25 Miles and Trail Preferences

Manatee Springs State Park Site #29
Chiefland, Florida

Remember those vultures in the tree I showed you yesterday??



Well, during my morning run, I went over to the boardwalk and ran down to the river overlook

And the vultures weren't in the tree anymore, now they were

right in front of me until I came to a screaching (pun intended) halt and decided to turn around immediately.  

Close up for those interested  ??

So much for the morning run. 

We had decided to do the Nature Coast Rails to Trails bike path in the afternoon so we went over to the trail head which was at the Chiefland Florida Chamber of Commerce Building.

The building is the old train station which was moved to the site under big fan fare in 2000.  It's a cute building and it looked, as we came up like a lot of folks standing around the parking lot.

They didn't show up from this angle but as we got closer, we could see they were Halloween decorations from members of the chamber.  A dozen in all I think.  Here are some of the favorites.

From the local electric co-op

the heating and air company

And Einstein from the Community College

Off to the trail, This is the start leaving the Old Train Station in Chiefland.  The Nature Coast Trail is 32 miles long and runs in a T from Chiefland to Fanning Springs and then on to either Trenton or Cross City.
We decided to do the section from Chiefland to Fanning Springs and stop at Old Town going in the direction of Cross City and then retrace our path to Chiefland.

On this section of the trail we stopped to see another gopher tortoise.

The trail runs primarily along side US 19 with a border of trees between the trail and the road.  There are places where the two diverge but primarily there is the road on one side and single wide trailer housing on the other.   The highlight of the ride was going over the old tressle railroad bridge between Fanning Springs and Old Town.  The tressle of course spans the Suwannee River and we got yet another view of it from another spot.

Great Bridge and terrific views up and down the river.

We were expecting an "Old" Town when we got to Old Town, Florida.  But we found a cross roads with a traffic light and these businesses

Rival hair salon directly across the road.

Downtown Old Town includes no ice cream shop but it does have a Bail Bond  :-)

On that note we turned around and on the way back I helped Jr. Tortoise on his way across the path.

Peddling back to Chiefland.

The trail was very nicely maintained and for those who love to ride just to ride, it would be a good 32 miles.  We greatly preferred the Withlacoochie Trail but the 25 miles we rode today was good exercise, we were out in beautiful weather and enjoyed both grown up and younger Gopher Tortoises.

See you tomorrow!