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Little Manatee River State Park

Little Manatee River State Park is very diverse and wild. When you hike the trail the type of scenery is constantly changing. There are parts that are like a jungle, some are like airy pine cover clearings, patches of palmetto and scrub oak, and hilly oak hammocks on the banks of the river and its flood plain. The park does not allow swimming in the river because of alligators. The park also has facilities for horse riding, full service camp sites, a group area for youth camping, a picnic area, and a canoe launch.
A word of warning: In August, the mosquitoes are FEROCIOUS and will SWARM you even with insect repellent (I used a biorganic repellent, I think it worked well for the concentration of mosquitoes. Pure DEET may be better). Again, the mosquitoes are so thick you run into them while walking, several will light on you hand while taking pictures, and you feel like you cannot stop walking or you will be devoured. Take this into consideration if bringing younger children who are used to breaks. All things considered they were not as bad here as Hillsborough River State Park.

This hike included two separate trips one weekend apart. The first was on August 23, 2008, not an especially good choice as hurricane Faye was making it’s way across north Florida and pulling in some bad weather. I fact, it was because of rain that I charted the main road to the park. The hiking trails are on the north side of the river, but the main features of the park are on the south side. You must register at the Ranger Station in order to get the combination to the lock on the gate to the hiking trailhead. This process adds at least 10 minutes to the hike time.
Once the rain stopped, we made our way back to the north side of the river, which is actually about 2.5 miles from the ranger station, back out north on 301. We actually parked outside the gate, and discovered there was parking closer to the trailhead, but we wanted our car to be seen by the road to make sure the rangers would know there was someone hiking on this unlikely day. The trail is a large loop with a short 0.1mi spur to the trailhead. There is also a cross trail near the middle to reduce the length of the loop from 6.2mi to only 2.5mi.
When on the trail we really found very few areas of the trail that were flooded, and these could be avoided with care. Very likely, the trail would not have been flooded much if at all if it had not been raining so much during the preceding week because of a hurricane. There were a few short sections of the trail that were cleared recently by a mower, not a good sign of an established trail. But after that section, it became a lovely and diverse trail and was not too strenuous. My 10 and 6 year olds (and their 8 and 5 year old friends) tolerated it very well and never complained. The whole short loop from the gate totaled 2.8 Miles of walking, taking 1 hr and 50 minutes at a kid friendly pace with stops and breaks. This trail passes markers #1-4 before the cross trail and only marker #12 on the return trail.
I returned the following weekend, August 30, 2008, to hike the long loop and see the primitive campsite. The total trail is 6.2 miles, plus the 0.1mi spur to the trailhead, and is broken up into 12 sections by 12 numbered posts. I have included waypoints for all 12 posts along the trail. I expected the trail to be drier as it didn’t rain and hadn’t been raining, but it was completely flooded in several areas. The surprise was that the bridges were often the worst with some being submerged under 6-8” of water. In fact, the bridge over Cyprus Creek by marker #4 was only visible because I had seen it the week before and I could see one post sticking out to locate it. My fellow hiker was walking across the bridge on faith because he couldn’t see it from shore. There were other areas where we had to make our way around a large flooded areas and might have lost our way if we were not careful—and had a GPS track of the trail. Between Marker #6 and #7 the trail turns away from the river. This stretch is very jungle-like and we had to really bend over to make it through some shrubs. Some of the larger pools of water were also here. Once you get past marker #7, the trail opens up some and weaves in and out of scrub oak thickets. Just before #9 is the spur to the primitive campsite, which is about 0.22mi long each way. The campsites looked very nice. They have good space between the campsites, which include fire rings and picnic tables. No water sources were available in the camping area, but the setting is quite lovely. About halfway between #10 and #11 is the northern bridge over Cyprus Creek and soon after #11 is the cross trail for the short loop and only 1mi left.
Overall, our hike took 2 hours and 40 minutes for a total of 6.8 miles (2.55 mph including a 10-15min stop at the campsites to empty boots). We started the hike around 9:30am and finished after 1:00pm. Children would certainly increase the time, but dry conditions would improve them. Each of the hikers consumed 3L of water and could have used a bit more, so make sure you bring at least that much water. The back side or the trail is in the sun more so we were very hot and thirsty the last hour.
We did see not see much wildlife in the park on either weekend. I attribute that mostly to the weather conditions. We did see about a dozen golden orb spider—what I called banana spiders as a kid—who had spun their web across the trail. You have to watch carefully for them (the included picture was with a poor focus lock). At the beginning of the trail they were at face level, toward the middle we discovered some at knee level. They are very scary looking spiders—that may be my inner child talking—and when one ended up on my hat I knocked my sunglasses about 10 ft. while ‘calmly’ removing my hat. They good news is that I noticed they seemed just as frightened of me as I approached and moved very quickly to get off the web. The other wildlife I was able to capture was two very weird mushrooms about a foot apart. The red and white one looks remarkably like one from the Super Mario Bros games.

My fellow hiker remarked that he liked the long loop at Little Manatee River State Park better than the trails at Hillsborough River State Park, which he had also hiked with me. He said there was a greater variety of terrain and scenery on this trail. Overall, I would rate the hike as 4 stars. It’s a good distance. It is diverse and scenic with good terrain for Florida. I think the primitive campsites will be excellent and I am looking forward to returning when the weather cools.

Created By

kurtisk on September 08, 2008

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Little Manatee River State Park

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