Where Are The Trails?

On my first hiking trip up to north Georgia, I stopped at the United States Forest Service offices in Gainesville, Georgia where I bought a copy of the brochure "Trails of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests." Unless you're just going to log miles on the Appalachian Trail, you really need at least one guide like this one, and "Trails of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests" carries an embarrassingly low price of $4.00. Now, the brochure lists 96 trails in the Chattahoochee and Oconee National Forests. I'm mostly interested in hiking trails, but the total also includes horseback riding trails, mountain biking trails, off-road vehicle trails, and a canoe trail. The Chattahoochee and Oconee National Forests have a combined area of almost 900,000 acres. Closer to home, the Apalachicola National Forest has an area of not quite 600,000 acres. So how many trails does the Apalachicola National Forest boast? Proportionally by area, we'd have to guess 64. Is this close?

Not really. Try 17.

You could probably debate this total, because unlike the Chattahoochee and Oconee National Forests, there is no published list of all the trails in the Apalachicola National Forests, no "Trails of the Apalachicola National Forest" at $4.00 or any other price. So here is how I've broken it down:

• Seven hiking trails (Camel Lake Trail, Silver Lake Trail, Leon Sinks Trail, Fort Gadsden Trail, a portion of the Florida National Scenic Trail, the Trail of Lakes, and the Wright Lake Trail.
• Six canoe trails (Apalachicola River, Sopchoppy River, Ochlockonee River, Kennedy Creek, Owl Creek, and River Styx).
• Two bicycle trails (the Munson Hills Trail and the Georgia, Florida, & Alabama Trail)
• An OHV trail system.
• A motorcycle trail system.

I could probably inflate this total a bit by including the Langston House Trail (a short, blue-blazed side trail of the Florida Trail in Wakulla County) and the foot-trails on the old Bradwell Game Farm in Liberty County. Even so, the Apalachicola's trail-per-acre ratio falls way below that of the Chattahoochee and Oconee National Forests.

Why is this? Is north Florida just a worse place for outdoor recreation than north Georgia? Is it because the metropolis of Greater Atlanta is closer to the Chattahoochee and Oconee Forests? Is there a lower number of volunteers available in north Florida willing to paint blazes and move fallen trees off of trails? Is it because of some budgetary policy of the Federal bureaucracy that no sane citizen can ever hope to understand?

Rather than worry over the mystery of what we don't have in north Florida, perhaps I'd be better off to enjoy what we do have. If you are interested in what we do have in the Apalachicola National Forest, then the forest's website might be a good place to start:

Apalachicola National Forest
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/florida/apalachicola/

And if a pair of hands is needed to help blaze a footpath along Bradford Brook, please send me a message!