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During hunting season, all hikers must wear safety orange shirts or vests for safety's sake. If you are backpacking and camping overnight, leave word with friends or family as to when to expect you back.
The section of the trail within the floodplain forest is an excellent area to photography a large variety of fungi. A 2.8-mile short loop enables visitors to catch the highlights of this section.
The trail was built and is maintained by volunteers from the Florida Trail Association and is open to backpacking.
Offering loops of three and seven miles, the St. Francis Trail works its way through floodplain forest habitats along the St. Francis Dead River to the ghost town of St. Francis at the south edge of the Alexander Springs Wilderness Area.
St. Francis was a thriving river port in the late 1800s as steamboats worked their way from Jacksonville upriver along the St. Johns to Sanford. Here, they'd stop to exchange household goods for citrus and timber. The town faded away after river traffic vanished in the wake of railroads, but the St. Francis Trail lets visitors take a long walk through floodplain forests and pine flatwoods in search of the past.
This is a great trail, but make sure you have on strong bug repellent to have the best experience. The below issues are just a part of being in the Florida wilderness. Ticks are everywhere and can be a real problem for dogs. We also encountered poison ivy and poison oak. If you stay on the trail, you should not have any problems though. The two times we have hiked here we did 6-7 miles. You can go much further if you take the north trail onto the Florida Trail. Be mindful of how far you walk as you will most likely have to return the way you came, thereby doubling the distance.
Such a beautiful trail, with a horrible experience because of the overwhelming amounts of TICKS! Skip ⏭️ trust me I wish me & my son would have! We had so many on us we lost count 🤮 Deer ticks included (hard pass) gl
This is such a beautiful trail. We went trail running and I love this trail despite of some areas were cover with water. 7.8miles loop. Paths were clean and very accessible.
Great trail to hike during the cooler weather. This trail also loops with the St Francis trail. It's close to 8 miles with both loops completed together. Muddy patches with dry terrain. Lots of boardwalks with a cool log bridge.
