This trail is 2 miles from my house and we ride our bikes there once or twice a week. The main trail is pavement which is well maintained and very flat (hence the name! You will see many distance cyclists flying through the park, training.) There are water stations every two miles that provide cold fresh water and some shelter from the sun. There are, also many, many off road trails to take. These trails can be challenging due to all the tree roots and the holes created by wild hogs on the sides of the trail. Sometimes the width of the trail is less than a foot. These off road trails definitely require a hybrid or mountain bike if riding. My opinion is that Flatwoods is best for cyclists, runners, or inline skates, not so much for walking. You have a 2 mile walk to get to the trail loop (which is 7 miles) and the scenery does not vary much throughout. Going off road is fun although difficult to enjoy your surrounding as you have to concentrate fully on navigating the path. Although I’m not a fan of walking the trail you will see all ages and abilities enjoying the trail on foot. Wildlife sightings have mostly consisted of birds although, near dusk and dawn you may see deer. We had an exciting encounter on an overcast day with 6 deer close to the path. We stopped and they crossed the path only several feet behind us. I took away one star on this path because of the sameness of the scenery and that once you go in there is no quick escape route if you tire. Proper walking shoes are a must as well as hat and sunscreen, and bring your cell phone in case of emergency.

Beautiful trail and park. The town was very wise to preserve this area for everyone to share. There is a small section where there is no trail but you can ride on the road to connect to the rest of the trail but it is not marked

Rode the Van Fleet RT Feb 21-22, 2020. Combined with the semi-rural
Aburndale TECO trail the distance is 35.6 miles. If you like nature you'll
love the Van Fleet. Fully paved with mowed lawn on sides, then cypress
swamp and longleaf pine forests of the 322,690 acre Green Swamp Preserve. Saw a bobcat, a small snake and plenty of birds. From Park on
SR 33 in Polk City there's access to Aburndale trail going south and the
Van Fleet north. Parking at north end in Mabel take 121st Ave off route 50,
a 100yd long lumpy dirt road to nice parking area.

on a beautiful day what better way to spend a few hours very clean long scenic a terrific workout...

Rode entire length northbound on a Thursday morning in February. Busy trail: walkers, road bikers and many recumbent bikes. Trail was in very good shape with occasional short bumpity sections and a few divots at edges. Lots of benches. Well marked. Easy to find trail access points. Beautiful park in Inverness. Would definitely ride again.

Awesome place to ride any type of bicycle, walk or run. Safe place for families. Couple of places to stop and rest and get water. There is one bridge that is metal and can be slippery. Walk your bike a crossed it. Does cost $2.00 a day to park. Well maintained.

Very nice, wide trail with lots of beautiful views of the lakes. Also there are opportunities to go off the trail into the town of Clermont. Some reviewers commented about the hills... there are some decent hills for Florida on part of the trail, but they're not bad.

Easy to ride and it has beautiful scenery. I had such a nice ride I didn't I had gone over five miles. I will most definitely be back

Beautiful bike ride!