I hiked the Trailway from South Plains to the Clarity Tunnel and back on Thursday, October 6, 2010. As noted in another review, the first few miles are pretty rough. In fact, the first 2.5 to three miles is like walking across a pasture with rocks. After those first three miles, however, it becomes pretty much a dirt road (still with quite a bit of rock) that appears to be used fairly frequently. Here, it also begins to parallel the canyon, providing regular views from right along the side of the canyon. From South Plains, it is about 12.8 miles to Clarity Tunnel, and mostly all down-hill, a fact I didn't truly realize until I turned around to go back to the truck.
About 6.8 miles from South Plains is the first official rest stop, the John Farris Station. Here you find a toilet and water supply. Although the printed literature for the trailway says not to count on finding water here, it was available when I went through. There is an additional toilet at Clarity Tunnel. On this hike, I did not encounter any other person. My total distance was 25.4 miles and it took me 10.5 hours.
Do not expect to find any trash containers on the trail. I picked up some trash others had left, but found no place to dispose of it.

On October 13, my 10-year old son and I hiked from Monk's Crossing to Clarity Tunnel, a distance of about 4.5 miles. The path here is very well maintained, with a crushed rock type surface. The bridges have recently been redone as well, though I'd be careful on a bike since some of the screws used are not completely flush with the surface of the boards. Although we saw a water container at this end of Clarity Tunnel, it did not have water in it.

I intend to continue hiking the Trailway to Estelline if possible, and will update my findings in later posts.

I recently drove from New Mexico to the Texas Panhandle specifically to ride the CCSPT. When I arrived, I learned that instead of the 64 miles listed on Websites, only 32 miles were available, as the 32 miles from Estelline to Turkey is not maintained. At the Turkey end it appears completely overgrown with grass. So I went to South Plains to ride to Turkey, but I bailed out after half a mile. The surface--large chunks of cinders and slag and tufts of grass--was all but unridable, even on my tough, fat-tired touring bike. It was like riding over RR ties. Later I was told at the Hotel Turkey (a great place) that other riders have complained about the trail being too rough. After I bailed, I had a great ride to Turkey on the rural roads--all paved, good shoulders, light traffic, and courteous drivers. But the trail itself was a bummer.

As a child growing up near the FW&D switchyard in Lubbock I am well familiar with the rail history
behind the Caprock Canyons State Park Trailway. The Ft. Worth and Denver railroad ran freight trains
from Lubbock to Childress via this line for years. My favorite steam engine #404 ran this line regularly
carrying freight and cotton from the Plains Co-op Oil Mill in Lubbock. I have often dreamed of walking
the old rail line and now have the opportunity to walk/ride at least part of it. There were only 2 or 3
railroad tunnels in the whole state of Texas and 2 are on the FW&D line to Childress.