Walking the Carlson Trail

Walking The C & E Carlson Trail

Time to explore another one of the great TGO Nature Trails so we contacted our trail guide, Karri Conover, and set out to walk the Clair and Ernie Carlson trail. The Carlsons were some of the early supporters of the Nature Center at The Great Outdoors. The trail bears their names as a testament to all they did to advance the concept of living in harmony with nature. This is a moderate loop style trail which can have muddy areas after a heavy rain. The distance is .94 miles. Make sure to be aware of your surroundings anytime you are hiking, and its best to take a partner. We recommend you carry a cell phone, sun screen and insect repellent. And remember... “Take only memories, leave only footprints.” Two Trails in One The trail is blazed with blue and white markings. Starting out at the TGO Library on the blue/white trail, you’ll walk through oak and cabbage palm into a mixed forest where the canopy is made up of slash pine, red bay, dahoon holly and magnolia trees. The blue and white trails are together at fi rst. Follow the blue at the split. Each season diff erent plants appear in the understory. In the fall and winter you may fi nd green cross orchids (habenaria fl oribunda), a terrestrial orchid species. Flag pawpaw can be seen late winter through early spring. Continue through the pine forest to an area where oaks begin to mingle with the pines. Soon palms and oaks become the dominate trees. Continue through the palm hammock and exit onto the golf cart nature trail. Turn right on the cart trail, look for a white post with a red refl ector and turn right back into the hammock. Then enter the white trail and walk through a lovely palm hammock interspersed with oaks. Many of the oaks will have resurrection fern on them. Look for signs of wildlife, listen to the birds. Continue through the hammock past a wetland and return to the mixed forest. Though part of the return is on the same trail as the beginning, you will probably notice diff erent things. On our trip, we saw Cardinals, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Carolina Wrens, and numerous fl owers - which we used the “Picture This” app to help identify the plants. The hike only takes about an hour and is in mostly shaded conditions. A very enjoyable walk.

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. 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.

The “Loving Tree” is one of the landmarks along the trail. You’ll also see a Sugarberry tree with its distinct marks on its trunk.Birds and wildlife eat the sweet fruit. Native Americans also enjoyed the fruit which turns deep purple when ripe. Tawny Emperor and Hackberry Emperor butterfl ies lay their eggs on the leaves and may be seen up high in the canopy from April through October.

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