Floridas National Scenic Trail

If you are like me, you love The Parks but also like to get off and see the ' Real Florida' from time to time.

If you like walking then you should think about looking into Florida' s National Scenic Trails.

The inspiration came from a Miami resident who visited the famous Appalachian Trail. His name was Jim Kern and he came back home all fired up to start a similar system in his native State.

Now these trails are expanded and maintained by an army of volunteers across Florida and is 1 of only11 Nationally recognised scenic trails.

The first trail was in The Ocala National Park and the eventual aim is to have a continuous wilderness corridor.

In 2008 the Florida Trail was voted ' Best Trails State Award' by the American Trails Association. What an accolade!

Now to detail some trails:

The Florida Trail to Osceola Park Forest: this trail is over 18 miles long and the nearest city is Lake City.
www. dep. state. fl. us/gwt/guide/regions/north/trails/osceola_forest. htm

Cross Florida Greenway: this trail runs from The Gulf Coast to St John River. Here you can see both the sites of a digging and also parts of a canal. Natural features include sand pine scrub, long leaf sand pine and lob lolly pines in the wet areas.
www. dep. state. fl. us/gwt/guide/regions/crossflorida/trails/landbridge. htm

Cross Seminole Trail: this trail runs from Winter Springs to Oviedo. This is an exceptionally beautiful trail and is thick with vegetation natural to its various parts.
www. dep. state. fl. us/gwt/guide/regions/eastcentral/trails/cross_seminole. htm

Talahasse to St Historic Railroad Trail: this trail runs from Talahassee to St Marks. The railway was used to transport cotton from the plantations to the coast from whre to was to despatch to the English cotton mills. This was around the 1800s
www. dep. state. fl. us/gwtguide/region/panhandleeast/trails/talahassee_stmarks. htm

The Florida Trail in Appalachicola Natural Forest Nearest city is Tallahassee. This trail mainly consists of titi swamp, dry pine and palmetto fields.

The Florida Trail in the Ocala National Forest: This trail can be accessed from various points including The Alexander Springs recreation area, Salt Springs recreation area and Juniper Springs recreation area. The natural community includes hard wood forest, pine island, prairie and ponds
www. dep. state. fl. us/gwt/guide/regions/crossflorida/trails/ocala_nat_forest. htm

As with most of these more wild areas take all you need with you. Definitely water, snacks (trail mix? ) sun screen, sun hat and comfortable shoes. A compass is useful and in the summer months an effective insect repellant. A roll up map if you fear rain and a camera to capture some memories. We always like to take a small pair of binoculars to spy a passing bird too.