Monday the 21st of April, I took on a huge walk through a portion of woods I had never ventured in before. I parked at the Power Line in Pellicer Creek Preserve and took off on foot north along the utility road until reaching a trail that took off to the NE through the woods. The powerline road is quite open and I spotted some prickly pear cactus along the route. After turning off the power line, I entered dry pine woods and started seeing all kinds of pawpaw, some in bloom and others beyond that. Pawpaw are sprawly open shrubs, easy to identify from their large drooping blossoms.

At some point I entered the western boundary of Princess Place Preserve and joined up with the Equestrian Trail. If you look on the map, it is the thick red one on the left (west) portion of the preserve. It is 4.6 miles long.

These woods parallel the Preserve road, but have little traffic. The path is sandy and soft in some places, grassy in others. It’s all open pine woods spotted with shrubs and undergrowth. The trail is covered with the crunchy brown oak leaves shed from the Sand Live Oak.

This huge oak is near where horse trailers can pull up in the park and unload their animals. A large group site is located nearby. The Longleaf Trail started just beyond the oak.

Trail marker along the route.

Surprised Prickly Pear grows in Florida? Several species of Opuntia are native to Florida and typically grow in sandy spare soil with sunny exposure. I’ve seen it at North Peninsula SP and now at Pellicer Creek & Princess Place. It is just coming into flower. I’ve also seen happy cactus plants growing in people’s gardens in a sunny, hot site like next to a driveway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia

After completing the Equestrian Trail at the intersection where I first connected with it, I continued on with a portion of the W trail in the Pellicer Creek Preserve, eventually ending up on the Powerline Trail near Pellicer Creek. Then, I headed south along the exposed power line taking advantage of periodic shade to walk back to my car. I don’t have the exact mileage but it was probably over 6 miles. I tend to estimate my walking time to 20 minutes per mile, but that depends on terrain and if I stop for a water break or two.

It was satisfying to see my car sitting in the otherwise empty lot and to note I only saw one other person the entire three hours. I’ve seen this lady before, walking her young husky dog. Other than that I had a peaceful walk through a portion of the trail system I had never ventured into before and some repeats to make this broad loop. I also noted all of the prickly pear cactus, the remaining pawpaw blooms, wild onion, lots of huckleberries and wild blackberries setting fruit here and there. The trail was very sandy in places, hard-packed in others and grassy elsewhere. If going, take good walking shoes. There were some annoying biting flies, but I always take a bandana for a fly-swatter. No mosquitoes, yet. And that’s my trail report.

Last Friday, the 18th, I headed over to Graham Swamp Trail. I probably walked about 3 to 4 miles. The pond is at the western terminus of the trail off of Old Kings Road, just south of Palm Coast Parkway. The trail follows an old road or railroad bed and boardwalk between Old Kings Road and Colbert Road. It goes through thick marshy forest, on the old road.

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/florida/graham-swamp-trail

Here are some links so you can learn more about these areas:

Pellicer Creek Conservation Area

Click to access pellicercreektrail.pdf

https://www.flaglercounty.gov/Things-to-Do/Find-a-Park/Princess-Place-Preserve

Click to access princess-place-preserve-br.pdf

Eliza

https://sunnysjournal.com