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Bruce
& Betsy Blais |
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Mountain Biking - Special Trails - Alafia Bruce has a sister that lives in Brandon which is a suburb of Tampa. He was going to be spending some time in Florida, so he decided to see what kind of trails he might be able to find. A web search led him to the Alafia River SP trail 15 miles from her house. This is another IMBA EPIC trail and was quite an unexpected find in Florida. Normally the area is considered to be flat, but SWAMP has converted an abandoned phosphate strip mine into a bike park. This made for a really enjoyable experience for his third out of state riding adventure. Check out this YouTube Video about the park. The trails are diverse and well marked. Signs showing the trail system and your current location are provided throughout the park.
The entrance to the North Creek Loop. The signage at Alafia is terrific.
Alafia is a picturesque place. Below is a photo of one of the trails under moss-laden trees going past palmettos and a lake.
Start
The entrance to Rock Garden. At this point the camera batteries were about done for, so there are not too many more photos.
The entrance to Rabbit Ears. This is marked as a double black diamond trail.
Some of the land bridges across the wetter parts of the trail.
The State of Florida has done a great job with this trail. Below is a photo of the facilities at the trailhead. They include restrooms, information kiosk and bike wash. The area also has a nice parking lot, picnic tables and lots of shade.
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Version 0.2, October 24, 2013 |
