Second Place, Outdoor Book. Florida Outdoor Writers Association, 2014
Concentrating on hiking trails found within an hour of either community, Five Star Trails Gainesville & Ocala shows off both urban woodlands and wilderness trails in a diverse mix of habitats throughout a four-county region.
With 38 hikes, many appearing in print for the first time, the book includes a mix of easy walks and longer day hikes. It includes some of our favorite hikes along the Florida Trail in the Ocala National Forest and on the Cross Florida Greenway.
Important: Since publication of this guidebook, the dog policy in the Ocala National Forest has changed. Dogs are no longer permitted on the trails at Juniper Springs Recreation Area, or at any trail that goes near any spring or swimming area.
The list of hikes below is what you’ll find inside the covers of this guide. As promised in the Appendix to this book, the following links enable you to download the GPS tracks we collected to make the maps in this guidebook. All were collected with a Garmin Oregon 400t or Garmin Dakota 20 and annotated in Garmin Basecamp. Right-click on the download link and use “Save Link As” to save the GPX file to your computer.
Please respect the availability of these GPS tracks for your personal use only; do not upload them to other websites. Thank you!
The image links lead to galleries for each hike on our Flickr site so you can take a virtual hike before hitting the trail.
Gainesville
1.Alfred Ring Park,(PHOTOS)
2.Barr Hammock Preserve,(PHOTOS)
3.Biven’s Arm Nature Park,(PHOTOS)
4.Devil’s Millhopper Geologic State Park,(PHOTOS)
5.John Mahon Nature Park,(PHOTOS)
6.Loblolly Woods Nature Park,(PHOTOS)
7.Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve,(PHOTOS)
8.Morningside Nature Center,(PHOTOS)
9.Mill Creek Preserve,,(PHOTOS)
10.Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park: La Chua Trail,(PHOTOS)
11.Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park: Wacahoota Trail,(PHOTOS)
12.Prairie Creek Preserve,(PHOTOS)
13.San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park: Moonshine Creek Trails,(PHOTOS)
14.San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park: North Hiking Trails,(PHOTOS)
15.San Felasco Park,(PHOTOS)
16.Sweetwater Preserve,(PHOTOS)
17.Tuscawilla Preserve,(PHOTOS)
18.University of Florida NATL Nature Trails,(PHOTOS)
19.Watermelon Pond Preserve,(PHOTOS)
Ocala National Forest
20.Davenport Landing Trail,(PHOTOS)
21.Florida Trail: Pat’s Island to Hidden Pond,(PHOTOS)
22.Florida Trail: Rodman to Lake Delancy,(PHOTOS)
23. Juniper Springs Nature Trail,(PHOTOS)
24.Lake Eaton Trails,(PHOTOS)
25.Salt Springs Observation Trail,(PHOTOS)
Cross Florida Greenway
26.Florida Trail: Pruitt,(PHOTOS)
27.Florida Trail: Santos,(PHOTOS)
28.Florida Trail: SW 49th Ave to Land Bridge,(PHOTOS)
29.Land Bridge Loop,(PHOTOS)
30.Marshall Swamp Trail,(PHOTOS)
Ocala
31.Carney Island Recreation and Conservation Area,(PHOTOS)
32.Goethe State Forest: Big Cypress Trail,(PHOTOS)
33.Goethe State Forest: Buck Island Pond,(PHOTOS)
34.Ocklawaha Prairie Restoration Area,(PHOTOS)
35.Rainbow Springs State Park: Sandhill Nature Trail,(PHOTOS)
36.Sholom Park,(PHOTOS)
37.Silver Springs State Park: River Trails,(PHOTOS)
38.Silver Springs State Park: Sandhill and Sinkhole Trails,(PHOTOS)
You can purchase this guide online or patronize a Florida bookstore or outdoor retailer to pick up a copy.