The Trail Magic & Medicine Tour
This January through March 2026 xTx Founder Charlie Gandy is making his inaugural thru hike on the 1,500-mile xTexas hiking, biking, and equestrian trail after spending a year and a half envisioning, designing, and ground proofing the route with the xTx leadership team, board, and volunteers.
>> Media: Find the press release and images here!
>> Join us 1/8 for the debut of the new route on Ride with GPS via Zoom here!
On December 31, 2025 Charlie started on the Louisiana border near the Sam Forse Collins Recreation Area hiking 20 to 25 mile days. He estimates it will take him 75 days to complete the hike including days for rest, meetings with stakeholders and special events. He’s accompanied by his good friends Pam and Richard Hershberger.
Big, visionary, long-distance trail projects like this have the ability to transform people’s lives. That’s their magic and their medicine.
Charlie knows intimately the power of trails both personally and for communities. He’s making this thru hike to prove it can be done - and - to raise awareness and funding for this once in a generation project.
He invites you to support this inaugural tour by joining him for a mile or more (see bottom of the page) and donating to the project (see below!)to help it grow and thrive.
The The xTexas Trail Association is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit organization.
Follow the journey on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube!
Their trail names are Freestyle (Charlie), Cookie (Pamela) and Tic Toc (Richard). See you on the trail soon friends!
Can you help make it happen? Can you pitch in $20 to sponsor a mile or more as your budget allows?
Whether it’s through personal transformation by greatly improving one’s mental and physical state with daily physical activity in nature, the financial benefit for rural communities and trailhead towns proactively welcoming trail travelers, or becoming passionate about land stewardship it’s all powerful alchemy.
Launched as a project just a year and a half ago, in its current iteration the trail is a mix of quiet, rural, public paved, gravel, and dirt roads, a few highways, and 17 state, and 3 national parks or nature areas.
The trail meanders the width of the state through the bayous and piney woods in the East, then the heart of the most remote region of the Hill Country before dipping down into Big Bend and then up to Guadalupe Peak and over Franklin Mountains before ending in El Paso.
The trail travels through some of Texas’ most rugged and wild rural landscapes. It is to be traveled at your own risk.
As the project progresses and raises the necessary awareness, connections, and funding, key sections will be navigated onto private land for greater safety and comfort, Plus, water, and shelter facilities with internet access will be added.
This trail is designed to be traveled in the late fall, winter, and early spring when other long distance trails in the U.S. and around the world are all but impassible.
Much of rural Texas is still an undiscovered treasure. Think about that. Not only Texans will enjoy it, but people from around the world bringing with them their valuable travel dollars!
Did you know that Big Bend is one of the least visited of the national parks? And yet, this majestic remote treasure is one of the largest Dark Sky communities in the world and a magnificent place for star gazing.
The creation of this once in a generation trail project was inspired by Charlie’s love of long distance hiking and biking, and his study of how other long distance U.S. trails were created, especially the Appalachian Trail.
The idea was sparked in June of ‘24 while Charlie was hiking in the mountains of Lake Tahoe and found himself waist deep in snow. A year before that he’d had to stop section hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail in x because the weather was still too cold and inclement.
We’re Making the Impossible Possible
Note: If you’re having any challenges getting your donation to go through you can try the following work arounds:
Try donating directly here: https://donorbox.org/trail-magic-and-medicine
Open the donation form in a private/incognito window.
Disable any browser extensions, such as ad blockers or privacy filters, temporarily.
Clear your browser cache and cookies.
Make sure your internet connection allows Google reCAPTCHA to load (sometimes restricted office or VPN networks block it).
You can mail us a check made out to: The xTexas Trail Association, 701 Tillery St., Suite 12 #B283, Austin TX 78702
Get In Touch!
Want to connect with Charlie while he’s on the trail? Please get in touch via this form!
Please note: If you want to hike with Charlie you need to be able to keep up with his pace. This isn’t a guided tour or an event. You’ll need to sign an insurance and media waiver and understand that you’ll travel at your own risk organizing your own transit to and from the trail, bringing all of your own food, water, shelter, medical, emergency supplies, and support.
