Tom and Tinas Travels: A Hike to Lake Winder

Out west of town, beyond the Viera Wetlands that we wrote about a couple of posts ago, is the River Lakes Conservation Area. We did a couple of hikes out there this last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the wild wilderness of Florida. Welllllll ... almost!

The conservation area is pretty far west of town leading to Lake Winder which is only accessible by boat (mainly airboat) or hiking. We elected for hiking since our boat enjoys salt water.

Saturday we took a hike shown in red on the above map. It was a 6 mile hike round trip. It's old time Florida country side, reminding us both of "A Land Remembered" by Patrick Smith. We actually took a hike there Friday too, but opted for taking the path from the green arrow starting point straight down the canal to the lake. About a 1/4 mile short of the lake we ran into a 14 foot gator. Fortunately we scared him into the canal and he equally scared us about 20 feet back from the canal. Regardless, it's a beautiful part of wilderness here in Florida.

Friday all we had was Tina's phone for pictures since I forgot our main camera. Unfortunately Tina kept the phone in her sports bra so by the time we took pics the lens was all fogged up with sweat. That's part of what motivated us to go back on Saturday.