Split Oak Mitigation Trail

Today I hiked the North Loop and Lake Loop of the Split Oak Mitigation Trail. The park is back in a Florida Water Management District area as well as wildlife management district... so no hunting is allowed, and the main trails are vehicle paths, criss-crossed by non-trail vehicle paths. The paths are pretty well flagged by color so it was easy to stay on track.

The first push of the North loop is through a broad scrub of what appeared to be swaths of rusty lionia. The sun was blazing, and within the first half-mile I drank half a liter of water! Slowly, the path began to follow the edge of an oak hammock and then veered out through a restful pine flatwood. The surroundings are quite varied in vegetation mix, but most of the trail is pretty sun-exposed.

Once I reached the Lake loop, it was a little easier traveling. Back in the trees, it was a bit cooler and I was looking forward to snacking by the lake. There was still a lot of sun, since practically every area of the park has been victim to repeated forest fires (and the area in the lake loop looked as if it might have seen a tornado as well). The lake was nice, marshy and natural, although with the heat there weren't any birds to be seen (this is supposed to be part of the Florida Birding Trail). However, I heard a branch snap, and as I looked over I heard a sloshing sound as a doe (who was chest-deep in water) decided that I was a potential threat and was climbing out of the lake. In all, I saw 5 deer on the trip (the water deer with her companion, and a trio later on).

Once rested at the lake and having had snacks and water, I started walking again. Not too far after the lake with its short boardwalk is the Split Oak that the park is named after. It is a 200 year old tree that split about 50 years ago under the weight of its branches. Two horizontal portions are on the ground with a gap of about 10 feet between them with numerous "suckers" coming off the horizontal trunk which are nearly as big as trees themselves. I didn't delay too long, but continued hiking. Not too far from there is a branch that goes towards Moss Park. It is probably a shorter and shadier hike from Moss Park for anyone who just wants to see the split tree and lake. I decided to keep going along my trail and soon found the North Loop again.

After that, hiking got hard. The land is very open in the park and there was very little shade anywhere. The hiking through the scrub felt like it took forever (and indeed that was the slowest hiking I have ever done!). I had to rest frequently to keep from overheating. I eventually gave up my back-brace and pulled a cotton bandana out of the bag, soaked it and put it around my neck which seemed to keep my temperature more under control. Along the way, there was another boardwalk overlooking (if I remember right) a Sawgrass Swamp. After what seemed like ages, there was finally the respite of forest. Combined with the later afternoon cooler temperatures, the hiking was easier here and I wasn't assessing of my water reserves the whole time (see notes below). Markers along the trail show when forest fires hit each part of the park.

Twenty minutes from the parking lot, I saw my first human beings and they let me know I was getting close to the end. After about 15 minutes, the path emerged from the woods onto a wide open prairie. On the way, I saw several more people heading into the woods (all in shorts and tee shirts with no water bottles or anything else). The prairie was very pretty and I could see why people choose to go backwards through the loop. For me, it was a nice reward after enduring all the dry scrubland. Looking at the gathering stormclouds, I was glad to be heading home.

The paths in the park were pretty easy and wide in most places... but it is very hot, so either bring more water than you think you'll need, set out very early or hike in the off season. My hike was probably not even four miles but the heat made it seem much farther and I had to rest more that I ever have.

Wildlife: In additional to plentiful deer (there are deer tracks *everywhere*), I think that I saw Bobcat tracks near the lake, and Coyote tracks in the scrubland. I saw one gopher tortoise (can't have a hike without one of those!) and possibly a fox squirrel (too far away to tell).

PACK NOTES: I am still adjusting my pack. Knowing that this hike might be more open, I choose to follow a hint in my backpacking book that said to put some salt and honey in the water bottles to prevent hyponutremia. That was a bad choice. I could taste even the small bit of salt and while it tasted fine in my own kitchen... for some reason it seemed unpalatable on the trail, which made me think of water a lot because I only had 1 Liter in my pack that was not "tainted". Knowing that I don't like the salty water, next time I will be taking pretzels for snacks and a little bit of bullion mix in case of emergency in addition to the protein bars and tuna packs (sometimes my blood sugar dips a bit low). Everything else was fine beyond that... but having water that tasted funky made it a bit harder to want to drink what I needed. Lesson learned! It was also my first time out with my Merrell hiking shoes and I had no problems whatsoever. No blisters and no excess of sand in the shoes. They worked out really well.