The Florida Trail: November 2008

Ocala National Forest Eaton Creek to SR 40

We had difficulty locating a spot to park for this trail as we did not want to take the road walk on 314 to the Marshall Trail Swamp Trailhead, so we shuttled from the Fire Estinguisher store on SR 40 in the heart of the forest. We began our hike ten miles

north at the Eaton Creek trailhead. We toured a sinkhole before we got started which provided some excellent "tree shots". Tree huggers K&K were delighted. At the

beginning of the trail head there was a sign that warned us that some of the trail could be under water. I was a bit concerned, however K&K again seemed delighted. It was a poorly maintained less traveled trail that did indeed go

underwater for almost a half a mile. At the end of the hike we came accross some hunters with a kennel of dogs on the back of a pickup truck. We heard the dogs barking for miles. We questioned about what animal they had found

and the hunter said "dem dogs will bark all day if you let em" . We found our way out to SR 40 and finished off the day with a 4 dollar barbeque plate at a famous bbq pit in the forest.

Yearling Trail to Hopkins Prarie

This hike was through a small portion of the Ocala National Forest, a well hiked portion of the Florida Trail. We were kayaking in the forest (Juniper Springs to Lake George) and we decided to knock out a small section from Hopkins Prarie to the Yearling Trail Head on SR 19.

There was an abundance of wildlife, as the trail meandered through several types of habitats ending at Hopkins Prarie. Although only 3 miles, this hike was surely one of the bests we had been on.

Bull Creek to Florida Forever

This was the last section of the 3 lakes/bull creek section of the florida trail. We parked one vehicle at the Forever Florida (a working cattle ranch that provides tours of the real florida in a swmp buggy) and started the hike at the Bull Creek Trail Head on 192. We started the hike, but had to return to the car after making it to the mary jane campsite.

It was a very interesting hike as we traveled through some vast wastelands of prarie and palmettos. As a fan of bridges and styles we crossed some interesting terrain saw some interesting shrooms and pitcher plants and unique tree formations.

South Tosohatchee

This trail is close to the Orlando Airport, so it was a perfect 4 mile hike on the way back to the V. We had already completed the section of the Tosohatchee North of the beeline, but had not ventured through the section south of 520. We parked at the trailhead at 520 and completed this swampy trek to Taylor Creek and back.

Withlacoochee State Trail

This stretch of the western conector goes from the withlacoochee state forest connecting to the florida greenway in Dunellon. There has been some changes to the trail as we found along the way.The map we have shows the FT utilizing a rail trail (one of the longest in the state) called the withlacoochee state trail. There were two disc golf courses along the trail and Ft Cooper State Park. Lucky break with a bike shop on the way to repair housekeys broken pedal, I mean come on those bikes are 20 years old be a little gentle on the pedal. The kayaks got in the way this time causing our trip to go in reverse, thereby ending the rail trail adventure a day early.