Myakka River State Park - Trip Report

“Well, I don't post here much, but I figured everybody on TT likes a trip report. I have hiked with a few of the TT guys and gals, but haven't gotten a chance to backpack much lately. Went on the Ocala Trip in February and have not had a chance to go again this year.

Finally things fell into place were I could do an overnighter. It's hard to get off early on Fridays, so that leaves overnighters as my best option right now. Living in South Florida is not the best location when you want to do some backpacking. Its really too hot and buggy most of the year for backpacking.

So I finally planned a trip and decided to go. My son and I decided to do an overnighter at Myakka River State Park. Myakka River is a nice state park off the West Coast of Florida It has about 30 something miles of trails and some sand roads you can hike. It is a mixture of pines, open prairie and slough.

Friday we did our last minute packing. Split up some of the gear trying for light packs since it was just an overnighter.

Saturday morning we were off. We got a later start then we wanted but it’s only a couple of hours away. We stopped for a quick breakfast and got to the park about 10:00. We have had several cold fronts travel through Florida in the last few weeks. The weather behind the fronts is always nice. Cool and clear a nice change of pace and great hiking weather. The only thing is the fronts had dropped a lot of water over the last few weeks. I noticed quite a bit of standing water on the trip to the park. It is usually dry in Florida during the winter. The trails at Myakka are usually wet during the summer but dry out in the winter. This was not going to be the case this trip. When I checked in I ask if the trials were pretty wet? The ranger just laughed and said I guarantee it. Then said good luck as I left.

We finally hit the trail a little before 11:00. They have a nice trailhead behind a locked gate. Seems to be a pretty secure place to park. We were the only car parked at the trailhead. We took the blue blaze trail to the main trail. We hit the main trail and started for Bee Island campsite. It has a pump and is a good place to break for lunch. At first we would pick around the water on the trails. Like cats trying to keep our feet dry. After awhile we just gave up and started trudging through the mud and water. It was pretty wet, but the water was never more than about 6” deep. We had a nice morning hike and stopped for lunch about 2:00. We made good time and had covered about 5 of the 10 or so miles we had planned for the day.

The morning hike was very nice. You go through trees and are in the shade most of the day. The weather had warmed up nice. Then that afternoon we hit the prairie. This is one of the few natural Florida Prairies. We walked the 3 or so miles across the prairie. This would not be a fun hike if the weather was hot or bad. You are completely out in the open. The water was about 2 inches deep on the entire trail. We could not even find a dry place to take a break. Finally we hit the other side of the prairie about 4:00. Took a short break and made the last mile or so to camp. We were staying at Oak Grove campsites. There are three campsites here under some big oak trees. This is the second time I have been here. This campsite doesn’t seem to get much use, but is a very nice campsite. Sometimes these designated sites are not great, but this is a good one. It’s one you would actually pick if you could camp anywhere you wanted. We had the campsite alone.

We were both a little tired. I have not done any hiking or endurance type training lately so it was nice to be in camp. My son gathered some small sticks and twigs and keep a small fire going. The big stuff was too wet to burn. So we just kept a little fire going for a few hours. We both cooked our Ramen noodles over our esbit stoves. We hit the sack pretty early. It started to get pretty cold for us Florida boys as the sun went down. It probably went to the low 40’s during the night. We are just getting enough equipment so we can hike together. I just purchase a good 20+ bag. I let my son have it and he was warm all night. I used my summer fleece bag with lots of clothes and was still kind of cold during the night. A very large hog wandered though camp just before we went to bed.

We woke up to a cold morning. I got up about daybreak and made coffee and hot chocolate. We then had some grits. Broke camp and hit the trail. Neither of us really wanted to wade the 3-4 miles across the prairie. We didn’t think we would see any wildlife out there. We did see some deer in the woods the first day and the hog that night. We were hoping to see more wildlife on the way out.

