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Print Friendly MapThe Hancock Trail is 6.5 miles of smooth as ice, undulating multi-purpose trail in Lake County, Florida. It’s wide - a good 14 ft - and the hilly topography can either be a moderate challenge or a huge bonus depending on what you are looking for. The trail’s southern terminus at the intersection of Oakely Seaver Drive and Don Wickam Drive in Clermont. At the Cooper Memorial Library, the trail dips under Hancock Road and starts to head north.
About 1/3 of the way north, the trail crosses back to the west side of Hancock road into a utility corridor in the shadow of towering steel pylons. Just beyond Old Highway 50, the north-south Hancock Trail meets the east-west South Lake & Lake Minneola Scenic Trail. To remain on the Hancock Trail, you’ll need to cross the busy N Hancock-Old Highway 50 intersection and make a sharp left back towards Hancock Road.
The trail continues directly north, past the Florida Turnpike and heads up to its northern terminal at County Road 561A.
The trail itself is clean and well-maintained, although there is not much in the way of scenery. Points of interest include the Lake Minneola High School, Minneola Athletic Complex, Cooper Memorial Library (part of Lake Sumter State College) and of course, the South Lake Trail. It’s also not shaded and there are few, if any, places to stop for water, so be sure to carry your own.
At the southern endpoint you can park at the Cooper Memorial Library (1250 N Hancock Rd, Clermont)
At the midpoint you can park at the Minneola Athletic Complex (1300 Fosgate Rd, Minneola).
Scenery: 2/5
Shade: 1/5
Condition: 5/5
Crowdedness: 5/5
Water Availability: 1/5
Road Crossings: 1/5
Signage: 3/5
Skip this one if you have better options. The description pretty much says it all: not much scenery (almost entirely suburban), hilly (for Florida standards), no water, no shade. On a clear day, there is some scenery at the northern end where you can see Lake Apopka and the Orlando skyline on the eastern horizon, but rampant development is quickly wiping that out. There are a lot of road crossings, some busy. Virtually all of the trail parallels a rather busy, noisy road. The trail is in good shape (except for a few spots where roots have created bumps - mostly on the southern end), but I'm not sure why the description says that it is 14 feet wide. There may be short sections where that is the case, but mostly not. The trail is not crowded at all, but, given its shortcomings, that's not surprising.
On our visit to Florida and first time in the saddle in six months we opted for a short day, about 20 miles. We parked at the Copper library which was convenient and had nice bathrooms and water. There are new developments and a shopping complex since the details to this trail were written. At about mile 5 there is a Publix, Starbucks and a few more retail stores. There were a lot of roads to cross and hills to climb. We opted for a 6 mile round trip down the intersecting Lake Shore trail to Minneola Lake. That was a nice, scenic section. Overall a good day to start our season.
There is an amazing quality to the vistas you can find here. Undeveloped rolling hills of grass and trees, eerie stillness, and strange dreamlike feelings galore. Extremely liminal, particularly in the early evening. Bring your own water!!
This trail connects with the South Lake trail to give the combination more critical mass in miles and some nice rolling hills to break things up. Nothing notable in the scenery, but it was fun to ride.
We started at the golf club. We only rode this trail for a very short distance - but what we did see the trail was absolutely beautiful. It was too challenging for my wife and I - we are in our mid 70s. Glad we gave it a shot. (Wish we were 10 years younger!
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