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Flatwood Park

Birding / Hiking / Adventuring Roadtrip Info

ROUGH DRAFT
Andrew Thoreson
Mar 2017
 Typical view [?]
Photo Galleries
Typical View (14)

Snapshots! (7)
GRADES: Click each for info, * = Note
How Big Not Rated
Importance Not Rated
Revisit? C
Birding C *
Wildlife C
Summer Heat C
Terrain C *
Fun Hike C
Maintained B
Mosquitos C
Biting Files A *
Ticks C
NOTE: C+ B-
NOTE: Flat but sometimes uneven trails in parts
NOTE: Saw none
 LOCATION: Accuracy: Read me
Map On Big Map: Click map (or on google maps). Address: 14302 Morris Bridge Rd., Thonotasassa, FL, Hillsborough, USA, 33592

1) What It's Like

There are some good birds and a good place if you bike but the forest seems young and un-diverse enough to just be kind of boring. So mixed bag.
Also this is talking about the Flatwoods loop trail - people (and maps) refer to other things nearby as being Flatwoods like trout creek, Morris bridge etc.

2) Kinds of Birds

Bluebirds near the entrance. Warblers were around. Pretty good birding.

3) Wildlife

There could be wildlife in here but we saw none and like I said above - it just didn't seem like an old diverse forest so you tend to see less wildlife.

4) Amenities

Bathrooms, some parts paved, lots of trail markers - that was nice really.

5) Directions

When you go from parking area to the actual trails you walk along a paved area for awhile. Look where you entered from because you can walk by it on the way out.

6) Dear Ranger

A lot of parks seem to get approached by biking associations to do maps that are great for bikers but not so great for hikers. It's kind of confusing for hikers. Also online why is your PDF rotated (and one map on the page is rotated again). Try viewing it either on your phone or PC and ask yourself if it's annoying to the point that it's not unusable.

That said -  nice park =)

7) Time Requirements

There's a loop and trails that traverse it. The loop is 7 miles and I'm guessing the rest are 5. So you could spend near a day doing all of it though I think you'd have seen enough in an hour or two. As far as taking a short trip it's not the best place because you have to park and walk in. Trout Creek up the road is better for that.


Experience

I believe the story with this area is that it's the designated flood area when we get torrential rain - there's a dam up river here somewhere. But 95% of the time it's fine to hike and bike on so good solution!

Our experience was we parked, talked with some bikers, walked along some exposed road which I'm guessing is officially the trail and we stuck to the traversing trails. It's somewhat busy - which is fine unless you really want to get into nature for a walk in solitude. There were a fair number of birds around but the age of the forest just doesn't seem old. This is connected to a larger wilderness corridor but you just don't expect to see deer etc and it just gets kind of dull. Nice but not very nice.


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