Withlacoochee State Trail: Best biking trail in Florida?

The best and the longest of the paved trails in Florida. We rode sections twice. Once from the Silver Lake Campground - photos here - going through the Croom Tract of the Withlacoochee Forest, and the second time from the South Citrus Springs trailhead by the northern end of the trail.  

This biking trail is 46 miles long - 74 km. The path travels through three counties - Citrus, Hernando, and Pasco - following the Withlacoochee River. Also goes through some small cities, among them the picturesque Floral City.

The Withlacoochee State Trail is another of those repurposed railroad lines made possible by the Florida Rails to Trails Program - a very good idea. The original railroad was built in the 1880s by Henry Plant and was known as the Plant System’s West Coast Route. Memories of those times survive in the old markers along the modern trail. 

There are many trailheads to access the Withlacoochee State Trail. Some are parks and most are free. One of them is Fort Cooper State Park - need to pay to enter. This is the spot of a fort from the Second Seminole War. It was sieged by Indians under the command of the famous Osceola for 16 days. Fort Cooper was abandoned at the end of the war in 1842 - this war lasted seven years. The fort was named after Major Mark Anthony Cooper, the builder and commander of the outpost. 

More photos from the Withlacoochee State Trail follow. 

Bench in Withlacoochee State Trail, Florida - Photo: Stillgravity.
There are spots to chillout along the way. 

Truck camper in the South Citrus Spring Trailhead of the Withlacoochee State Trail, Florida - Photo: Stillgravity.
South Citrus Springs trailhead parking lot.         

The Croom section of the Withlacoochee State Trail, Florida - Photo: Stillgravity.
Croom section of the Withlacoochee State Trail. 

Map of the Croom Mountain Bike trails map in a trailhead of the Withlacoochee State Forest, Florida - Photo: Stillgravity.
The mountain bike trails through the Croom Tract of the forest. 

Red-spotted purple butterfly on a bench of the Withlacoochee State Trail, Florida - Photo: Stillgravity.
We found a Red-spotted purple butterfly.
   

Map of the Withlacoochee State Trail in northern Florida - Photo: Stillgravity.
Map of the Withlacoochee State Trail. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chekika: Forgotten spot of Everglades National Park close to Miami

Image
During our last visit to Chekika ( map ), we found closed roads and dilapidated buildings. This was our fourth time here. Little by little, nature is coming back. Wilderness taking over what was always its property.            The closed entrance to the Grossman Hammock -  License our images here .   Everglades National Park closed indefinitely the Chekika Day Use Area in 2013. They claimed budget constraints. One year later, Chekika was on the news when a juvenile Nile crocodile was removed from the area - the animal was captured in a canal north from the Grossman Hammock. Two others were caught in 2009 and 2012 further to the east. You know the script with invasive species: they escaped, or someone released them.  The Everglades already have the mighty Pythons running wild. I don’t want to imagine the River of Grass ruled by “man-eaters” crocodiles that can reach up to 17 feet. That would be madness. 
More »

Google search and the little blog

Image
Many small websites are going dark like the sands of the desert at nightfall -  License our images here .   Little blogs are dying. They are jailed in a dark and remote dungeon of Google organic search, the non-index dungeon. The mighty gatekeeper, like Saturn , is devouring its children. Betrayed for money, the good old-fashioned blogs are the collateral damage of their "helpful" content update. Long gone is that 2004 when Loren Baker wrote: Google likes Blogs. Blogs do well in Search Results Listings on Google. This is because Blogs contain fresh content and are richly interlinked, despite their relatively small audiences. Some would go so far as to say that Google over-represents Blogs. (Source:  What if Google didn't like blogs? ") That's ancient history. A jump to 2022 shows a different picture. According to Sandy Maguire: The Internet is dominated by a few big websites. Out of social, the amateur opinion is vanished. (Source: " Why Is the Web So Monoto
More »

Ernest Hemingway's "Oklahoma": "All of the Indians are dead (a good Indian is a dead Indian)"

Image
Page of an edition of "Three Stories & Ten Poems" from Ernest Hemingway.  Here we go with Hemingway poetry. Harsh. But we know what to expect from his sharp journalistic prose and  iceberg theory .  "Oklahoma" was published in 1923 in Three Stories & Ten Poems   - affiliate link to Amazon . The name says it all: the "Oklahoma" of the Choctaw language - means "red people" -, and Oklahoma the state seen through its genesis, the Indian Territory .  American Indians or Native American - whatever suits you, but many of them prefer the first name - in their new way of life.   Now to the poem.  All of the Indians are dead (a good Indian is a dead Indian) Or riding in motor cars— (the oil lands, you know, they’re all rich) Smoke smarts my eyes, Cottonwood twigs and buffalo dung Smoke grey in the teepee— (or is it myopic trachoma) The prairies are long, The moon rises, Ponies Drag at their pickets. The grass has gone brown in the summer— (or is it
More »