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12/23/2024, Monday - Biked the Historic Jungle Trail

joraintree
Dec 23, 20242 min read
We found a trail called the "Historic Jungle Trail" that looked interesting, so we drove to Orchid Island (a barrier island) to check it out. We parked at the trailhead in the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The trail is hard packed sand. It was built in the 1920s by the farmers who turned the jungle into orange groves. Now they are trying to return the land to native habitat again.

The north part of the trail is in the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is the nation's first wildlife refuge, created in 1903.

There are hiking trails and a wildlife viewing platform that we thought we would check out on the way back if we had time.

The trail is open for vehicles, but we saw mostly cyclists, hikers, and runners.


Parts of the trail reminded us of the lush green jungle in Belize.

The trail also passes by some fancy gated communities.

The south the trail opens up to big condos on one side and the Indian River on the other.

We stopped in and took at peak at Captain Forster Hammock Preserve.


There are hiking trails there, too, but we didn't have time to check them out.

A little history of the trail and the citrus in the area.

The homes in south Florida all have a screened-in lanai because it gets buggy, as we experienced.

Some unexpected rain came in, and we were abnormally unprepared, so we took shelter under a pavilion at the Jones Pier Conservation Area.

We spied this hawk in the distance while we waited for the rain to pass.

Unfortunately, the rain delay (and the impending closure of our parking spot at dark) forced us to turn back before we made it to the end of the trail.



The trail became quite mucky in parts from the rain, and we took some of the muck with us on our bikes and clothes. That was a sign of a good time, though, in our book.

Here is the Relive video showing our route and ride:





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