Bear Lake Trail

October 1, 2016

From left to right: Eric Brewster, Cory Von Eiff, and Josiah Shade hike the Bear Lake Trail loop through a stand of longleaf pines early on a cool October morning. 

I've posted a lot this month about Bear Lake. It's time I expounded on that.

Blackwater River State Forest extends from the coast of Florida's panhandle (in Santa Rosa County) up to the Alabama border. It features many beautiful hikes, paddles, and camping spots along the meandering white sands of the Blackwater River. If you've never been to the forest before, the very recreational Blackwater River State Park offers canoe rentals, tubing, camping, hiking, swimming, and more. But this post isn't about the state park. If you are interested click on the label at the right for Blackwater River State Park (they are in alphabetical order).

At the northern tip of the forest, there is a clustering of small, man-made reservoirs. One of these is Bear Lake. The Bear Lake Trail and the Sweetwater Trail meet here and, taking the Sweetwater, you can hike up to the Krul Recreation Area, which also offers camping. There are a number of trails and camping spots around the lake, including Bear Lake Recreation Area, on the west side of the lake. The recreation area offers many amenities but it will cost you money to camp, boat, or otherwise enjoy the facilities. I'm too cheep, generally speaking, and so I usually pass the road into the recreation area and take the next left off of Highway 4. It's the first left off of that paved road that will take you down to a boat ramp. There is also room for tenting down there.

Swamp sunflowers (a kind of daisy) sprout up from the clustered bases of a stand of bald cypress. There are many wonderful swamps tucked away in the corners of Bear Lake, but this one was at the eastern side.

The 4-mile Bear Lake Trail, starting left at the south boat ramp, will take you through pine forest, and a bit of hammock and swamp, to the dam at the Bear Lake Recreation Area. From there you can take the Sweetwater Creek Trail up to Krul, or continue along the east side of the lake. You will pass meadows of pitcher plants and quaint beaver ponds before taking the pine flatwoods back to the south boat ramp. There is another recreation area on the south side but it is gated and generally used by large groups, such as clubs or churches.

Pitcher plants are commonly found at Bear Lake, but are best viewed from the Bear Lake Trail on the eastern side of the lake. There are benches and platforms overlooking the pitcher plants-- perfect for photography opportunities without disturbing the meadows.

Most importantly, you will see wildlife. Fishing, hunting, and birdwatching, are common pastimes around Bear Lake. Among mammals, you will find deer, beavers, grey squirrels, wild hogs, and, if you're especially blessed, bears. Birding is incredible at Bear Lake. In fact, there are nearby trails that are part of the Great Florida Birding Trail. I can't really highlight specific birds here other than bald eagles and swallowtail kites. However, I've never seen the kites myself and the eagles are much easier to see a little ways north at Hurricane Lake. My favorites are, of course, the reptiles and amphibians. There is a good diversity of frogs at Bear Lake and I've personally found green treefrogs, cricket frogs, leopard frogs, southern toads, and bullfrogs. I've seen watersnakes, cottonmouths, and black racers, but I've been told their are rattlesnakes and alligators in the park as well, though I've never seen them.

As always, respect the wildlife while you are out hiking and whatever you pack in, be sure to pack it out.

The Bear Lake Trail, through the pine flatwoods.

Places: Yellow River Marsh Preserve State Park

The main pond near the parking area at Yellow River Marsh Preserve in late February.

The Yellow River Marsh was established in 2000. There are no marked trails, no programs, and no park rangers; just a small parking area. However, the park includes such a fabulous array of plants and animals, it is well worth the visit. Of course, the stars of the park are the pitcher plants (which I have blogged about before). I have made three visits to this park, the first on the 22nd of February. Here are some of my photos from that trip.

In February, last years blooms are withered, brown, and dormant. The shapes of the plants are still in tact, however, and fascinating to look at. These are Sarracenia leucophylla, the white-top pitcher plant.

Once again, Dakota Wilson is along for the
adventure. Some of the wet hardwood forests
around the marsh are beautiful.

Schistocerca americana, the American bird
grasshop per. In spite of its rather southerly
position, this species cannot tolerate hot
weather; it migrates north in the summer.

Yes. It is poop. But not just any poop. Well, I guess it could be any poop. I'm no tracker, but I think it belongs to a fox. I always make it a habit to photograph any poop I encounter along a trail. The one on the lower left especially looks like fox droppings. The one on the lower right however, not so much. Maybe that is just a domestic dog...

Like I said, there are no marked trails. As long as you watch your step (don't go trampling any pitcher plants) you can go just about anywhere. Dakota Wilson explores crayfish holes with his toes in this picture.

