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This was the first time I have ridden the trail all the way from New Smyrna Beach to Titusville. Overall the trail is flat, straight, and the pavement excellent. There are very few road crossings in the Volusia County portion of the trail. But in the Brevard County portion, there are many road crossings, some that are very treacherous. Also there are benches along the trail in Volusia County and none in Brevard County. Much of the trail is through the woods and beautiful but as you get to Mims the trail parallels US1 and is not nearly as scenic. Overall, a great place to ride if you use caution on the crossings in Brevard. Being flat and straight, it lacks a signature feature like a tunnel or viaduct. There is really nothing that makes you want to go and ride the trail as a destination. I give it 9 gears on a 10 speed cassette.
My wife and I cycled from the beginning of the trail in Titusville to about 2.5 miles past the I-95 overpass (which is ~10 miles from the start). Total trip for us was only 24 miles but it was our first trip to the trail. We will definitely be back. We parked at the Coast-to-Coast Bike shop in town. There was no signage from there to the trailhead but we were able to ask another cyclist for directions (the bike shop was closed on Sunday!). The first ~8 miles had several road crossings, some with limited views so you have to slow to almost a complete stop to make sure it is safe to cross. At the intersection of the I-95 there is a parking lot. This is a better place to start your ride to avoid the street crossings as it gets rural when heading north/west from there. The trail is excellent, very smooth and flat. There are no rest rooms or benches anywhere along the first 12 miles so plan accordingly. Well worth the drive to get to this trail - this will become a regular spot for our riding!!! Only gave it 4 stars because no restrooms/benches yet and too many street crossings (but way better than riding on the road).
Biked this trail today on my new E-Bike in beautiful Florida weather. Parked in the Wuestoff Park lot on the north end just off Barna Ave near US 50. Encountered a lady using the body workout equipment on the north end of the trail near Wuestoff Park. Then towards the west end, encountered a lady with her grandkids riding their toy equipment. On the way back from the southwest end, passed a guy coming down the trail on one of those Sedgeway looking platforms without the center bar. Nice, short trail, forested, shaded. A sitting bench about half way thru, and a litter barrel nearby. Appeared well maintained, and not too far from home.
Green Spring Park to Trail Bridge in Osteen - 5.3 miles (seemlessly continues from Trail Bridge), Osteen to Guise Road - 2.7 Miles about 8 miles..
Great Ride, well maintained trail. No Trailer parking at Green Springs Park but trailer parking available next door east at boat ramp parking. Not many people given it was New Years Day, beautiful place to explore..
We started in downtown Titusville at the bike shop where we rented hybrids. The "trail" was hard to find from there because that part of it is riding on streets with marked bike lanes. Once on the trail it was fine; smooth & flat riding first through suburban housing & commercial development; then out into lush vegetation on both sides.
There was one bench to sit down at but otherwise out to Virgie's stop there was no place to sit/rest, get a drink or relieve oneself. Thankfully there was no rain or hot sun to contend with.
I hear there are stops as you go further west towards Osteen. It will be nice once the short gap is closed so you can go from either Edgewater or Titusville to Deltona and connect up to Spring to Spring trail.
Back in Titusville you're again on marked streets, then you can go over the Max Brewer Bridge on pedestrian sidewalk--nice view of the water or maybe a rocket launch. Not much beyond that for now.
I went from Gobblers Lodge Rd to the Indian River in Titusville(48 miles round trip).
The trail has very few intersections, especially compared to the the Wekiva or Cross-Seminole trails, near me.
You pass through a game refuge, so I wouldn’t recommend this as a dusk ride, and maybe suggest something bright orange? I’m not 100% sure there is a problem with that but I wanted to bring it up just in case.
My favorite sections are when the wooded areas become less swampy, more towards Edgewater and the coast. There is a small missing link - maybe 500 yards after you cross a bridge in downtown Titusville, but there are signs that tell you to go to the next street(Main St I think), and it leads you to green bike lanes.
And the Green paved bike lanes in downtown Titusville are awesome, as another reviewer said, they are as wide as car lanes and even have posts to rest your arm on at traffic lights.
My only real complaint was my legs’ lack of conditioning! Most definitely a nice ride, esp in this late fall/early winter weather.
It is a nice ride through natural Florida & it’s so beautiful and peaceful, really enjoyable ride.
We had previously ridden the Spring to Spring Trail, which we highly recommend, and hoped that it would be connected to this trail, however, that is not the case,,,,, yet. We opted to take to this trail at the northern most spot which was at Gobblers Lodge, which had great parking and an outhouse. We found the path to be in excellent condition, with occasional rest stops with benches and refuse cans, however, not much shade, so wear your sun block. At the 6.5 mile mark of our ride, we came to the split, where you would either opt for Edgewater to the left, or Titusville to the right. We took the left fork and continued on. Although it was a beautiful Sunday, there were not many riders out, but this part of the trail is not near anything, or any homes or businesses. Just a trail through the natural beauty of Central Florida. We reached Rt I95 at the 10 mile mark, and drove under it, As we neared Edgewater, we came across a pedestrian bridge, which took a little effort to cross, but you can avoid it and cross the road instead with little problems due to low traffic flow. We continued on until we reached the end of the trail in Edgewater and took the sidewalks for an additional mile in order to reach the Indian River, where we had lunch. On our return ride, we stopped at a local deli for some awesome sandwiches, which we saved for later along the trail. We saw some wildlife during our ride, which included an Eagle, Pelicans, a beautiful blue heron in flight, a huge turtle, 1 snake on the path, and an armadillo. We finally reached our van after our 48 mile ride, which was allot longer than I had planned for today, but I hate to stop and turn around before reaching some kind of destination, which usually involves a body of water. LOL. We had a great time, and plan to return in order to head toward Titusville, which appears to be a longer ride. We will most likely pick up the trail at the parking lot just after the split on the trail for this ride. Thank you for all those responsible for these wonderful trails.
