For Central Florida residents the Seminole State Forest offers a variety of options for outdoor activities. Near the parking area visitors enjoy fishing in Bear Lake. From the same location, hikers may head down a section of the Florida Trail which passes through the Forest. There are also options for bicyclists and horseback riders.
On Saturday, April 4th, we headed to the forest to do some hiking. The day was a perfect blend of cool temperatures and a pleasant breeze. As we approached the trail head we overheard a father at the self pay station explaining to his kids that he didn’t have the cash to pay for entry. Now he could have set a bad example and parked without paying, but he wouldn’t do it. I heard him reply to one of the kids “you can’t just forget to pay for a candy bar in a store, this is no different.” We were so touched by his honesty that my husband called him over and gave him the entry fee. This father’s honesty was more refreshing than the beautiful morning and helped restore our faith in society.
Back to the trail….
We headed a mile up the Florida Trail to the first camping shelter. The shelter is reminiscent of those found on the Appalachian Trail, with a roof and three sides. Nearby are a fire ring and a large open grassy area for tents or just hanging out. From here we branched of on the white blazed loop, hiking it halfway to the next shelter before cutting over to the yellow blazed horse trail. To this point the trail is graced with oak hammock and many birds. Some areas were open scrub. The horse trail is almost completely comprised of a sandy road bed so we returned to the orange blazed Florida Trail at the first opportunity. We remained on this for the remainder over the hike back toward the parking area. Along the way we noticed numerous animal tracks including turkey, some kind of cat and lots of raccoon. All together our loop was approximately 6 mi according to the map. My IPhone logged it at 7.2 mi Every Trail logged it as 4.6. Either way it was just over two hours of very pleasant hiking and we look forward to returning soon to hike one of the many other trails in the Seminole Forest. View a map and more pictures of this hike on EveryTrail.com.
