Cross Florida Greenway Trail

March 1, 2018

In the 1960s the Corps of Engineers started to build the Cross Florida Barge Canal across the Florida peninsula from the St. John River to the Gulf using the Ocklawaha River. A woman named Marjorie Harris Carr opposed the project for ecological reasons and the project was eventually cancelled by President Nixon and the lands purchased along the canal right-of-way were named the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Trail. It is a combination of five trails dedicated to hiking, birding, horseback riding, road biking and mountain biking. It is 18 miles north of us and we have friends who are avid mountain bikers and they sing its praises. On I-75, just south of Ocala, we often pass under a highway bridge with trees and bushes growing on it identified as the Cross Florida Greenway Trail and we have always wanted to investigate it. So, with Alesa being the Vice-President and stressed out over the club's upcoming Dilly-Dilly Platform Tennis Tournament this weekend, I decided she needed a day off yesterday so we headed up for some hiking. When we parked at the Land Bridge Trailhead a couple from Wisconsin started asking questions and I explained it was a trail bridge across I-75 and we were walking to it, they asked to tag along. We had a nice visit for the mile walk up and the mile walk back. He turned out to be a mountain biker and asked about the Santos Trailhead which is a Mecca for mountain bikers. As that was our next stop, they followed us there and we looked over the practice tracks but no hiking. This afternoon, while Alesa was 'platforming', I went golfing with our neighbor, Mike. We watched the rocket launch from the Cape as we started the third hole and finished our round as the sun was setting. Tomorrow starts the Dilly-Dilly tournament and I am golfing with Ed Dawson at an off-site 18 hole course.