I heard from a friend that the trail was now open all the way to Fellsmere, so went to check it out. The gate into the St. Sebastian River Preserve had been modified to leave an opening for pedestrians and bicycles. West of the gate, the trail was a bumpy dirt track, mostly hard packed and grassy. As I approached a wider cross track marked Red Trail, it had long patches of soft white sand. From the crossing, I could see long patches of white all the way to the vanishing point, so I turned back- too soft for my hybrid bike. It might be OK for a mountain bike or beach cruiser.
Going back east, I followed the trail to its junction with the Sebastian Greenway at the county highway 512 and continued into Sebastian, a stretch I had not ridden before. The Greenway was just wide sidewalk for a mile or so, then was set back from the highway behind a belt of tall cedars, set close like a hedge; it continued like this all the way to the FEC tracks beside US 1. Apparently the cedars were planted on the original railroad grade, up to two feet above the level of the trail. They screen the trail from traffic noise and provide a lot of shade early in the day. There are several street crossings, but the busier ones have traffic signals and walk lights.
Training for a marathon. There are water fountains and bathrooms all along the path. It is scenic, few over the road crossings. As a lone woman runner, it is relatively safe as it is well used, plenty of people around, few areas of isolation.
Trans-Florida Central Railroad Trail: So read the lettering on a new pedestrian overpass spanning I-95. I'd never heard of it, and couldn't find it on the internet, so I decided to drive down and check it out.
I started at the Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve, just west of I-95 on highway 512. A young mother was watching her child on the playground as I unloaded my folding bike. Inside the shelter I found restrooms and a wall map of the Regional Greenway, which includes the rail trail (see pictures).
Pedaling around the trailhead, I saw no way to the trail until I came to a hard packed sand roadway leading north from the entry road. A road grader operator confirmed that this was the way to the overpass.
At the trail, packed sand gave way to a hard gravel surface with pinewoods on either side. I turned left, to find the end of the trail at a locked gate. Here the old railbed led straight west, through the woods of the St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park towards Fellsmere.
Turning around, I pedaled a half mile eastward to the paved section, twelve feet wide, beginning at the approach to the overpass. Out to the left were several structures of the FIT Challenge Course: horizontal rope nets, wooden walls to scale- challenges I might have tried half a century ago.
Descending the overpass, the trail turned a few degrees south of east and ran board-straight between stands of tall pine to the vanishing point. Not much shade; a summer afternoon sun would shine straight down the trail, and this morning there were only a few patches of broken shade.
It was busy on this Saturday morning- two couples walking abreast, pushing a tandem stroller; two young girls walking a huge, furry poodle-ish dog; other couples and individuals pedaling or strolling. The mile and a half of pavement led to North County Regional Park and its large, well attended swimming pool. I could hear shouts and splashes as I passed. A trailhead shelter here was closed.
From the pavement's end, a nicely wooded mile of gravel trail meandered through thick woods, over several boardwalks across the wetter places and through an oak hammock with some magnificent trees. I passed a young lady jogger, then a fast moving male cyclist, who confirmed that the trail ran on into Sebastian.
It popped out of the woods at a bridge over an arm of the St. Sebastian River, where it joined a wide sidewalk on highway 512, continuing the Regional Greenway northeast into town. I didn't have time to ride it, but looked it over by car- a true greenway. More than half its length was set back from the roadway and screened by tall, thick rows of cedar. Some of these sections adjoined neighborhood streets. A number of walkers and cyclists were using it.
Four miles of greenway led from the end of the rail trail to the downtown Sebastian waterfront, at US 1, which boasted a mile of wide bike lanes. A block east, Indian River Drive followed the shore of the Indian River Lagoon, with a half dozen seafood restaurants overlooking the water.
Starting at US 1, a rider could go about six and a half miles to the east end of the existing rail trail. Plans call for the rail trail to extend about three miles further west, into downtown Fellsmere.
Fellsmere has two very authentic Mexican restaurants, one including a bakery, plus a local pizza parlor. Southern comfort food is on offer at the century-old Fellsmere Estates Building, in a small historic district along Broadway St. The town has the oldest operating library in the county, and was the first town in the south where a woman voted in a municipal election.
Despite its imposing name, the Trans-Florida Central Railroad was never more than a feeder for the main rail line along the east coast. It reached about fifteen miles inland, to the St. Johns marshes and the former town of Broadmoor, planned for development but abandoned after a hurricane flooded the area in 1916.
The rails brought lumber and building materials inland to Fellsmere, carrying out whatever products were harvested from the marshy land over the decades- sugar, citrus, potatoes, muck for fertilizer, pulpwood. Early in the last century, passenger service ran four times a day between Fellsmere and Sebastian.
This short rail line buoyed the region's economy for half a century. Its legacy is a pleasant greenway, well used by locals and worth a visit for anyone seeking a leisurely ride.
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