Rail Trail - Florida style

Florida has quite a bit of abandoned railroad right of way.  Some of it has been turned into some really nice rail-trails.  I've ridden the St. Augustine to Palatka trail a good bit in the last year.  

It's a nice one.  Here's an overview.  

Let's start at the beginning.  The very beginning.  The 20th century development of the east coast of Florida was caused by the building of the Florida East Coast Railway by Henry Flagler.  The original mainline of the railroad from St. Augustine south ran inland, southwest to Palatka and then SSE back toward the coast.  In 1925, the Florida East Coast built the Moultrie Cut-off - a direct line from St. Augustine to Bunnell and points south.  This effectively make the old mainline to Palatka a little-used secondary line.  It was gradually abandoned starting in the1960s.  The rail trail was started in 2004 and completed in 2018. https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/palatka-st-augustine-state-trail/history

There is a stub of the old mainline that is still in use from St. Augustine to just west of I-95.  Where this stub ends, the trail begins.

Trail beginning.  I-95 overpass just to the east.

This is a stub portion of the trail.  There is no way to start or end your ride at this spot.  The nearest access is at Vermont Blvd in Vermont Heights.  A small dirt lot and trail information kiosk are there.  A much better access point is the Vermont Heights trailhead where the trail comes out to meet SR 207.  Here, there is ample paved parking, restrooms, bottle filling station and picnic tables. The facilities are clean and well maintained.  It is a popular starting point for riders.  From here, it's about a mile to the Vermont Blvd. trail access point and another mile and half beyond that to the east end of the trail.

Vermont Trailhead pavilion with restrooms

bottle filling station

My ride

A trail kiosk

To the west, the trail follows SR 207 on the north side.  It is worth noting that in the places the trail follows SR 207, it is it's own path, separated by 30 feet or more from the highway.  This makes biking pleasant and easy.  After a mile, it crosses to the south side.

Bike crossing with signals

The highway curves away from the trail after another mile or so and heads into some shaded woods.  Then over a creek and to a short stub to the Armstrong trailhead. 

Stub to Armstrong trailhead

facilities at Armstrong

There are signs along the trail in Armstrong telling the history and importance of the railroad to the town.

From Armstrong, the trail goes through a pine forest and along a fancy horse farm before coming to the hamlet of Spuds.  The trail crosses SR 207 back to the north side.

Signaled crossing at Spuds

The trail heads off into the woods again, crossing Deep Creek on a long bridge. It is not rare to see paddlers on the creek as there's a put-in point along SR207.

The trail then goes right through the town of Hastings.  Hastings is the center of the potato growing area in Florida.  There are still plenty of fields along the trail planted in potatoes, but the Hastings' best days seem behind it.  Even the Potato Grower Association building is for sale.  

Anyone need a Potato Growers Building?

At the west end of  Hastings is the Cora C. Harrison Preserve trailhead.  This is 9 miles from Vermont Trailhead and about 10 miles from Palatka.  This is a good point to start a round trip in either direction.

Stub to Cora C Harrison Preserve Trailhead

There is excellent parking here as well as a well maintained, clean restroom and bottle filling station.  There is also a small pavilion with a picnic table here.

Hastings used to be the source of farm goods for the Flagler Resorts.

Heading west from here, you cross a short bridge over a creek and come out to SR207 again.

On your right is potato farm with a few interesting things to take see.  One is the pun-ily named "Bulls-Hit Ranch and Farms.  They have a couple of long horn steer you can see from the trail surrounded by a fence made from old concrete railroad ties. 

There is also what was once trying to be a transportation museum, complete with old freight station (moved from Hastings?), a caboose, small locomotive, fire truck, airplane and old farm machinery

Hastings Freighthouse

locomotive

once fledgling museum?

The trail runs along the north side of SR 207 for a while, both surrounded by farm fields before the highway veers off to the south and the trail continues along the back side of some rural housing in the shade.  The trail then goes through East Palatka to US17.  Here you can get some snacks at a Raceway and a Burger King.  There is also some trail parking adjacent to the Burger King. 

The trail heads towards Palatka proper along the side of US17, going over the St. Johns River.  The trail is essentially a wide sideway on the east side of the bridge and is well protected from the highway lanes.  This is the only real hill on the trail.  You can then follow the Palatka Urban trail through town if you wish to connect to the Palatka - Lake Butler rail trail on the other side of town (there is a couple mile gap between these trails that requires on-the-road riding)

I usually go as far a the Amtrak station in Palatka.  There are restrooms and a small railroad museum inside. 

Along the Palatka Urban Trail

Palatka Amtrak Station.  Two trains a day between New York to Miami stop here. 

Old planter.  ACL stands for Atlantic Coast Line Railroad - now part of CSX.

The trail is pretty well used by a variety of people.  There are recreational riders like me, road bikers getting in some miles, casual bikers doing a few miles on beach cruisers and e-bikes, walkers, dog walkers, joggers, runners and even the occasional roller bladers.

However, this trail has a few drawbacks and could use some improvement to reach it's potential.

The most obvious is the trail doesn't connect to St. Augustine.  The "on road" bike lane along SR 207 between Vermont trailhead and St. Augustine is not very inviting.  I'm not going to try it.  If the state, county and Florida East Coast RR could get together and figure out a way to put a path along the railroad into St. Augustine proper - even with a fence to keep trail users off the tracks, the trail would be a great tourist attraction and perhaps an economic boom to towns on the route.  

For example, it would be fairly easy to rent e-bikes and do a 36 mile round trip from St. Augustine to Hastings and back with a stop for lunch along the way.  It might help open up the trail to touring with trips from St Augustine to Lake Butler (once that trail is complete) with multi-day trips supported by B&Bs along the route.  

This is one of the few places you can stop along the trail to get a snack and/or a beverage - and it's on the other side of SR 207.

The trail could also use a bit of maintenance.  It's asphalt the whole way, and for the most part it is very smooth riding.  However, there are some places along the way were tree roots are pushing up making for a bit of a punishing ride in spots. The roots are from trees that have sprouted up on the old rail right of way after the railroad was abandoned.  Apparently, only those where the pavement went were removed, leaving others very close by with offending roots.  The spots need to be flattened and the offending trees removed.

The trail often gets a patina of fallen leaves and pine needles making riding a bit tricky.  The trail needs to be blown off regularly by the county.  

Overall, this trail is fun and interesting to ride.  I ride it pretty often when we are visiting the St. Augustine area.  If you see and old guy in a yellow helmet on an old blue Schwinn Continental, that's me!