November 09, 2004
REVEREND'S-EYE VIEW
Rev. Joe Kendall, star of the show "Pastor Cop" and 1996's Crimefighting Clergyman of the Year, sent me a couple photos he shot while tooling around Tampa.
That reverened, he do get around. (For a larger version of the above photo taken in the Flatwoods county park northeast of New Tampa, click here.)
The Flatwoods section of the county's 16,000-acre Wilderness Park Off Road Trail has a 9-mile paved loop trail for bicycles, rollerbladers, walkers, and joggers. Unpaved bicycle trails are accessible from this area. Picnic tables are available, as are restrooms. (For a larger view of the above photo, click here.)
The right reverend is such a good photographer, he even managed to make Hillsborough Avenue look beautiful. Didn't hurt that he had a Florida sunset as a backdrop.
As for Flatwoods, I took my son there a couple weeks ago at the urging of Rev. Kendall.
It was just as he advertised. Lots of smooth pavement, no worries about traffic. Peace, serenity, and lots of hard-core cyclists.
To the untrained eye, the landscape is flat and fairly featureless, minus the palmetto scrub and pine trees.
But there is beautiful foliage to be found. As the reverend put it so well:
Florida's natural beauty is more subtle than the spectacular Rockies or fall foliage vistas. But it's just as inspiring.
And if you sit long enough you might encounter some wildlife.
Okay, so this isn't wildlife, but it was a unique life form. I don't remember the dog's name, but it should have been Gizmo.
His compadre was much less friendly and attempted to bite me. When the owner told me she kept both dogs on a leash because she had heard that an osprey had swooped down and snatched a friend's chihuahua while walking through Flatwoods, I half-hoped this would be his second catch of the day. Posted by Jeff at November 9, 2004 06:04 AM | TrackBack
We used to go to Flatwoods ALL the time. At least 3 or 4 times a week. Love it. Then we started riding over at Morris Bridge, then riding on the levy over to Flatwoods. Yah get one hell of a ride that way!!
Now we live right next to some other trails (Upper Tampa Bay Trail) so we ride around here...But now you have got me itchin' to get out to Flatwoods.
Another GREAT place to bike is...crap, forget the name...its over on the other side of Brandon somewhere...off of Boyette road...I think..
And Alafia River State Park also has some trails, although very challenging!
:O)
Posted by: jen at November 9, 2004 10:39 AMFlatwoods is nice. The Balm-Boyette preserve that was mentioned by jen is also superb, but is unpaved and quite rugged. Also good is Starkey Wilderness Park just north of 52. You can ride all the way to the Suncoast Parkway trail now. One of my favorites is off of Ehren Cutoff at the Tampa Bay water wellfield there. It's kind of like Flatwoods in that it's a paved wellfield road, but it is pretty wild and you can go paved or explore some unpaved trails with beautiful water / cypress swamp views.
Posted by: infosponge at November 9, 2004 02:12 PM