Five-Star Trails: Orlando: Your Guide to the Area's Most Beautiful Hikes

by Sandra Friend

Overview

Lace Up, Grab Your Pack, and Hit the Trails in Central Florida!

Five-Star Trails: Orlando is a handy guide for area residents, vacationers seeking outdoor fun, and business travelers with a free afternoon. With a diverse collection of hiking routes, the book offers choices for everyone from solo trekkers to companions to families with either youngsters or oldsters to consider.

Researched, experienced, and written by local author Sandra Friend, the guide provides in-depth trail descriptions, directions, and commentary on what to expect along the way. Each hike features an individual trail map, elevation profile, and at-a-glance key info, helping readers quickly determine the perfect trip for them when they are ready to head out the door.

Sized to fit in a pocket, the book is convenient to keep in the car or toss into a backpack. Driving directions guide hikers to the nearest trailhead parking areas, and GPS trailhead coordinates get them to the start of the trail.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897329927
Publisher:	Menasha Ridge Press
Publication date:	11/06/2012
Series:	Five-Star Trails
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,037,734
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bowing to a bloodline of adventure that includes explorer Henry Hudson and Lappi reindeer herders, Sandra Friend walked away from a career in software design in the 1990s and headed to the woods. After getting her feet wet with outdoor writing in the mid-Atlantic and traveling backpacker-style across Greece, India, and Nepal with her sister, she carved out a niche with Florida hiking. After publication of her first five hiking books, she spent five years as Communications Director for the Florida Trail Association. With more than 3,000 miles logged on Florida's trails and a growing stack of publication credits, she's working on her 27th book. An avid outdoors enthusiast with a background in information systems and human-computer interaction, Sandra is known beyond her books for keeping up with the cutting edge of online communications, including rapid development of apps and websites. She owns and manages the popular hiking website Florida Hikes. Currently the chair of the Freelance Council of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and a member of the Board of Directors of Friends of Florida State Parks, Sandra has also served in many volunteer advisory roles over the years, among them director of the SATW Institute for Travel Writing & Photography, board member of the Florida Outdoor Writers Association, and as a long-time volunteer on the VISIT FLORIDA nature-based tourism committee.

Read an Excerpt

Black Hammock Wilderness Area
Scenery: 5 stars
Trail Condition: 4 stars
Children: 3 stars
Difficulty: 4 stars
Solitude: 4 stars

GPS TRAILHEAD COORDINATES: N28° 41.962' W81° 09.553'
DISTANCE & CONFIGURATION: 4.5-mile balloon
HIKING TIME: 2.5 hours
HIGHLIGHTS: Long boardwalks; diverse flora habitat, including semitropical hammock; sheltered benches
ACCESS: Free; open daily, sunrise–sunset
MAPS: USGS Oviedo
FACILITIES: None
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Graded shell rock leads to a long, accessible boardwalk
COMMENTS: Limited parking; strenuous hiking in scrub portion of the trail
CONTACTS: Seminole County Natural Lands Program [phone]; seminolecountyfl .gov/parksrec/naturallands/blackhammock.aspx

Overview

In more than 700 acres along the rim of Lake Jesup, the trails of Black Hammock Wilderness Area provide an exploration of habitats affected by the proximity of this 25-square-mile shallow lake. Two lengthy and narrow boardwalks over a floodplain forest form a bridge to an upland hammock, pond pine flatwoods, and a loop within open scrub. While you never see the lake, which is an arm of the “River of Lakes” of the St. Johns River, its effect on the landscape is notable in the diversity of plant life along the trail.

Route Details

Leaving the parking area, stop and sign in at the kiosk, where you can pick up trail info and maps. The trail enters a diminutive scrub forest where a footpath of bright white sand and crunchy shell rock meanders among saw palmetto trees. Just beyond them are tall loblolly bay trees, providing an interesting interface of dry and wet habitats. Approaching the boardwalk, you duck under the oaks. Here, just north of Oviedo—named Tree City U.S.A. year after year and where vegetable farming has gone on for more than a century—you will see a plaque dedicating the boardwalk to Jim Logue. He was a local resident who worked to ensure the Black Hammock would remain a protected rural area as suburban sprawl crept close.

The boardwalk is such a major feature of the hike that it’s worth coming out just to walk that. Narrow and long, it tunnels through the woods, carrying you a few feet above the floodplain forest. Insistent thistle rises from the forest floor to show off puffy purple blooms, and tall, spindly cabbage palms tower overhead. Your perspective is turned skyward to marvel at the canopy of trees, but take the time to peer over the railing too, to see the thickets of ferns. The boardwalk ends on an island in the floodplain, where needle palms form a backdrop beneath oaks and cabbage palms, and colorful fungi peep out from fallen logs.

As you reach a second boardwalk, look up and notice the bromeliads making the limbs of the oak trees look fuzzy. Tall cedars and loblolly pines intersperse with cabbage palms and sweetgum trees. This boardwalk drops you into a forest dense with southern magnolias. Thick bromeliads filling the upper branches of the oaks look like rows of hanging flags. By now you’ve discovered the natural beauty of Black Hammock, lush vegetation brought about by high humidity in the hardwood forest. Blue and silver markers indicate the distinct path.

