The West Orange Trail in Orlando is just one of the many must-see trails in Florida.
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	For more information on Florida's project trail plans, contact Ken Bryan at ken@railstotrails.org.

Florida's Present and Future, Bright With Connections:

With winter upon us, many trail users look to Florida to keep up their fitness level and get their trail fix. Not only has Florida a lot to offer in terms of destination trails, it is also well on the way to the creation of an inter-connected statewide system. Imagine being able to get on a trail in Northeast Florida, say in Jacksonville, and riding hundreds of seamless miles throughout north and central Florida to locations such as St. Augustine, Palatka, Lake City, Ocala, Inverness, Tampa, Orlando, Titusville and beyond.

Ken Bryan, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's Florida field office director estimates that all the necessary right-of-way for this impressive backbone system will be in public ownership within the next five to seven years. This will form an extraordinary system for both Florida residents and its visitors to cherish.

Many of these connections to existing rail-trails are in the development stage. Soon construction will begin on a portion of an already public-owned, 49-mile corridor that runs through Keystone Heights. The long anticipated 52-mile connection through Volusia and Brevard Counties will soon go the Governor and Florida's Cabinet for purchase approval. Citizens around Palatka are pushing hard on connections that will make their city the trail hub of North Florida and the envy of the state. Although these trail projects are methodical, progress towards this system is moving in the right direction.

Until this system is completed, don't forget about the existing trails already open for public use. In the Panhandle you have the Blackwater Heritage State Trail and Tallahassee–St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail.  In Northeast Florida there is always the Jacksonville-Baldwin Rail Trail and the Black Creek Trail. In Central Florida must-see trails include the West Orange Trail in Orlando, the Seminole Wekiva Trail in Seminole County, the Suncoast Parkway Trail north of Tampa and, of course, Florida's existing longest trail—the 49-mile Withlacoochee State Trail located approximately halfway between Orlando and Tampa.

The long-range vision is to tie all these trails and more into a single continuous non-motorized trail that connects Florida's urban centers to its large conservation areas and rural communities.