Little Manatee River Upper Tract, CR 579 to Gulley Creek, 10-7-17 to 10-22-17

I wasn't able to get any hiking in for over a year due to a heavy work schedule.  Things have slowed down a little at work and have started going for day hikes on the weekends.

The starting point is a small parking lot at a trail head at 2608 CR 579, Wimauma, FL 33598.

This is a new trail head that apparently was created in the last year and a half.  I had hiked from a trail head further north on CR 579 last year.  See the blog titled "Little Manatee River Upper Tract, County Road 579 to Gulley Creek, 2-21-16".

The trail is primarily two track through abandoned pasture land and woods. You can see the route I took on the following link from Gaia GPS:

https://www.gaiagps.com/datasummary/track/4b8e0f572b2c905e8a33535180a4d679/?layer=mapquestaerial,CalTopo,GaiaTopoRasterFeet

Since I had not been hiking for over a year, I started out doing short distances of a little over 2.3 miles and worked up to 5.5 miles today.  There was some difficult hiking near the east end where the trail wasn't visible anymore.

I carry a 30 to 35 lb back

pack to get in shape for hiking the Appalachian Trail.  This is my eventual goal if I can ever find the time to do it.


Below is some grass along the trail that would make a nice ornamental plant.

A centipede crawling along the trail.

A section of trail about 1/2 mile from the trail head.  It looks like it could be wet during the rainy season.

A flower along the trail.

The pasture areas are beginning to turn into woods.

An area of old live oak trees.  The oak trees tend to be on the lower ground closer to the creeks.

Another view of the trail.

An creek flowing south to the Little Manatee River.  I suspect the sand was deposited when the creek flooded during Hurricane Irma last month.

 A large turtle that stood still and let me take his photo.  You can see his head poking out in the upper left.

Here is a close up of the turtle's face.

A butterfly with ragged wings drinking nectar.

In the east the trail disappeared.  Had to deal with high grass and briars.

Hogs were active here.

Another flower in bloom along the trail.

The trail is high and dry here.  This is an old pasture lane.

A bird along the trail.

A section of trail beginning to get overgrown.