Nature trail at Pay-Hay-Okee

It’s officially winter in Florida, when thoughts turn to pink flamingos … and Everglades National Park.  For the next 90 days or so, it’s prime time to visit this unique wilderness along the tip of Florida’s peninsula.  “There are no other Everglades in the world,” wrote Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, advocate for the creation of the park, which was established in 1947.

Things have changed a lot in the past forty years of my visits to Everglades National Park.  Birds we once saw in multitude in the 1960s - the most colorful being roseate spoonbills, glossy ibis, and flamingos - dwindled from significant flocks to handfuls of individuals. Saltwater has crept further north into the river of grass as the channelization of natural rainwater flow has spirited it away from nourishing the Everglades to instead feed the hungry agricultural concerns around Lake Okeechobee and the burgeoning population along Florida’s southeastern coast. Invasive species are affecting the ecosystem, most notably for hikers, pythons and anacondas let loose by people who no longer want them as pets. Last I visited, the rangers no longer recommend backcountry camping for hikers. Hurricane Wilma ruined the lodge and cabins at Flamingo, which are no longer available for travelers.

You can still camp, of course, at Flamingo and Long Pine Key.  Mosquitoes are less of a hassle this time of year, and there are plenty of day hikes along the length of the Main Park Road. I’ll be sharing a handful over the next couple of months. First on deck: the Snake Bight and Rowdy Bend trails, which can be hiked as a loop or in part as an out-and-back. Enjoy!

Where in Florida am I? I took this image at sunset today (with the moon rising), and it wasn’t on a hiking trail.

However, there are several excellent places to hike within 15 minutes of here, three of which are in one of my 50 Hikes guides.

I’m headed out over the next two days to explore newer trails in this area that aren’t in any of my books, so I can share them on Florida Hikes!

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I took my parents with me this weekend on an exploration of the trails at Chinsegut Wildlife & Environmental Area near Brooksville. Here’s Mom taking photos of some of the incredibly tall longleaf pines in this stand of virgin forest.

This patch of forest is little-known and, on a perfect sunny morn, we had the entire preserve to ourselves. It’s undergoing restoration of the understory, which probably hadn’t been burned in some time.

Just up the road (and connected by a 2-mile trail that we did not hike, the Prairie to Pines), we did a second hike at the Nature Center Tract. I was surprised that, on such a sunny, cool morning, no one else was out on a hike. But then, I think this may be the only place you’ll find information on the trails other than the FWC website, as I do not have them in any of my books - they’re new to me! - and I don’t think they appear in any others. What a serendipitous find!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to cruise the Dora Canal with Blue Heron Cruises out of the Lakeside Inn in Mt. Dora. It’s been nearly 5 years since my last trip down the canal, and I’d forgotten just how much of a wonderland of ancient cypresses is hiding in there. It’s truly one of Florida’s surprises - you can hardly fathom you’re just a mile from busy US 441. The afternoon was overcast and bitter cold on the water for the crossing across Lake Dora, but the wildlife didn’t seem to mind. In addition to ubiquitous great blue herons, we spotted a nesting pair of bald eagles, some tri-colored herons, numerous egrets, a yellow-crowned night heron, and - for the first time in my life - a black-crowned night heron peacefully roosting in a tree. Lots of wood ducks, too. Few of my bird photos came out, and I can only suppose it’s due to the lesser optics of my camera and the fact the boat was moving. But I did catch this otter that raced our boat down the waterway, thinking he was a dolphin. He surprised us by scrambling up and over a couple of logs, and posed momentarily on this one. That’s what otters do best!

To make this hiking-related, you can’t hike along the Dora Canal, but there is a new blueway paddling trail through this primeval forest. Back at Mount Dora, however, you can immerse in a dense hammock of cypress, palm, and live oak and watch for birds or just while away the afternoon on a sunny bench. Follow the trail at Palm Island Park and capture a little glimpse of what awaits if you take a tour of the Dora Canal.

In our North Florida explorations yesterday, one goal of mine was to visit the Cellon Oak, Florida’s largest live oak (in terms of crown spread) and the current cover photo of Big Trees: The Florida Register, where it’s shown with 20 people holding hands at arm’s length trying to approximate the crown spread. To step right up to it: wow. It’s its own world. You can see it through satellite photos from Google Earth, it’s so darn big. A crowd spread of 160 feet, according to the 1997 book; the plaque in front of the tree claims a height of 79 feet and circumference of 28.7 feet, but those figures date back 20 years. Steel cables serve as lightening arrestors and are strung through the tree like vines. Limbs bigger than many of Florida’s big trees have been sawed off, presumably to arrest stages of rot. It’s an amazing sight. To visit the Cellon Oak, follow SR 121 north from Gainesville toward La Crosse. A small brown sign points the way (left turn) down NW 169th PL to the park, which is open dawn to dusk. No hiking trails: just one incredible tree.