Withlacoochee State Trail, Part 1

We've had our eye on the Withlacoochee State Trail for a while now, since we started researching what there is to do around Bushnell (where the Escapees park we are staying at is located). Here's the description from the Florida State Parks website:

At 46 miles in length, the Withlacoochee State Trail is presently the longest paved rail-trail in Florida. With a generally flat terrain and many access points, the trail is an ideal venue for all skill and fitness levels of cycling, running, walking and skating and an unpaved equestrian trail parallels portions of the paved trail. The trail corridor traverses three counties (Citrus, Hernando and Pasco), offering an enjoyable, varied journey as it runs through small towns, ranches and six distinct natural communities between Citrus Springs and Trilby. Officially designated as part of the Florida Greenways and Trail System, this State Trail is also a National Recreation Trail® which offers rich opportunities for viewing wildlife and access to many other outstanding recreational opportunities.

Sounds good, right? Especially since we are partial to the Rails to Trails program and have biked sections of many other rail-trails. We decided to start our ride at the Inverness trailhead, about 26 miles from the park, since it was recommended by some websites. We parked and offloaded our bikes and hit the trail going north at 9:10 a.m., a bit later than we had aimed for. We're trying to do most of our hiking and biking earlier in the day to avoid the afternoon heat. Of course we still have morning heat and humidity to contend with!

We couldn't help stopping very soon to take photos of the caboose that marks some of the railroad origins of the trail.

Then we saw these appealing "Cooters"--a type of  local turtle (Wikipedia: The Coastal plain cooter^[1] (Pseudemys concinna floridana) or Florida cooter is a species of large herbivorous freshwater turtle in the genus Pseudemys.) Why are these large cooters here? Because Inverness celebrates a local festival, the Cooter Fest in late October.

On with the bike ride. The nice thing about the northern section of the trail is that it is pretty well shaded, with trees on both sides of the trail. As usual, we were entertained by some trailside oddities, like this pink elephant drawing attention to a used car lot.

Here's a glass shop that evidently sells bottle trees!

 We had our eyes peeled for wildlife. We did see one trail kill squirrel, sadly, but we also spotted a red shouldered hawk that flew in and perched in a tree beside the trail, but unfortunately didn't stick around long enough for photos.

We passed this intriguing farmers market while we were outbound and stopped on the way back south to check out the produce.

Unfortunately, Florida fruits and veggies are played out, according to the vendor. They're bringing in peaches and some other things from Georgia and Tennessee. We did pick up a large cantaloupe and some tomatoes, and Ken couldn't resist some chocolate chip biscotti.

When we got back to Inverness, we were hot and thirsty and ready to eat, so we pedaled a few blocks into the city's historic downtown. We found a Subway where we shared a sandwich and coke along with our bananas and biscotti while soaking up the air conditioning.

This historic 1912 Courthouse is across the street from the modern courthouse.

After lunch we biked south a few miles to explore some more and get in twenty miles.

Tomorrow we'll ride more of the southern end of the trail.


Our timing was really good. About half an hour after we got home the rain started. We kicked back, and Ken put on another DVD we found at the clubhouse, a James Garner comedy, Support Your Local Gunfighter, for some comic relief.