We decided to use some of the park roads. They are mostly just sand ruts, not paved roads, so we figured walking them would still be fun. We started out on a sand road that would take us to the old railroad grade road. We figured this railroad grade would be high and dry. The only problem is you have to cross the slough to get to it. We walked the road and came to a stream that was about 5 or 6’ deep. Neither of us felt like swimming across that early in the morning. We turned around and went back to the trail. We took the cutoff trail across the slough. It was not too deep, but pretty muddy in a few places. Luckily there was a bridge over the deep stream. We saw some more deer on the trail.

We hit the railroad grade road. It was high and dry through the rest of the slough. There are no tracks but this is an elevated road. We made some good time and by passed the wet prairie. Took another short road and stopped at Bee Island Campsite again. We stopped and cooked a hot meal for lunch and rested and laid around on our sleeping pads. Lunch in the backcountry is better than in a fine restaurant.

We went back to the trail for the last 4 or5 miles. The roads are just not a pretty as the trail. It was also getting warm and we figured the trail would provide more cover. I am glad we hit the trail again. We had some great wildlife sightings. We saw a huge bobcat on the trail about 20 feet in front of us. I had never seen one this close. He stopped, we stopped and stared at each other for about a full minute. My son was leading. The bobcat trotted down the trail. My son followed and saw mine a couple more times, until he finally darted off the trail. That was really neat.

We decided to stop for one final break. There was a small stream by the trail. It was only about 2 foot wide and 1 foot deep. We dropped our packs and took a short break. My son got up to go take a pee before we walked the last mile or so to the truck. He took about 4 or 5 steps and jumped back. He said there is a big gator over here. I just laugh, kind of figure he was just joking around. Well lying in the middle of the stream out of our view because of some palmettos there was a 6-foot gator. We were resting about 15-20 feet from him. When he saw us he slowly pulled back and went under some cover. We decided to cut the break short.

It was a great trip. The first overnight backpack trip for my youngest son. We headed home after stopping to eat a big burger. Now I am ready to go again. Great trip.”

“great report!

I am planning on being in South Florida sometime during the spring and my brother and niece want to go backpacking while I am there. This might be the spot.”

“cool report, my parents live near there”

“Chili

I have been twice and it is a nice place. Lots of people on the paved road in front of the park, but very few in the backcountry.

It's not far off I-75, close to Sarasota, so it's easy to get to. I come from the other way.

I plan on going again soon. There are 6 backcountry campgrounds. Each have 3 sites. Reservations are recommended. They must have a lot of cancelations, because there are usually not that many people actually there.

I have seen 3 of the 6 sites.

Mossy Hammock - too close to the trailhead. Over used and bad silty pump.

Bee Island - nice campsite on the edge of some pine trees.

Oak Grove - very nice. The pump was not working but you can get water out of the slough. The swamp water tastes better than the pump water anyway.

I plan on maybe seeing the other 3 sites.

E-mail me before you go. Hopefully by then I will know this park like the back of my hand.”

“Thanks. It looks like I will be down there in March. I should be able to make definate plans in a couple of weeks.”

“Flatlander, I'll be at my parent's condo in North Port late Jan. Are there any good day hikes (8 miles or so) to do there?”

“Smiley Girl
Like much of the hiking in Florida there is not a must see destination in the park. No mountain summits, ovelooks etc. Of course that doesn't mean there would not be some good day hikes. You just walk along and notice the little things, changes, etc.

Actually the first few miles of the trail is nice. Just park at the trailhead take the short blue blaze trail to the main orange blaze trail. Then just take a right and go south on the main trail. Just put in as many miles as you want. You would see a good variety of areas. Ponds, pines, hardwoods even some open areas.

There are a couple of ways to do loops using the cutoff trails and/or roads. Using the Bee Island cutoff and going back around Mossy Hammock would be a nice hike. Probably a little more than 8 miles.

