GILMER – Rumbling past dogwoods in full bloom on an iron-ore “mountain” high above East Texas, a trail rider mashed the brakes of his Land Rover and slid to a stop.

The trail veered hard right, dodging a pine tree. Then it vanished into thin air.

The driver parked a safe distance from the steep edge and stepped through mud to have a look around.

What he saw wasn’t pretty.

The rutted trail tumbled down a slippery, red dirt face, straight to the base of the steep hill. Smeared tread marks indicated a wild descent for the previous rider – and this was supposed to be one of the more moderate trails at Barnwell Mountain Recreational Area north of Gilmer.

“There’s no way we’re climbing back up this,” the driver said.

Despite the many trail markers that alert riders to the names of routes and their degrees of difficulty, it’s not hard to get turned around in the 1,800-acre maze that is Barnwell Mountain.

That’s OK, trail riders say. Part of the fun comes from exploring the outdoors in an off-road vehicle, dirt bike or ATV.

“Families go there on the weekend and can camp and enjoy some time away from the city,” said Steve Thompson, manager of a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department program that helps fund the nonprofit park.

“They use their vehicles to trail ride, but the activity is not all about the vehicle itself. It’s about the place. We just use motorized vehicles as a way to get out in the forest and enjoy the forest.”

Barnwell was the first of its kind in Texas when it opened on a former iron-ore strip mine in 2000, according to Thompson and members of the Texas Motorized Trails Coalition, the nonprofit organization that manages the park.

Today, the coalition boasts around 1,300 members from around the state, but only a handful were riding the trails on a recent rainy weekend in March, when a Land Rover driven by photographer Les Hassell idled indecisively at the top of the trail.

The descent

Daunted by the precipitous path, we backtracked. On the return to the main road, however, distant roars announced a caravan of muddy Jeeps heading straight for the drop-off. They soon passed by, and one vehicle in particular seemed better suited for a paved highway than the muddy forest trail.

If that little Jeep could make it down, we figured, there was no reason we shouldn’t have been able to.

We flagged down the caravan and joined the tail end. One driver, Matt Green of Tyler, was giving a lift to a couple of people and a dog whose Jeep had broken down on another trail.

“We were just going up this hill, and we bounced on a rock,” explained Lisa Flores of Wichita Falls.

With Green spotting us, we began the descent. Steering was out of the question – the Land Rover went where the slick mud took it. The bulky vehicle slid from side to side. It careened over iron-ore rocks, lurched into a deep rut and skidded down the trail to the forest floor.

Safely at the base, another trail rider, Brandon Ory of Lafayette, La., was tinkering on a fellow rider’s Jeep Wrangler.

“I’m the resident mechanic,” he said as he worked to reconnect a sway bar that had come loose.

“OK, you’re all set,” he said.

An ‘outlaw’ sport

Long before Barnwell Mountain opened, natural forces were at work to carve the varied terrain that draws hundreds of riders on busy weekends. Off-road enthusiasts should thank the iron ore, according to Thompson, who is also Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s senior geologist.

“In that part of Texas there are a number of low hills, about 200 to 300 feet tall,” he said. “The reason they are there at all is there’s a seam of iron ore at the top that is more resistant to erosion” than the surrounding countryside.

Strip-miners scraped off the top of the hill, but when most of the iron ore was depleted, the activity stopped, he said. Federal grants have provided $1.6 million to purchase and develop the place, and coalition members hold regular workdays for trail building and maintenance.

Despite its reputation as an “outlaw” sport, according to Thompson, nearly 80 percent of Barnwell’s riders earned more than $50,000 a year, and more than half earned more than $75,000, according to a 2005-06 study that Stephen F. Austin State University conducted for the Texas Motorized Trails Coalition.

Riders typically spent $458 during a visit to the facility, the study found.

“You’ve got to have a lot of disposable income for this kind of sport,” said Tony Eeds, the coalition president. “Blink an eye, and you’ve spent $25,000 if you’re not careful. That’s just the way it goes.”

From mud to dust

The next weekend at Barnwell Mountain, the rainy skies had cleared and the mud had dried into a coating of fine, red dust. Around 300 members of the Lone Star Jeep Club rolled into town, with more than 150 off-road vehicles in tow.

Mike Green, unofficial trail guide and a member of the Texas Motorized Trail Coalition’s board of directors, coached the other Jeep drivers in the strategies behind rock crawling. When one rider couldn’t climb out of a rut, Green decided to pull him out with a cable and winch. First, though, he issued a stern warning to the bystanders.

“Cables are really, really dangerous,” he said. “If it breaks in half, it will cut you in half. Any time you see a cable and winching, get out of the way.”

Watching Green at work were Clyde and Linda Stanford, who had climbed the trail with ease in their silver Jeep Rubicon. Clyde Stanford, an 82-year-old World War II veteran, said he helped found the park and managed it for the first five years.

Linda Stanford, a science teacher at Pine Tree High School, said she and her husband don’t ride the trails as hard as they used to, but they still enjoy the camaraderie with fellow trail-riders, and they still find time to marvel at the natural setting.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “You meet people in East Texas who say, ‘You’re going to what mountain?’ But you do get the sensation of being in the mountains here. Especially this time of year with all the dogwoods blooming, it’s prettier to be back in the woods than out on the highway.”

* * *

Is it really a mountain?

Barnwell Mountain rises dramatically from the East Texas landscape. It’s officially 600 feet above sea level – not exactly Mount McKinley.

So what is the difference between a hill and a mountain?

There’s no official distinction, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“Broad agreement on such questions is essentially impossible, which is why there are no official feature classification standards,” the Geological Survey writes online.

* * *

What they say

BENEFITING UPSHUR BUSINESSES

“There are a number of people out there on any weekend, but particularly on the weekends when they have a large event, both of our motels are completely full. At any of the local gas stations you can see lines of RVs and trucks pulling trailers with those motorized vehicles on them, buying gas and other things you buy at a convenience store. They (also) create a huge impact for our local restaurants. All those people eat.”

Dean Fowler, Upshur County judge

RIDING THE VARIED TERRAIN

“There’s not a lot of places to ride in East Texas that are so varied. There are sand mounds, hill climbs, light woods. Pretty much everything you run into in a race track, you’ll run into out here.”

Melody Dooly, Hughes Springs resident and cross-country dirt bike racer

Barnwell’s annual Upshur economic impact

Visitors: 5,200

Meals: $663,000

Fuel: $443,000

Lodging: $425,000

Parts/supplies: $190,000

Shopping: $62,000

Other: $8,000

Total: $1.79 million

Tax revenue: $70,700

Sources: Stephen F. Austin State University concluded a yearlong study of Barnwell Mountain’s economic impact on Upshur County in July 2006. The data was analyzed by Impact DataSource, an Austin-based consulting firm.