – thing Caterpillar - that I thought was drift wood). This part wasn’t hard at all. It made for a mild trail run. I even let my buddy drive the Raptor a bit while I tested out the Sequoia.
At the end of the line we came to a very nice and very open beach where we could again open things up for a couple of miles before hitting the state park. No dunes and no air worth talking about, but enough bumps to make going fast worth the effort.
It’s a fun and relatively easy trip right now, so if you have a chance – check it out before the next hurricane rearranges the place.
TIPS: Mosquitoes are TERRIBLE and everywhere but the open beach. Take lots of Off.
After we got to the far east end of the highway, we drove in to Port Arthur for a pit stop and decided to turn around and come back. The setting Sun was beautiful, but we quickly ran into trouble.
We met an older guy and his grandkids who had gotten his F150 stuck in the asphalt trying to dodge the rising tide. I pulled him out easily with the Raptor, but when we took off we discovered that the electric diff in the Sequoia had decided to puke on us and put the truck in 2x limp mode. Oh well. One good run anyway. Wife is demanding I beef up the Sequoia so she can keep up with me now
Al in all it was a great day.
KC
FYI UPDATE TO SEA RIM State Park Info: The park is actually open and you can camp down there - I think your flesh would be stripped clean by the mosquitoes, but you can stay if you want.
Google Maps I created: http://g.co/maps/saqy3
