About 1½ hours east of Orlando near Brooksville, a playground for outdoor enthusiasts beckons for hikers that offers that rarest of commodities in our state: Hills. Anyone who has driven on I-75 north of Tampa has passed through them. By Florida standards, they are a bit rugged. They are also a great place to backpack if you’re training for hiking outside our state. The Croom Tract of the Withlacoochee State Forest is a perfect place to test your legs on an overnight weekend trip. It was during my first overnight trip there exactly one year ago that I experienced and fell in love with the Florida Trail for the first time.
Named after an old ghost town on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad that was abandoned in the early 20th century after its lumber and turpentine resources were exhausted, the Croom Tract sits in the 20,000-acre Croom Wildlife Management Area. It has miles of hiking, backpacking, and horse trails that are thoughtfully designed to cross but not interfere with each other. So backpackers can enjoy the serenity of a backwoods trail with an unmolested hiking surface while nearby mountain bikers can relish high adventure.
For hikers, the Croom Tract has three connected loops lettered A, B, and C that all spring from the Tucker Hill trailhead, a hub for hikers and mountain bikers with ample parking on the Croom Tract’s western side. The tract also has two large campsites, PCZ (primitive camp zone) East and West, which are first-come first-serve and require a $1,00 fee. Fifteen miles of the Florida Trail also course through the eastern and northern portions of the tract. The 11.3-mile route I backpacked, combining the southern half of the B Loop and the northern half of the A Loop, included six beautiful miles of the Florida Trail, and the northern four miles were, dare I say, not easy and included nearly 400 feet of elevation (a modest amount in most states, but an unusually large amount in Florida). I was also challenged by a surprise prescribed forest fire at the beginning of my hike in.
Like many state forests throughout Florida, the Croom Tract offers a variety of ecosystems, flora, and fauna with well blazed, comfortable trails. Grassy longleaf pine forests abound on the southern portion of the B Loop as the trail slopes downhill as you hike east from the Tucker Hill trailhead. As you approach the Withlacoochee River, you eventually meet the Florida Trail, and upon turning north toward PCZ East less than a mile ahead, you’re pulled into a majestic live oak jungle. My jaw dropped as I hiked through my first stretch of the Florida Trail, passing beside and under gigantic live oaks.
Sitting in a sand oak dome, PCZ East is open and not exactly secluded, but safely near a road that was not as busy with traffic after sunset as I had feared. With ample space to accommodate more than ten tents, I was lucky to have it all to myself on the weeknight I spent there.
The Florida Trail north of PCZ East is where you meet the more rugged hills. After passing through open pine forest and eventually beside an old mine and several ponds, the terrain begins to rise and fall more steeply, providing a challenge to Floridians unaccustomed to life in three dimensions. After leaving the Florida Trail to return south toward PCZ West and the Tucker Hill trailhead, you encounter perhaps the most rugged climb before reaching the trailhead. When I conquered this stretch last year, it was my first overnight backpacking trip exceeding ten miles, and my awe of the landscape was complimented by a sense of accomplishment.
Less hilly and with shorter loops than its more famous cousin, the nearby Citrus Tract, the Croom Tract is a great place to challenge yourself if you’re looking for more than your typical flat Florida hike.
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