Find the top rated birding trails in Lake City, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
Very nice trail. Certainly would rate this Very Easy. Flat and straight. I Started from the trailhead in Old Town. There is room for parking along side the road. Old Town to Trenton is an easy 20 miles round trip. Old Town to Cross City is also about 20 miles round trip. Old Town to Chiefland is about 26 miles round trip. The trail is well maintained. The trestle bridge provides a beautiful view of the Suwannee.
I started at the Twin Lakes Trailhead. There are facilities there at this trailhead. I did not understand why there isn’t any benches or areas where you could take a small break. I traveled east to the end, there was the park at Farhome? And a small area had a couple picnic tables closer to the end. This was a 20 mile trek, and 20 miles back. Enjoyed it!
The east trailhead is an unmarked, unpaved sandlot just past the airport with no facilities. It looks like a sketchy place to park if you aren't familiar with the area. Trail mile markers begin at 6.0 miles here.
There are several unmarked and facility-less parking areas before you get to Florahome, and there are no services of any kind until mile 18.5 at Florahome, where there is a pit toilet, water fountain, picnic tables, and convenience store. There are no services until Twin Lakes Community park in Keystone Heights, about mile marker 27. The trail passes right by Walgreens in Keystone Hts, mile marker 30.
The trial is awesome: straight, relatively flat, and shaded most of the way from Palatka to Keystone Heights, which is about 24 miles. it parallels Hwy 100 but is separated but a buffer strip of trees.
Most of the trail parallels a highway, so not necessarily quiet. You'll have to get on the road to cross the river and connect to the Ichetucknee, but not an issue. Yes, the potholed section will keep you on your toes.
As others suggested, we started in the middle and went down each direction until it went by busy highways. Stay in the cabins in Fanning Springs cabins if you can- really cute.
Easy parking just north of the O'Leno entrance. The trail is alongside a county road with a few rolling hills through the Florida countryside. We found the trail easy to ride but there are a lot of root bumps and a few sandy areas and broken glass from broken beer bottles, and because of that, I would not recommend riding a road/race bike on the trail. My wife rode her E-trail bike and I rode my gravel bike which were perfect for this trail. For the gravel bikers, there is a lot of nice dirt and gravel roads to explore. We will ride it again and explore Ichetucknee State Park.
Pro flat, shaded, not too many road crossings, well maintained. Con Not a lot of scenery, isolated, no food or drinks anywhere around.
Very nice trail for outdoor adventures.
We rode in Oct 2020 with only 1 encounter with another rider. 75% of the trail was shaded. The trestle over the Suwannee River was pretty but the surface is rough. We tent camped in the Otter Springs RV park with an easy 2.4 mile ride to the trailhead along a road with little traffic.
Started at Fanning Springs, rode to Old Town, turned around went to Trenton, and back to Fanning Springs. There are no restrooms at any of these 3 trailheads. Rail trail is flat and fast. Very little scenery. Some canopy but not full shade. Overall an OK trail.
Weather was unusually perfect at 70F for our ride, a small cool window. I could imagine the cooling of the forest canopies on much hotter days. Trail was exactly as described and suited me and my wife very well. I think we had more Fall debris on the road than expected. Four stars from us. Started at trailhead Twin Lakes and headed both ways eventually to put on the miles.
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