Walking the Addison Trail

Hiking The Addison Trail

Addison Trail - The blaze for this trail is blue It was time to take another hike so we grabbed our friend, Karri Conover, and took off for the Addison Trail. Karri has hiked on all the local TGO trails, in fact, she is part of the Nature Center crew who helps maintain these trails, so she was the perfect leader to take us out for our fi rst time. This is an easy, casual walk along a shaded berm that borders the Addison Canal. It is a 3/4 mile hike out to the marsh, 1.5 miles including the return trip.

As you approach the berm beside the canal you will walk through a stand of live oak trees with a small vernal pond on your left. The trail has many oaks, red cedar trees and cabbage palms (aka Sabal palm, the Florida state tree) with the Addison canal on one side and a fi re break on the other side; marsh lands fan out in all directions. The land is owned by the St. Johns Water Management District and is leased to ranchers who keep cattle on it. The cows tend to walk away as we approached them. A cattle gate allows access for hikers, yet keeps the cattle on their side. As you pass through the gate, be aware of the barbed wire to avoid being scratched. Beauty berry is just one of the fl owering plants you will come across seasonally. Each season off ers diff erent plants in bloom. Dog fennel is another native that often takes over an area. It is not edible, but one use of it is as a “stewing herb” to control insects. Since the canal was begun in 1912 and work stopped in 1913, I doubt any of the trees on this berm are older than 107 years old. However, there is a palm tree that seems to have persisted through storms and erosion of the berm and may be the oldest tree on the trail. You’ll notice the massive root ball that is now above ground. Many of the larger red cedar trees were damaged in Hurricanes Matthew and Irma. Strong wind gusts inside the hurricanes snapped off the portion that rose above the canopy of the smaller palms and oaks. It doesn’t take long before you reach the end of this trail, though the Florida Trail Association trail continues to the north and eventually reaches a trailhead at SR 50. Word is they will be adding a spur to the St. Johns River. It will be marked with diamonds on PVC posts. Returning on the same trail provides a diff erent view and you are likely to see things that went unnoticed on the walk out. As mentioned earlier, this trail is an easy walk but provides some beautiful scenery. A great way to enjoy the outdoors for an hour or so. Just a reminder... make sure to bring water, sunscreen, hat, binoculars, cell phone and a bird book, if so inclined. There’s lots to see. There are a total of nine marked trails inside TGO. You can pick up a brochure for each of these trails inside the Nature Center or at the beginning of each trailhead. There are maps of the trails in each of the brochures. All these maps can be accessed by using an app called Alltrails and can be followed on a smart phone. Please see each brochure for a link that will access these individual maps.

Hiking The Addison Trail

TheTheTheThe Addison Canal Addison Trail is named for the canal that it follows west. The canal is named for the creek it was supposed to join on its way to the Indian River (Lagoon). The canal is actually part of a system of canals meant to open more land for farming and possibly other developments, but when they got to the coquina ridge in what is now the Enchanted Forest (on Columbia Blvd.), they were unable to continue. The water fl ows the opposite direction the developers intended. The Addison Trail was originally blazed by the Florida Trail Association and was a portion of the Cross Seminole Trail. It has the blue blazes typical of the FTA. It is maintained by TGO Nature Center volunteers. Though the trail starts on TGO property, the majority of it is on St. Johns Water Management District Canaveral Marshes Tract.