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James E Grey

Birding / Hiking / Adventuring Roadtrip Info

ROUGH DRAFT
Andrew Thoreson
Jul 2017
 Typical view [?]
Photo Galleries
Typical View (10)

Snapshots! (7)
GRADES: Click each for info, * = Note
How Big Not Rated
Importance Not Rated
Revisit? A
Birding B *
Wildlife B
Summer Heat B *
Terrain B
Fun Hike A
Maintained B *
Mosquitos C
Biting Files A *
Ticks A
NOTE: B-
NOTE: Fairly shaded
NOTE: B+
NOTE: Saw none but deer here.
 LOCATION: Accuracy: Read me
Map On Big Map: Click map (or on google maps). Address: 6940 Plathe Rd, New Port Richey, FL, Pasco, USA, 34653

1) What It's Like

Small park but feels like you're deep in the woods. Traces a slow river in thick forest of cabbage palms, scrub, and live oaks. Fairly well covered in summer from the sun. It's not much more than a mile so I wouldn't drive far just for this but I would look forward to making this a second stop. Well designed park - very enjoyable.

2) Kinds of Birds

Besides the random forest birds (saw a wren for example) we saw a good number of limpkin plus their pals egrets/herons. I enjoyed this more for it being a nice hike than a birding hotspot but the birding was still good.

3) Wildlife

Surprisingly a lot. We saw raccoon, gopher tortoise, and they say there are deer and wild turkey. So keep your eyes open.

4) Amenities

Bathrooms, gorgeous boardwalk, fishing area, kayak launch, nice playground with little lending library - that was pretty charming. Nice park.

5) Dear Ranger

Great job - you can tell somebody loves this place.

6) Time Requirements

I'd give it at least an hour but it's a short trail so unlikely to take more than 2 even if you're stopping to get lots of photos.

Experience

It's not a big park - 80 acres and when we drove there it seemed like it was just going to be another suburban "meh". But the 1-1.5 mile trail actually feels like wilderness and it's twists and turns manage to change things up to keep you interested surprisingly well. On a map this place (and a lot of suburban sprawl) it is kind of between two wildernesses - Starkey and Werner Boyce. Which usually bodes well for diversity of species.

It's along the Pithlachascotee river which is not a major river. I'd never heard of it. It's pitch black and flows so slow you could mistake it for just being a very narrow muddy pond. BUT - it is pretty in a muddy way and you can kayak from it. Also looking at photos it was low but I highly doubt anyone is calling it "The Mighty Pithlachascotee" during rainy periods.

The boardwalk  - pretty impressive woodworking to the point it's part of the enjoyment - they did a fantastic job on this.

The forest - I'm not great with the names like "Xeric Hammock" or "Mesic Hardwood" and we're aiming at beginning hikers - those names were always frustrating to me because it's hard to picture. So my description would be that it's mixed hardwood (as in oaks not pines), palms, and shrubs. So live oaks, saw palmetto, ferns, lots of cabbage palms, not so many pines. The forest is thick and tall enough so you're fairly well covered from the sun in summer.

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