Cathedral of Palms Trail
Girls Who Hike™ FL - Official Meetup
Crawfordville, FL
14 April 2018
Introduction
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| Link to Strava hiking activity: Cathedral of Palms Hike |
Florida.....Beaches and palm trees right? Well, yes. But also no. Florida has a wide variety of habitats and terrain that often times you can see crazy diversity in one hike. The Cathedral of Palms Trail is a hike I had not heard of until I saw the event posted. The route we took, led by our fearless leader Whitney (Girls Who Hike Ambassador), was just over a 10K hike that included a mixture of forest roads, single track trail, cypress swamps, a third magnitude freshwater spring, a small portion of the Florida National Scenic Trail, and an amazing tucked away display of palm trees - The "Cathedral".
Below are links to more information about this hike and to the right is my GPS tracking of the hike.
All Trails: The Cathedral of Palms via Florida Trail
Visit Tallahassee [Harry Smith Outdoors]: Cathedral of Palms
Florida Hikes: Florida Trail, Shepherd Spring
Now let's step into the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge ---
Girls Who Hike FL
An observation I have made from most of my outdoorsy travels is that I usually see more women out exploring. Most solo travelers I have met have been women. It only makes sense that a group of women made a national organization for women who enjoy hiking and experiencing the planet's natural beauty. Girls Who Hike FL now has several local chapters that have hiking meetups almost every weekend.
From the Girls Who Hike website:
"Established in December 2015, Girls Who Hike is a nationally recognized hiking organization based in the United States. We're designed to connect women with other local women to hit the trails together, but our members also utilize the Girls Who Hike web of chapters while traveling around the United States.. because there's nothing quite like a "local's pick" when it comes to finding a hidden gem in unknown places. We have 55 chapters throughout the nation with additional chapters on the radar for 2018."
I am a member of the Girls Who Hike™ FL Facebook Group. On Saturday I attended my first official meetup and met a diverse group of wonderful ladies who were just as excited as I am to play around in the forest.
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| Photo Credit: Whitney Mermal Jones |
The Gear
- Brooks Cascadia 12 Great Smoky Mountains National Park Trail-Running Shoes - Women's
- KUHL Krush Pants - Women's
- Osprey Daylite Daypack
- Yeti Rambler - 26oz
The Story
We met at the Publix parking lot on the corner of Capital Circle SW and Crawfordville in order to reduce the amount of cars at the trailhead. With a group of 10, three cars did the trick.
Once at the trailhead, our fearless leader Whitney showed us the route.
And we are off!
We walked along a forest road surrounded by beautiful pine trees.
Longleaf pinecones are almost as big as my feet!
We then veered right where we began our single track trek.
We reach some muddy sections where the leaders up front tested the waters and found a route around.
Trail Spring
Next we walked a boardwalk to Shepherd Spring - either a second or third magnitude spring.
For more information about the spring, check out Springs Fever's description.
GPS Coordinates: 30.125417, -84.285472
The sunny day resulted in some difficult photography that doesn't even compare to the real thing [should have tried out the UV filter sitting on my desk]. But the spring was super beautiful! Now you have to go.
Saw palmetto hair, don't care! Well at least that was my attempt at a selfie with saw palmetto hair.
Cathedral of Palms
We then move on to the main attraction - the hammock of Sabal palmetto/Cabbage Palm trees. I usually say "Don't forget to look up!", but it would be speaking the obvious here. Fortunately for us, it hadn't rained for at least 4-5 days, so the trail was not as muddy/squishy/slippery as many others have experienced.
Fun Fact - Sabal palmetto is the official state tree of both Florida and South Carolina.
More Sabal palmetto facts:
- One of fifteen species of palmetto palms
- Up to USDA Zone 8 hardy - exactly where this place is located
- Found along coastal plains in the Southeast including the United States East coast and the Gulf Coast - very salt and drought tolerant!
Palm Tree Graveyard
The Return
As we returned, the palms gradually transitioned to cypress trees [got to see some cypress knees!] then over to pines while we crossed through coastal marshes and wetlands. Luckily there were boardwalks!
Heather and I at the Florida National Scenic Trail marker.
Selfie/Photo Inception
One of my favorite photos - a tall archway of trees in front of a small clearing with a few badass ladies hiking ahead.
Then we made our safe return to the trailhead. A nice 6ish mile hike with a wonderful group with the same passion for hiking the outdoors was a great way to start a beautiful Saturday.
