Old Fort King to Hillsborough River State Park

HRSP Wetland Trail

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Well it was a beautiful day so Koda and I decided to take a walk. We went to the Old Fort King Area for the 500th time because its so close and free. However, I wanted to change it up again. Once again, this area is just south of Hillsborough River State Park (HRSP)on Hwy 301. The actual Wetlands Restoration Trail will link the two areas together. You can park at Old Fort King and walk or bike into HRSP. I wanted to give this a go as I have never walked it and wanted something different. This portion of the Wetlands trail is barely .5 miles and will take you to the paved loop in HRSP. We turned around and headed back but broke off the trail onto another trail that is basically a fire break between the two properties. This trail was washed out at the first way point. The swamp crossed the trail here and was about 2 feet deep. Almost lost a shoe in the mud! We wound up back at the Wilderness trail but further down. We continued on the fire break till we found a trail heading north. We took this for a while and came to a fork. At first we went left yet to find another wash out at the second way point. The trail started to get real faint so we doubled back and passed the trail that brought us here. Continuing on, we finally wound up at Hillsborough River at the third way point. The trail followed the river right into HRSP at the forth way point. We decided to double back to the fire break. At a break in the barb wire we got onto the wilderness trail and took it to the edge of the property then doubled back and took the Wilderness trail back to the truck.

This was a nice hike as it was new and finding trails that aren't on maps is always fun. These trails got real rustic and Koda was always hearing something. We also so a white tailed doe. Overall fun hike. Cant wait to get back out there and check out a few of those trails we passes up.

Have fun!

Balm Boyette and Triple Creek

Balm Boyette Scrub and Triple Creek

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This is a nice trail system that is overall almost 5.5 miles if you do the whole loop. There is a dividing trail that you can take to cut that in half if need be. The dividing trail cuts the area into 2 different parks. The north side is Triple Creek and the south side is Balm Boyette. There are 2 entrances into the area. The south entrance has facilities and also links up to Alifia River property which is awesome mountain bike riding. This is cool because from here you can access the bike trails for FREE instead of going to the park proper and paying like 5 bucks to get in.

I will start this by saying that this was not 38 miles as described in the stats. My GPS in my phone freaked out and I had to trim off a distant point. Bobby, Tyler and I decided to hike this trail as a group I am a member of was going on a day hike. We decided to get started a little early and took the trail clock wise while the other members of the group went counter clockwise.

There is a big difference from a county park and a state park and this is proof of that. I had read as much as I could find about the area but there isn't a lot of info out there. What I mean is, this trail is poorly marked! The creek crossings are merely RR ties which isn't horrible but.... There was also a fair amount of water on the trail as it had rained about an inch 2 days ago. This also doesn't seem to be a trail that is hiked often. The scrub areas are tight at times. This trail does have some nice wide open spaces and it is easy to wonder of the trail so keep your eyes open for wooden poles with arrows on them. In the sand flats you come across multiple options to take. Mind your manors or you will walk in circles out here. Look for foot prints to guide you if any. The trail gets really hard to follow as you begin the finish in the scrub. Once again look for the post for arrows as the blazes are dull. At times you will be on the trail but there is no trail to follow. HAVE A MAP which you can find online or at the trail head.

Back to the other group that went counter clockwise. We meet them on the trail after they had come thru the sand flats and scrub and had mentioned how they had gotten off course. Some of these guys are pretty experienced hikes and they managed to lose there way a bit.

Bottom line, nice walk but kind of sketche.

Old Fort King Trail to Dead River Loop

Old Fort King Loop

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I wanted to do a day hike but didn't feel like driving forever to do so, so I revisited an area that i'm familier with. I also didn't want the same hike so I added an elemant to change it up a bit. Koda and I started at the Old Fort King Trail head and followed it out of Hillsborough River State Park. At this point we are still on the trail following it along Dead River Rd. Right as you enter the Boundry for Dead River the trail breaks south towards Sargent Park. Thats a fun walk too but its a soogy walk and I wasn't going for that today. So we follow Dead River rd till it ends at the river. This road is only open to car traffic on the weekends so we had a few cars wiz past us. There is a nice bridge by the river that we always take a moment at. After the short break we continue on the trail north east that follows the river. I dont know what to call this trail but it is wide and hiked often and today its our way back to Hillsborough River State Park. Soon enough the gate to Hillsborough River State Park property and the trail is wide again.This is a nice hike and the Dear River rd section added in made the loop possible and deffinatly cut down on the repeditiveness.

Good times, Have fun!