Florida Trail Activities in Your Area

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Check out our chapter websites and Meetup groups for activities in your area.  Visit the Chapters page, scroll down to the bottom and look for your county.  Click on the chapter for a county to go to its web page.  Florida Trail Association activities include day hikes, backpacking trips, canoeing and kayaking, bicycling, picnics, and campouts.  Day hikes may focus on birding, plant identification, geocaching or historic sites.  Most activities are held locally, but some chapters travel to other parts of the state or out of state for extended trips.  However you like to enjoy the great outdoors, there's a Florida Trail activity for you!
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Home arrow Trail arrow Loop and Side Trails arrow South Florida Side Trails arrow Arbuckle Tract
Arbuckle Tract PDF Print E-mail

Length:  18.7 mile loop, 3.9 mile connector

From SR 17 in Frostproof, follow N Lake Reedy Rd east 3.3 miles to Lake Arbuckle Rd. Turn right and continue to Ruck’s Dairy Rd. Cross cement bridge to enter gate. The south gate is 8 miles east of Avon Park along SR 64. The loops lead through moderately rolling hills with pine forests, prairies, wetlands, scrub, and marshy lakeshore along the west side of Lake Arbuckle.

Overview

 

Arbuckle Tract (Brian O'Halloran)The Arbuckle Tract of Lake Wales Ridge State Forest has trails for everyone, no matter whether you prefer backpacking or day hiking. Accessed most easily via the Paula Dockery Trail on Rucks Dairy Road, the orange-blazed 18.7-mile outer loop of the Reedy Creek Trail, perfect for a weekend of backpacking, winds along Reedy Creek and Lake Arbuckle, and offers three designated primitive campsites.

The Lake Godwin Trail runs 3.9 linear miles across the preserve to break the larger loop in half, and the 2.7-mile Kellerman Trail connects CR 64 with the Hidden Hammock primitive campsite.

The best way to sample the Arbuckle Tract is to walk the Old Cabin Nature Trail, a rugged 1-mile interpretive loop around a prairie lake through wet flatwoods, scrub, and extensive cutthroat seeps-- rare grasslands found only along the Lake Wales Ridge.

Both the Reedy Creek and Old Cabin trails are part of the Florida State Forests Trailwalker Program.

  

Map

 

S1 Arbuckle TractThe north gate is east of Frostproof. From SR 17 in Frostproof, follow N Lake Reedy Rd east 3.3 miles to Lake Arbuckle Rd. Turn right and continue to Ruck’s Dairy Rd. Cross cement bridge to enter gate. The south gate is 8 miles east of Avon Park along SR 64.

 

Purchase map South 1 

 Disclaimer: While FTA strives to maintain accurate information and is constantly updating its geodatabase, the trail and development along the trail corridor is constantly changing. The data has been collected from a variety of sources and accuracy varies. FTA provides this data for recreational purposes only and does not intend the data as a survey. 

Centerline data Florida Trail System (c) 2007 Florida Trail Association, Inc.

  

Trailheads

 

The north gate parking area is north of the gate near the sign-in box. At the south gate, park at the forest gate on the north side of the road, and follow the blazes to the trail.

 

Features

  

Campsites

Lakeside

Hidden Hammock

Grave Island  

   

Conditions

 Moderately rolling hills with pine forests, prairies, wetlands, scrub, and marshy lakeshore.  

 

Precautions

There is a creek near the north campsite, but water must be treated. Wear blaze orange vest during hunting season - mid-October through November.

  

Restrictions

 Primitive campsites are located off the trail near the north and south entrances. Backpackers must call the State Forest to obtain camping permits: 863-635-8589  

 
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