June 8th, 2008 Sandra Friend
According to an article yesterday in The Suncoast News, the new management plan for Brooker Creek Preserve includes a plan to create a network of hiking trails that includes a set of boardwalks between the Four Lake Hammock area to the Anclote River. The city of Oldsmar has also asked that a hiking trail be created in the southern part of the preserve with access from the city. This is great news for those of us who’ve hiked the Friends Trail in the preserve and have hoped for more access to one of Florida’s largest urban wilderness areas.
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June 16th, 2007 Sandra Friend
Just back from a week on the road and visited the Upper Suwannee valley today. The good news is the Bugaboo fire is almost out, now down to about 100 firefighters mopping up tiny outbreaks in the Osceola National Forest and adjacent lands. The bad news is the Bugaboo pretty much erased the pine forest and bayheads of the Big Gum Swamp Wilderness Area, which means the end of the Big Gum Swamp Trail until someone decides to blaze it again after the forest grows back, which will take a couple of years.
This affects the following guidebooks of mine:
The Hiking Trails of Florida’s National Parks, Forests, and Preserves
Pages 147-148
50 Hikes in North Florida
Hike 11 (page 100)
Hiker’s Guide to the Sunshine State
Hike NF-18 (page 167)
If you have these guidebooks, please note that this trail may be closed for several years, if not permanently. I’ll keep you posted here if I hear otherwise.
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May 18th, 2007 Sandra Friend
Lifting up my head from my work on the book to note that wildfires have decmiated the Florida Trail in Seminole State Forest and the Royal Trails area north to Maggie Jones Road. While it’s not known how much of the trail still exists in the Osecola National Forest, the prospects aren’t great - the Bugaboo Fire is the largest wildfire Florida has ever seen and it’s still burning. The trail is closed from Ocean Pond west to Camp Branch west of White Springs, and I’d suggest not going near the whole upper Suwannee Valley for hiking due to the smoke. From the locator maps, I’d venture a guess that the Big Gum Swamp Trail and Fanny Bay Trails have been wiped out, but will wait for official comment on that. Down south, fires in the Big Cypress Swamp are close enough to the Florida Trail to cause smoke inhalation problems. I wouldn’t recommend hiking down there right now.
For official details about the Florida Trail closures, see www.floridatrail.org. Be careful out there!
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May 11th, 2007 Sandra Friend
Just discovered that the Jenkins Trail at Tiger Creek Preserve has been closed due to hurricane damage and flooding and a lack of volunteers to maintain it … sorry to hear! If anyone lives near Lake Walk-in-the-Water in Polk County (east of Lake Wales / Frostproof) and wants to assist reopening the trail, contact The Nature Conservancy at (863) 635-7506
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