Little Manatee River Upper Tract County Rd 579 to Gulley Creek, 2-21-16

The Little Manatee River Upper Tract extends for several miles along the Little Manatee River.  Parcels and agricultural land were purchased jointly by Hillsborough County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) 20 to 30 years ago from private land owners.  Hillsborough County manages the property. 

The map in the link below shows the area and property boundaries.
https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/maps/littlemanatee-upper.pdf

 Below is the start of the trail. 

The trail is a two track as shown on the USGS map but there is no sign of a trail once you enter the pasture.

Below is a newly built bridge over an un-named stream near the beginning.

From the bridge the two track trail was soggy with some areas of water that had to be waded through.

There was a pasture covered in palmettos to the south of the two track trail.

Here is where I entered the pasture. 

There were several head of cows, calves, a bull or two and a donkey.  They mainly stared at me as I made a wide arc around them. 

I use the Gaia app on an Iphone 6s plus.  I traveled through the pasture where the two track was shown on the USGS map on the app although all signs of it were gone.

In the pasture I spotted two burrowing owls.

They would fly as I slowly approached to get a  better shot.  It took quite awhile to get these photos.

At the east end of the pasture there was a fence that had to be climbed over.

East of the pasture but before entering the wooded area along Gully Creek were several tortoise holes and many tracks.  They do not show up in the photo below.  It appears someone in the past had marked the holes with 1/2" pvc pipe stakes which for the most part had fallen over.

Going down into the Gully Creek escarpment is a varied forest with palmettos, pines, oaks, and cabbage palms.

A soft rock is exposed along the edge of the escarpment in places.  I suspect it could be phosphate rock but will have to research that more.

Here is point that appears to have been used to ford Gulley Creek in the past.  It is on the path of the two track shown on the USGS map.

Another photo of Gully Creek looking in the direction of the Little Manatee River.

I did not cross Gully Creek but turned around here and headed back to the trail head.  Made another arc around the cattle and donkey in the pasture.

This is a nasty looking weed that was growing in the pasture.  It has thorns growing out of the leaves.  I am wondering if it is an invasive plant.

This bird was spotted along the two track trail on the way back to the trail head.  I have not identified it yet.

This was an interesting hike with a few challenges, mainly water, mud and high grass. 

The highlight was the photos I was able to get of the burrowing owls.