Northeast Texas is one of the fastest growing areas in the Country, and has been for the last few years. Last I checked, the small old town of Celina had become the fastest growing City in North Texas. I read yesterday that the town of Princeton has halted issuing building permits because they cannot keep pace with the need for infrastructure.

A buddy and I rode up to Aubrey to look a piece of rural land his Sister and BIL had bought. It was a nice ride on the way there. It was a week day so on the way back we decided to take the short route home. At Prosper we could see alot of new construction going on as we headed to SH380. We got stuck in afternoon traffic just north of 380 where new homes and roads are being built.

What used to be small sleepy farming and ranching Towns are growing like crazy with new housing development. $400-600 thousand dollar homes are being built. Some communities are $500 thousand to $1million dollar homes, and there's nothing else around but farm and ranch land. Where do the people work?

The growth in Northeast Texas is affecting the once great motorcycle roads that are in this area. And that's not good. There used to be small towns one after the other from SH380 to the Red River with no red lights. And also from I-35 to SH19 was great rural countryside riding. Progress is ruining motorcycle riding in Northeast Texas. I'll have to venture further out to avoid urban sprawl.


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If anyone has some favorite roads to ride in Northeast Texas, please feel free to share them here.

Off the top of my head, comes to mind a lunch ride to Bonham, Tx.
SH78 starts in Garland, Tx. Pick it up anywhere along the way. I like to ride East across Lake Lavon to get on SH78. Head North on 78 all the way to Bonham for lunch. This is an easy ride through the country country side and through several small towns. Because of my location, once I get to Lake Lavon I can ride either North or East and be outside of city traffic for miles and miles.

Keep the Shiney side up, and let me know where you like to ride.

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The area around Jefferson and Marshall (Caddo lake) is nice. It has grown some, but still smaller roads to ride on.

Paul

 

I ride this area all of the time, I live in Longview, so this is my main riding area. There are plenty of long loops and back roads in this part of Texas. I usually run north out of town about 40 miles and then head east. You can run back roads over into Louisiana and it is all small towns and good scenery. I run some of the Louisiana roads for a while south and come back west into Jefferson mid to late afternoon for a beer stop. From Jefferson back to my house is another 45 miles or so. This usually ends up being a nice 150 mile day.
I need to run some more of Louisiana to get more familiar with the roads.

 

Best rides in Texas are in Arkansas!