During the week, when I can't get out for a real hike in a nature preserve, I walk the neighborhood. Every day, I'm out there, enjoying either the pavement or the paths.
Most of my hikes are within the greater Tampa Bay area, but you may find me venturing further out occasionally.
My intention with this blog is to help other hikers and walkers find information about different spots to hike and walk. I'll be providing GPS points of interest, trail head coordinates, trail conditions, GPX files, and my observations about the areas.
I use a Blackberry Torch for my GPS. The application I use is Trimble Outdoors. Each time I enter a blog here about a hiking spot I will provide the link to the Trimble Outdoors website for more information about that hike.
This past Sunday, August 19th I took a really nice hike with my oldest daughter Vicki. We hiked at Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park located in New Port Richey, Florida.
We arrived at the wilderness area at about 8:30 in the morning. It was a slightly overcast day and since it is Florida in the summertime - it was hot and muggy. But, we were still about to immersed in nature - something we both love.
Shortly down the trail we found this spot through the trees...
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| Reflections |
It wasn't long before we ran into several dead ends along the trail. The trail was flooded with water in those spots. Anyone who is familiar with hiking in Florida during the summer season is familiar with this situation. Each time we were able to back track a bit and follow another two track forest trail. I would not recommend doing this without a GPS. The trails we took are not marked but they are on a topographical map.
We were able to make a loop trail out of this hike but had to hike along the paved bike path for much of our return hike. It was still a lot of fun. We covered a little more than 8 miles and were on trail for about 3 and 1/2 hours.
More info with download capability, etc. can be found here:
http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/1869289
This is a test entry to get the blog started. In the future I intend on placing more points of interest and trail information within Trimble.
A Google Map...
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Here is the current weather for New Port Richey...
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