Exploring the World with Pokémon Go: Wekiva Trail
I returned to the Wekiva Trail to continue my adventure along what was once a simple two lane road through several state parks.
The first segment of the Wekiva Trail took me past mile marker 0.5 and beyond. To my north was the Seminole State Forest. There is a lot to see and do in there and I’ll try to explore it when I can. But that place will have several adventures dedicated to it. I saw several trails just from the parking lot.
Back to what I did explore though, this trail follows Florida State Road 46 and more recently the Toll Road 429 Extension. That road was expanded to create a mostly complete beltway around Orlando. But this section of the road was controversial when it was built. The main reason being that to the south of my hike sits Wekiva Springs. Its one thing to build an interstate highway through empty land. Building it between two state parks and protected wildlife areas is another matter entirely.
While the wildlife has no doubt been impacted b y the noise and slight loss of habitat space, I actually have to hand it to the engineers and architects that built the road. Its right up against the old road that the trail still follows. Very little space was taken away from the state parks. There are even sections further back where one street goes under the other. In addition, I saw a couple tunnels built under the highway for wildlife to pass through.
Mile Marker 1
The state parks are quite large and so it should be no surprise that the next section of the Wekiva Trail looks similar to the first. I passed mile marker 1 only knowing that I had moved because I have driven up and down both the Tollway and State Highway several times.
Still, I was pleased to see more than one bridge built to allow wildlife to cross between the two parks. Barriers and borders are man made constructs. And while animals have their own respective territory, humans tend to claim much larger areas. Large enough that a wandering animal wouldn’t know that they are putting themselves in danger.
Besides the bridges, and man made constructs, I got another look at Florida swamps. This time I was in Lake County so I can’t claim its just a Volusia County thing. After being in and around Orlando so much, it can be hard to remember that Florida actually looks like these pictures.
Mile Marker 1.5
The third section of the Wekiva Trail took me over a long bridge crossing over not only a passage for animals to go between the two parks, but also to minimize impact the highway causes to the swamps below. As anyone who has read this blog before knows, I love bridges, but I was too far away to get many images of the south side. Having a Tollway in the way will do that.
At least I got images of the northern park. And its clear even from the small glimpses I got of Seminole State Forest that there is going to be an incredible set of pictures from those adventures. Some parts of the hike today felt monotonous, but those little glances into the swamp and woods excited me.
I passed mile marker 1.5 and started to feel the Florida Sun on me. Summer will be here in a couple months and I am already thinking about how I can continue going on hikes this year. The last couple years I had to take complete breaks from hiking during the summer due to the extreme heat and humidity. I don’t want to do so this year.
Mile Marker 2 and Beyond
The final section of the Wekiva Trail for the day took me just past that bridge and up to mile marker 2.5. I passed the 2 mile marker at the start of this section obviously but didn’t want to have one last part with a single picture to try and be consistent through this post.
From what I can see, the other half of this trail, which I’ll be exploring in another post leaves the features that are constant in this pictures behind and the terrain will change with it. Partially I know this from all the times I have driven down this part of Florida. But by how much I won’t know until I take that walk.
Pokémon Go
Now that we have taken a look at the Wekiva Trail in the real world, let’s talk about how it the placed is in Pokémon Go. And on this topic I’ll be brief, this is not the place to play. I didn’t see a single Pokestop on my walk outside of park entrances.
This segment of the trail follows a Tollway and those areas are notoriously barren of Pokémon and stops to discourage playing while driving. Most of the nearby spawns were in the parks on the opposite sides of the trail. And for your Pokémon Go needs, those are the places to go if you are the area. Use the trail for hiking.
I actually hatched three eggs on this walk, but forgot to get a picture of one of them. Nothing too exciting though. The missing Pokémon was a Scorbunny which hatched right while a wild one was a few steps from me. Carbink Candy is nice but as you can see, I don’t need even XL Candy for that Pokémon. No need to even talk about Swanna.
I tried to move out of the sun so I wouldn’t be blinded. And I failed as you can see by my face. But I was happy to have taken this hike since I was not sure if the weather would allow for it. And even while out there, the heat was starting to get to me. Starting next time its time for a hat and sunscreen even in the early morning.