Meet the Black Hammock Wilderness

On Feb 2, I was pumped to get outdoors – too many days spent indoors of late – and to celebrate both Florida Hiking Trails Month and a morning spent with my good friends Joan Jarvis and Jon Phipps, plus guest and fellow F-Trooper John Mahoney, Joan drove us to a Seminole County wilderness area I hadn’t seen before: the Black Hammock Wilderness. Located at the far, far end of Howard Road (off DeLeon Rd, which leads to the well-known-in-these-parts Black Hammock Fish Camp) in the Black Hammock Agricultural Area, this preserved shoreline and floodplain of Lake Jesup is also a 0.9 mile walk from the Barr Street Trailhead, if you follow the Cross Seminole Trail down a rough track. With 4.5 miles of hiking, including two very lengthy boardwalks across the fern-filled floodplains, and a variety of habitats, it’s a great new spot to explore. We did less than half the round-trip walk, due to my own time constraints, but I’ll certainly be back to scope this one out in earnest, with GPS in hand.