High Bluff Coastal Trail
Posted By auntie on January 16, 2018
8.97 miles; Carrabelle, FL
Wow, was I psyched when I found this trail. An almost 9-mile trail through many different kinds of habitat in a state forest? Sign me up. I had the impression this was a big trail until I Googled up a map of the state forest itself…
The Tate’s Hell State Forest
Seems like a drop in the bucket, doesn’t it? Still, 9 miles is 9 miles.
First Sign I See
So this was the first thing I noticed on the West Trailhead Kiosk. Uh, oh, okay. Bears. Sweet. And my friend who grew up in Northern Florida reminded me that alligators are a thing up here. Did I mention the Florida Panther? They got those, too. Hoo boy. Worst problem I had hiking in Rhode Island was weird naked guys.
Scat
So as you might imagine, I spent a lot of time scrutinizing scat and prints. Here is some old-ish coyote scat. Not far from here there was some VERY FRESH coyote scat. So fresh it was still steaming. I did not hang around to take a photo of the fresh stuff. Saw some bear poop, too, but it was also pretty old. That’s what I told myself. “Old.” I thought. “Ancient.”
Not Sure… Some Kind of Fox?
Opossum
I saw plenty of tracks, like the ones above. And tons of canid tracks, but I have no idea if they were dogs or coyotes. Don’t think there are wolves in northern Florida. I don’t think. Now I’m afraid to check.
Watch for the Blue and Orange Blazes
This trail is extremely well-blazed. I never felt as if I wasn’t sure where to go. Nice job, Florida Trail personages.
Swirly Contrails
Saw quite a few of these swirly contrails, and they puzzled me until I remembered that Tyndall Air Force Base isn’t more than 50 miles from here, where they train F-22 pilots. Now I’m not saying that’s where the trails came from, but that’s my uninformed guess.
Baby Sundew
Towards the end of this trail I started seeing these weird little red rosettes. They are pretty small… maybe 1-1/2″ to 2″ across. I had no idea what they were till I got home and performed a little Google-Fu. They’re sundews—carnivorous plants. How cool is that?
You can find out more about the High Bluff Coastal Trail on the Florida Hikes website. Find out more about Tate’s Hell State Forest (including the legend behind the name) from this State of Florida website. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.
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