Buck Lake Conservation Area - Trails/Roads

This hike will take you on some of the blazed trails found in the Buck Lake Conservation Area. They are referred to as “trails” but in reality they are just roads. There are miles and miles of them out there, referred to as roads 1-4 on the signs. The road/trails have been blazed in white and red paint, depending on which one you area on. The trails/roads do lead from one end of the conservation area to the other – with entrances on RT 46. If you really wanted to cover all the blazed trails/roads you would most likely either need a bike or have two cars, one parked at each entrance on RT 46. Being mostly roads, you are pretty much in the open a fair amount of the time. I did encounter a few spots where the road was under water. It wasn’t very deep because I was there during the dry season, but I would suspect that you may have to do some wading during the wet season. I did come across some wildlife, I would imagine I would have seen more if I had gotten there earlier or stayed later. I saw deer, turkeys, ospreys and a river otter. There were a few songbirds bouncing around the trees. This is a hunted area, so don’t go hiking there during the hunting season. There used to be a number of primitive campsites in the area, but I only found one with picnic tables and other amenities. The other two seemed to have been abandoned by the SJRWMD, thus they really don’t exist. The good campsite is “Old Timers Campsite”. There is a large lake near the trail, Freshwater Lake. I didn’t see much wildlife activity around it. If your into exploring game trails, there are some of those, mainly near the lake. Good source of information is http://www.outintheboonies.com/Buck_Lake/ or my website http://www.tomchoma.com Please take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints (if you spot some trash, you can take that too) - happy trails!