Last week we made the decision to break up the trip to Alabama with a hike on the Ravine Trail in Lake Talquin State Forest. Approximately halfway between our home base in Brooksville, Florida, and our destination in Decatur, Alabama, it was the perfect hour and a half pit stop with the kids. Giving them the chance to stretch their legs and burn some energy, it even worked to encourage a short nap for the twins when we got back in the van.
Parking at the trailhead is also the parking for the Bear Creek Educational Center. There wasn't anyone in the office at the time of our visit, but they do offer guided tours for student groups if you contact them ahead of time. However, the trails are interactive trails, and we loved the options that they had. Many of the trails that we have hiked have been interactive trails. These are most commonly trails where they provide a brochure with facts about the area and specific trees or bushes, then along the trail there are lettered or numbered post in the ground to mark the tree or bush that the brochure is describing. Occasionally there are post along the trail that have writing on them about the specific tree or feature being described. The only trouble with this system is that the post with writing sometimes become too weathered to read or the post in general fall down and become lost to weathering and bug infestations. Also, this means you need to keep track of the brochure to get all the information, and in our case someone needs to read the information for our youngest hikers who aren't reading on their own yet.
If you remember the audio boxes that we found back at Etoniah Creek State Forest on the Lake Blossom Trail, the beginning portion of the Ravine Trail, which is called the Living Forest Trail, has a number of these programed to give identifying facts and information about various trees. Even more interesting these talks are given from the perspective of the different trees. The kids loved it, and we took turns letting them push the buttons to hear about the different trees. We learned about dogwoods, hollies, red maples, sweet gum balls, white oaks, and American beech trees to name a few that I recall readily.
There were also a number of trees and bushes normally native to the Carolina area that grow in the park like a couple of species of basswood trees. They grow on the North slope of the ravine and being more sheltered and along cooler elevations they are able to grow in this lone area of Florida. There are also some rhododendrons and mountain laurel in the area that were planted by the original owners of the park.
The Ravine Trail itself begins where the half a mile Living Forest Trail ends. It is unique among the trails we've explored because as the name suggest it is a steep trail with over 100 foot of elevation changes back and forth over short distances. The trail is only 1.8 miles long, but it took us longer than I had anticipated stopping due to the steep trails. There were a few places where the boys needed some extra help up the steep trail and around tree roots. It was also rather narrow in places, making it a little bit of a challenge to hold the boys hands, but because of this the kids were excited to feel like they were doing their first real hike. They have been looking forward to the point that we can do more traveling and actually hike some mountainous trails.
We would definitely recommend the area to anyone passing through. There are two other trails in the immediate area, one longer at three miles and another shorter at .3 miles, both of which we'd consider hiking on another trip north, when the boys are a little bigger and can hike a full three miles on their own. Next time we might also contact the education center ahead of time and plan to take advantage of the rangers.
If you'd like to make a trip the address to this portion of the Lake Talquin State Forest is 8125 Pat Thomas Parkway, Quincy, Florida. The state forest is open from sunrise to sunset, everyday. For more information you can call 850-681-5953. Entrance to the Park is $2 for a car load of up to 6 people over the age of six.
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