A nice panoramic view of the pond shore. At its deepest, it would have still been below my waist.

These two photos represent an interesting plant I found some distance from the pond in a pine flatwoods forest. I don't know what species it is (I will take botany next semester and then I will have no excuse) but I had to include it simply because it was strikingly beautiful. On the left is a close up to give you an idea of the plant's beauty. Right illustrates how the plant was growing.

Late evening on the first day of March in Yellow River Marsh Preserve State Park.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife for this February trip, but there were certainly some small birds in the pines, cricket frogs on the shore, and one large black snake, possibly a cottonmouth, basking on a clump of sedges in the marsh. Because I failed to catch the snake, I thought I'd make a return trip to the marsh the following month. The following photos are from that trip on March 1st. This time, I focussed a little more on the animals. Yellow-rumped warblers were especially common. In fact, it seems to be the most abundant warbler in Florida this year. Every park I visited this semester had some yellow-rumped warblers. Perdito Key had hundreds of them. At Yellow River Marsh Preserve, I had the opportunity to watch the warblers "fly catching," where they dart into the air with surprising grace and accuracy to pluck insects on the wing. It is very amusing to watch and certainly deepened my respect for warblers as a whole.

This is some species of crab-like orb spider.
It seems that, before the park's
establishment in 2000, Yellow River Marsh
was the location of some kind of
homestead.

I love spiders: LOVE them. What other creature can create
out of its own body enough of a substance, stronger than
 iron and more flexible than rubber, to create a perfectly
symmetrical web more beautiful than anything Leonardo
da Vinci could paint and more functional than anything
Thomas Edison could invent? This handsome wolf spider on
the right was prowling around the planks of an old rotting
building. Parallel trenches, overgrown with bushes, also
likely harken back to those days.

The pitcher plants are still brown and
rotting in March. No new blooms yet!
On the right is another one of those
"here's a bush and don't know what
else" pictures. It kind of reminded me
of a huckleberry bush from back
home. It could easily be in the same
family.

The above three photos are demonstrating the tree species that grow in the park. Once again, I really don't know where to start in identifying these. Oh! How I wish there was a botanist at hand! What I would give to be in the field with a herbaceous expert! One day, I hope to know enough about the green things in our world to be my own expert, but time is limited. I guess I'll just wait until next year when I take Botany as a biology elective. On the left is what I take as Ischnura hastata, the citrine forktail damselfly. On the right is one of the little crayfish that call the marsh home. This one was caught as I watched salamander larvae and tadpoles in a pool. Below are some tracks. I think the one set may be a white-tailed deer fawn, but I have little idea of what the other one is.










As you may have noticed, I am fairly uncertain about about the identity of some of the organisms I have encountered. If you have any idea what these species are, PLEASE let me know. Thanks.

My final visit to the Yellow River Marsh was late on my last evening in Florida-- I would be leaving to fly home at 5:30 in the morning the next day. I'm glad I stopped by once more though because there were four gems of nature waiting for me. First, the pitcher plants were now in bloom! Along with some other wildflowers.

 After I'd taken plenty of photographs of the pitcher plants, I noticed my second star. At first I thought it was a snake, but a closer look revealed the obvious: it was a glass lizard: an American legless lizard. Unlike snakes, it has eyelids and a lateral fold of skin down its side. It took to the water when pursued. I had to be careful handling it; they are known to drop their tails. Hence the name "glass lizard." This was the second glass lizard I've ever caught.

I've noticed a trend with these glass lizards; they are never far from water. The juvenile a caught at west campus last year was also near water and seemed to readily take to it. Seems to be rather unusual for a lizard, but most of the things I find in Florida are a surprise. Just finding this gorgeous turquoise speckled beauty was the most delightful surprise of the year. Until the next one...

We took a look at a cricket frog singing in the reeds at the ponds edge before making our way through the grass back to the car. Crossing the ground in front of me was the most beautiful creation I'd ever seen; a corn snake. I instantly fell in love, but I don't think he was loving me.

This guy was so stunning and so drop-dead gorgeous, I couldn't take my hands off him. He tried to bite me, striking whenever I was even close to being in range, but I was never tagged. How could anyone hate such a beautiful face? Orange, white, black-- It's "the Halloween snake." But I don't celebrate Halloween so maybe its more like "the harvest snake." It seems fitting since corn snakes are often found around or near farms. One of the greatest means of pest control available, they are better at eradicating mice and rats than the pest control guy and your cats combined.

I wanted to kiss him on the lips, but I think he would have given me a bloody one!