Just got a heads-up from my friend Joan in Oviedo regards the sad state of the Florida Trail at Little Big Econ State Forest after severe flooding from Tropical Storm Fay:

“There are dire signs warning that bridges are out, and if you hike in there you
can be charged with trespassing..  Someone had crashed through a wooden barrier
into the parking lot.

Since Jon has been supervising the trail in there, we went in anyhow to survey
what was going on.  Up until this weekend or so, the river had flooded so badly
that you wouldn’t have been able to get far anyhow. 

Only now, there is no trail from just past where you first get to the river. 
The trail, which was right above the river, has been washed out.  We tried to
bushwhack around that area, but there is still standing water in low spots and
the grass in higher spots is waist high. 

We gave up and tried going toward Lockwood Road.  The trail is still soggy and
was obviously flooded over.  And it STINKS in there, a smell a good bit like pig
sewage.  We made it to the first bridge in that direction.  The bridge had been
lifted up and moved, by the water, I think.  It’s totally unsafe. 

FYI, it may be awhile before serious cleanup can be completed. A real shame given all the fine effort put in by various F-Troop trail crews since 2004.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 7:17 pm and is filed under Central, Florida Trail, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.