Find the top rated birding trails in Lakeside, 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.
This trail is great when it comes to biking in Florida. Beautiful scenery, lots of forest riding and farms. Few miles of highway riding. Can make this ride 50+ miles easily.
First of all, the weather today was perfect. Sunny and 68!!! Started at the Hawthone trail head and rode into Gaisville with a 3 mile rt detour to an overlook . All total-38 miles. Great trail. The standing water mentioned in other posts is not a factor. Maybe 50feet of water but not too deep. The rest of the trail is very nice. A lot of things to see-preserves, overlooks etc. I have done a lot of trails in Florida and on the East Coast. This is a very nice one-peaceful. Some minor inclines but nothing to worry about. Seems safe, clean and well maintained. The trail has a connector into Gainsville -a nice little city-where you can hook into some other trails.
It appears the map for this trail needs updated. Per directions, we drove 8 miles from Palatka on 100 to find a parking area, not realizing we were paralleling the trail that must now connect to the town of Palatka. On the return drive we passed a parking area only 3 miles from the town. The trail itself was quite nice. We rode 14 miles round trip, but would have appreciated restroom facilities somewhere along the trail. The trail was smooth and flat, passing forest and field.
Great mix of woods & open areas. Trail is smooth & well maintained. Several bikers on the trail today. Surprised to discover Florida’s Potato Capital of Hastings.
Started about 6 miles east of Roberts Lane trailhead. Parking available off Rt. 100. Rode west to Holloway, then north to Etoniah Creek forest entrance, then east and south on hard dirt road back to trail. Had lunch at the only picnic table or bench we came across on the whole ride.
Trail is flooded at the 22 mile marker (from the start point at Palatka) since Hurricane Irma in Oct 2018 . About 10-12 inches deep and 100 yards. Okay for a mountain bike IF you keep your speed up and don't worry about wet feet. But the grade there will need improvement by the state.
My wife and I rode from the Twin Lake Soccer field eastward to the flooded area and then westward back to route 100 at the 32 mile marker. 20 miles total. Enjoyed the ride very much. The trail overall is in great shape and very smooth. Low traffic and under utilized compared to the Baldwin trail. Great asset for the region.
My hubby and I ride rail trails every weekend. This is my least favorite as there are too many crossroads. Too much traffic. For me, it was NOT at all relaxing.
However, I loved that we started at the ocean and could relax sitting and walking on the beach after our ride in both ends of our ride.
Nice trail. Smooth surface and wide. We went cycling after a few days of rain and wind, so the trail had a significant amount of debris on it (sycamore gumballs, branches, twigs etc.). We were on road bikes, so it wasn't the best day to cycle the trail. We look forward to cycling it again when pathway is clearer.
We stayed the night in a nearby motel and this trail was a blessing after a day driving. Mostly flat, well paved, with only a few roads to cross with due caution. Perfect January weather helped!
Enjoyed the ride very much. The trail overall is in great shape and very smooth. Our only issue was after starting in Keystone Heights heading toward Palatka, the trail was completely underwater and impassable after only 7 miles so we had to turn around. I would put in on the Palatka end next time.
We finally got to ride the western part of the Palatka to St. Augustine Trail today that runs from Hastings to Palatka. I reviewed the eastern part, St. Augustine to Hastings a few weeks ago.
There is plenty of parking in Hastings on Main St. but we parked in the Post Office lot a block off Main for safety reasons. The trail goes right through town and you pick it up on Main St. The first part is through local neighborhoods where unfortunately some locals find it fun to break beer bottles on the trail so use caution. Once out of town you border farm fields with an open trail which would be very hot in warmer months. A few miles down the trail though you get into some shade but not much. It appears the trail is not much used as we saw only 4-5 other cyclists but it was a week day. As you get closer to Palatka it narrows and then becomes essentially a sidewalk and once in town crosses many parking lots so safety could be an issue. The trail near Palatka also becomes very trashy and industrial.
All in all though this is a great ride. If you wanted to go from St. Augustine (actually Vermont Heights about 3 miles out of St. A.) to Palatka it would be a very good ride mileage wise. There is beautiful farmland, creeks with very nice bridges across, and lots of wildlife, mainly large birds. In Hastings there is a fantastic restaurant named Norma D's Kitchen, "The Local Spot" that has great food. Right on Main Street about 100 yards from the trail, it is open only for breakfast and lunch and is well worth either starting there after a big breakfast or ending there for lunch. We had breakfast and were very happy with the food and service, and price! Our next ride we plan to start there and back for lunch.
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