HIKE
Start your hike at the kiosk, and keep alert for wildlife. On our hike, we immediately saw a rather large and presumably old gopher tortoise ambling straight for us towards the trailhead. The yellow-blazed East Loop turns to the right immediately after the hunt check station beyond the kiosk. The trail follows a berm above a canal, likely built decades ago for drainage of the landscape for development along SR 46. On the left, topping swales in the scrub ridge, are silvery-green saw palmetto, especially pretty against a blue sky.
After 0.2 mile, watch for a double yellow blaze guiding you left off the berm and into a corridor carved into dense scrub vegetation, the understory thick with gallberry and tall grasses. Only the occasional longleaf pine or cabbage palm offers shade. Look off to the left and you'll see patches of open, sandy prairie hidden behind the taller grasses. By 0.4 mile, the grasses are quite beautiful. The scrub oaks to the left are the proper size for scrub-jay activity, and indeed, this is the point where we saw our first one along the loop, dipping and diving from pine tree to oak. Unlike those found at Lyonia Preserve, these scrub-jays are not acclamatized to visitors and won't stick around when they see you.
After a half mile, you reach a four-way trail junction. The loop continues to the left and uphill, although you can't see any markers from this vantage point. Turning left, you're ascending a steady uphill through diminutive Chapman oaks up an ancient ridge of high, dry sand topped with scrub forest. Wildlife trails meander through the understory. It takes a while before you see a yellow blaze on the slenderest of sand live oaks. By 3/4 mile, you pass a blaze post on the left just before meeting a T intersection of trails. You can see a taller oak scrub off in the distance straight ahead. Turn left.
Golden aster grows densely throughout the understory in this section, and blooms each fall. Wiregrass edges the trail, which continues through this desert-like habitat of bright white sand. You see a blaze on a sand pine, the first sand pine encountered on the loop. The grasses in this part of the loop are particularly showy. Keep alert for scrub-jays as you rise up a slight elevation and the distant power line becomes obvious. The support beam straight ahead is topped with an enormous nest, perhaps an eagles' nest.
The trail continues to rise through the scrub, with taller sand pines on the left as you draw closer to the power line. Pass a side trail at 1.1 miles to the left as the track winds around, continuing uphill. At 1.3 miles, you reach a T intersection with the white-blazed trail under the power line. Turn left and continue along the power line to return to the trailhead.
