Biking Black Prong Trails in Goethe State Forest

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Hi Blog!

After hiking for a couple day, we decided to take the bikes out for a spin. We discovered a series of multi-use trails in the Goethe State Forest in Dunnellon, Florida. The 42,000 acre forest is cris-crossed with old logging roads. We could choose between three established trails (green, orange or blue) or mix and match and create our own ride.

The Goethe Forest has several creeks or “drains” including Black Prong, Cow Creek, Ten Mile Creek, and Horse Hole Creek. The name “Black Prong” is said to originate as a descriptor for the branching prong of the forest drain system that has dark stained water due to the tannins released by decomposing pine leaves. The Black Prong drain has been used as a marker to identify this northeast side of the Goethe Forest since before the land was acquired by the Florida State Forest Service. It is now the namesake of the Black Prong Trailhead and a nearby equestrian resort!

The forest has 19 different natural communities including mesic flatwoods, dome swamp, sandhill, and basin swamp. Goethe State Forest contains an exceptionally large tract of a contiguous hydric hammock and still has some scattered old-growth cypress.

We parked at the Black Prong Trailhead and used a QR Code to pay the day use fee. The trailhead has four primitive camp sites, day use picnic tables and a restroom with running water. We started our ride on the orange trail which followed Camp Road. The surface was comprised of hard packed sand and limestone.

We did find a few water crossings. It's not often we get to leave a wake when biking.

Some of the trails looked a little soggy, so we decided to stick to the forest roads. We saw an armadillo, but he/she was very shy and ran into the brush before we could get a photo.

After biking a little over 5 miles, we reached the west end of the forest. We decided to bike on County Road 343 to another forest road which would take us back across the forest to the trailhead.

As most of you know, Florida is experiencing below average temperatures. The flowers are very confused. We did find this little guy struggling to find some sun.

For the most part, we had the road to ourselves.

Just across the street from our entrance back into our trail system on Black Prong Road stands the old Wekiva Fire Tower. We stopped to see if we could climb the tower, but it was gated and locked. Too bad. We've climbed enough fire towers to know that the views would have been awesome.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the original old growth pine and cypress was logged off. Railroads were built to haul out the timber. As the lumbering progressed the rails were moved, but raised beds remained.

The various woods roads seem to converge in the center of the forest. From here, we could head off in five different directions. Most of the roads are signed. We also have our hand held GPS. Even if we didn't know where we were going, we'd be able to find our way back.

The forest supports a wide variety of wildlife including fox squirrels, black bear, white tailed deer, tortoise, frog, bald eagle and wild turkey. We stopped at this cypress swamp to see if we could spot some critters. However, the cold weather has kept them all hunkered down.

We did share the road with this equestrian, who probably rode over from the Black Prong Resort, a 90 acre facility that caters to horse travelers. There is a hotel, pool, restaurant, cabins, RV sites and horse paddocks located right next to the forest.

After 10 miles, we decided to stop for a snack. We thought about doing another couple miles, but decided to head into Tony's Chowder House in Cedar Key for some of Tony's World Famous Clam Chowder.

Tony’s was named after the owner;s brother, who’s nickname is Tony. The actual owner of Tony’s and its founder and recipe creator is Chef Eric. The restaurant began operations on June 2, 2005. Diners at Tony’s between 2005-2009 encouraged Chef Eric to enter the chowder into the Great Chowder Cook-Off held each year in Newport Rhode Island. In June 2009 Chef Eric took on the best chowders around the world. The result was three straight annual clam chowder world championships. In June of 2011 Tony’s Cedar Key Clam Chowder was inducted into the event's Hall of Fame and the recipe was retired from the competition. In 2012 Tony’s Chowder was made available in a can for consumers around the world to enjoy. Tony's is a self-service chowder café featuring our fresh kitchen-made chowder in cups or bowls. Tony’s front dining area features some dynamic hand painted murals that honor the history of Cedar Key and the famous chowder.

It truly was one of the best clam chowders we have ever had. Needless to say, we brought some cans home with us. 

We can't wait for some cold evenings to warm ourselves with some scrumptious clam chowder!