Here is a good link. There is a downloadable map at the bottom. We found the map to be pretty accurate.

http://www.myakkariver.org/hiking.html

Be sure and get some water out of the pitcher pumps. It has a very high mineral content. It's an experiance. It comes out clear and a little smelly, but as the air hits it the iron starts turning. After a little while it looks like tang. A nice pale shade of orange.”

“So, um, gators, you say? I know if I come across a bear (which I hope I never do) I make a bunch of noise. What the he!! do you do if you come across an angry gator? Zig-zag, right? Do I #&%!$ my pants before or after I try to outrun the thing?

If I mention gators, my sister will NEVER go with me....”

“Flatlander - great report. It's cool to hear about all of those places again, having visited many of them in January. I understand your frustration with wanting to get out more. Sounds like work and life have you busy. I am trying to get some trail time in and it's tough. I wonder if your son is hooked?

Smiley Girl - concerning gators. If you are not in the water and are not in their nest, there is very little likelihood that they will bug you. The ones I have run into on land always run away. I would discourage swimming in backcountry lakes where you are not confident that there are not gators. Also, watch your dogs around gator holes.”

“"I am trying to get some trail time in and it's tough. I wonder if your son is hooked?"

Big Coop
I am going back soon. Think you can work something out?

I hope my son is hooked. He has always enjoyed camping. This was his first real backpacking trip. He did really seem to enjoy it. He really liked the wildlife sightings. He started the fire with some pretty wet wood and did a good job of cooking. He did most of the map reading. We used a combination of roads and trail on the way out. All that gave him a lot of confidence. He didn't like the 4 mile trek across the flooded prairie, but the rest might have hooked him.

Oh, yea. He wants a seperate tent. He says I snore. hahaha

Smiley Girl
I second what Coop said about the Gators. They are not a threat to a hiker on land. Gators are not comfortable on land. They will retreat to deeper water for safety.”

“If you keep your dogs out of the backcountry, where they don't belong anyway, you won't have to worry about them around gator holes.

LNT = LDH.”

“Micah

I hope Sarabelle bites you right on your sticky butt!”

“Micah - I hope you didn't pull a hammstring running in from left field.”

“Great report, the flatlander
. Sounds like a wonderful trip.

If you make it to Ocala NF, please bring your son. It appears that he is already a good hiker.”

“good report flatlander....i have been looking at myakka for a kayak trip...may have to take in a walk there too .....over this winter of course.

LOL big coop....the hamstring comment ...i love it”

“Flatlander - keep me posted. I was also thinking that there are some other areas between us that might offer some good hiking. I've heard good things about the three lakes area in Kissimmee and the Florida trail does go through Highlands county - although I doubt it is as scenic as Ocala.

I have a cousin who lives in Sarasota and he is interested in doing some hiking as well so it would be good if we could somehow work in at least an overnight.”

“Well I dug up this old thread to see just how long it's been since I went backpacking. Almost a full year since the last trip.

I finally went again last weekend. Went back to Myakka again. It's a nice place and only a couple hours drive. I have seen most of the north end of the park and wanted to see the south end.

This was just a quick solo overnighter. I left early saturday morning and was on the trail by about 9:30 or so. I went around the southern most loop of the trail system. I wanted to see the other designated campsites. I have already seen 3 of 6 and wanted to check out two more this trip.

I was not really impressed with Honore the first campsite you come to. It's not in a pretty Oak grove like some of the others. It looks like it might be close enough to the highway you could hear the cars at night.

I traveled on to Panther Point another designated camp site. This was a really pretty camp site and my destination for the night. It was in a nice grove of trees. Didn't look like it gets much use. It's only about 8 miles back so I was surprised at how little use it looks like it gets. There was plenty of leaf matter and the ground was not compacted at all.

The weather was perfect. High 60s in the day and low 40s at night. Not a cloud in the sky.

Saw a big otter on the trail early Sunday morning.

Pretty uneventful trip, but it was really nice to get out again.

Looks like my total bag nights for 2003 are going to be a grand total of ONE. Man, I need to get out more.”