Crossing a bridge over a creek that drains toward Lake Jesup, you’ve walked nearly a mile. This is where the trail begins to rise up into scrubby pine flatwoods, where there is little shade but still many songbirds. At the T-intersection, turn right. Pond pine grows along the edges of the road, distinctive with its needles seeming to pop out of the tree trunks. At the fork, turn left, following the arrow. The sand gets soft underfoot. If you are here in springtime, you will note the gallberry shrubs sporting their magenta blooms.

At 1.4 miles you reach a trail junction. Continue straight to a large bridge over an ephemeral waterway and a bench soon after. Immediately after the bench, there’s a trail junction. Keep right to find the well-marked start of a 1.7-mile path that loops through pine flatwoods and scrub, back to this junction. (As you follow the trail, watch for the trail markers, as the scrub forest is crisscrossed with firebreaks and alternative trails where you can get pretty lost if you don’t carefully stay to the main route.) The trail goes through an area that gets seasonally wet, so dress accordingly. A little elevation gain and you’re into the scrub, with Chapman and myrtle oak growing in the white sand and no shade overhead.

At 2.1 miles, after you pass a prairie on the left, you will spot a bench for a quick rest if you want to pause. Otherwise, turn right and continue into the sand pine scrub. It looks like good Florida scrub-jay habitat, with lots of rusty lyonia. At the T-intersection, turn left. The footpath turns to soft white sand—pretty but difficult to walk in. At the next bench, the trail turns left to start back along the loop. Going left again at the next fork, the trail drops back into pond pine flatwoods, thankfully out of the sugar-soft sand. Go straight ahead at the next trail junction.

Coming around a corner framed by young pond pines, you reach another bench at 2.6 miles. Pines close in more thickly, and the walls of saw palmetto rise taller as the trail continues its moderate descent. At the unmarked fork in the trail, turn left and look for an arrow on a pine tree, a confirmation blaze. At the next intersection, you’ve completed the loop. Turn right and you’ll see the back side of the sign marking the beginning of the loop.

At 3.1 miles pass the bridge to start your return to the boardwalk. Watch for the trail markers to guide you back through the scrubby flatwoods. When you see a house to the right, keep left at that fork to head back into the delightful shade of the hardwood hammock, following the trail as it winds back around the small bridge. Around 3.6 miles it appears that the trail goes straight into the woods at a place where there is some graffiti on a tree. Turn left to stay on the main trail. Once you’re back on the boardwalk, your route is obvious. Savor the views on your way back to the trailhead.

Nearby Attractions

Lake Jesup Conservation Area (Hike 6, page 54) is within close proximity to this hike and provides a place to see the lake, as does the funky fish camp, Black Hammock Adventures, at the other point of this dead-end road. Along with fishing, this lively nightspot includes live alligators, airboat rides, a tiki bar on Lake Jesup, and an excellent seafood restaurant. Visit theblackhammock.com.

Directions

From FL 417, Exit 44, follow FL 434 toward Oviedo. After 1 mile, turn left at the Black Hammock sign on the curve onto DeLeon Street. Continue down DeLeon Street to a T at Howard Avenue. Turn right onto Howard Avenue and drive 3 miles to its end, where the road narrows. Please drive slowly, as there may be equestrians or children on the road. Be respectful of private property along the road and park only in the parking corral at the trailhead.

Table of Contents

Overview Map
Overview Map Key
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface
Recommended Hikes
Introduction

Northeast
1. Black Hammock Wilderness Area
2. Florida Trail: Little Big Econ State Forest
3. Green Spring Park
4. Hickory Bluff Preserve
5. Lake Harney Wilderness Area
6. Lake Jesup Conservation Area: East Tract
7. Lake Monroe Conservation Area: Kratzert Tract
8. Lyonia Preserve
9. Spring Hammock Preserve
10. Wiregrass Prairie Preserve

East
11. Econlockhatchee Sandhills Conservation Area
12. Econ River Wilderness Area
13. Florida Trail: Bronson State Forest
14. Florida Trail: Mills Creek Woodlands
15. Lake Mills Park
16. Orlando Wetlands Park
17. Pine Lily Preserve
18. Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area

South
19. Lake Runnymede Conservation Area
20. Shingle Creek Regional Park: Historic Babb Landing
21. Shingle Creek Regional Park: Historic Steffee Homestead
22. Taylor Creek Loop
23. Triple N Ranch Wildlife Management Area

West
24. Bill Frederick Park at Turkey Lake
25. Lake Louisa State Park
26. Oakland Nature Preserve
27. Tibet-Butler Preserve

Northwest
28. Blue Spring State Park: Blue Spring Trail
29. Blue Spring State Park: Pine Island Trail
30. Florida Trail: Seminole State Forest
31. Gemini Springs Park
32. Kelly Park
33. Lake Lotus Park
34. Seminole State Forest: Lower Wekiva Loop
35. St. Francis Trail
36. Trimble Park
37. Wekiwa Springs Hiking Trail

Appendix A: Outdoor Retailers
Appendix B: Map Resources
Appendix C: Hiking Clubs
Index
About the Author
Map Legend