Hiking at Hidden Waters Preserve

I went hiking this week at Hidden Waters Preserve in Eustis, a 90 acre preserve managed by the Lake County Water Authority. It's an interesting hiking experience in Florida because of this change in elevation. The parking lot is at about 155 feet above sea level. However the trail falls down to Lake Alfred at 75 feet for an 80 foot drop. Although an 80 foot drop isn't interesting to hikers in most of the US, an 80 foot drop over a half mile in Florida is considered precipitous.

Hidden Waters Preserve Map

Hidden Waters Preserve is a sinkhole. It was once known as Eichelberger Sink. Like a lot of sinkholes it was used as a trash dump for years. By the 1940’s it turned into a golf course. The golf course closed in the late 1950’s. Closed golf courses have been an interest of mine for a while now – how they can be repurposed after bankruptcy, etc. This one had the advantage of being a freestanding golf course, not part of a larger housing development. So when it went bankrupt it was easy to convert it into citrus groves. If anybody knows of any old pictures of the golf course at Hidden Waters I’d love to see them. 

But today there’s a golf course of sorts still there. A disc golf course has been installed. Interestingly it has 10 holes. When I saw the 10^th tee I thought maybe there was a full 18 holes, but I don’t think so. I guess there’s no law that courses need a number of holes divisible by 9. Or maybe that law just applies to regular golf. Instead of walking one of the established trails I decided to walk the disc golf course. I walked each hole from tee to "cup" plus wandered around the lake a little while at the bottom.

I saw several gopher tortoises. This was the most interesting, a virtual Usain Bolt sprinter of the tortoise class.

Near the top of the edge of the preserve plants and animals that prefer well drained, sandy soil predominate. Prickly pear cacti and gopher tortoises are easy to find. Going down the hill takes you to a longleaf pine and turkey oak forest. Then comes the wetlands around the sinkhole itself.

There seemed to be lots of beautyberries. I found them mostly near the bottom of the sinkhole between the forested area and marshy area. The beautyberries were pretty ripe, and about as good tasting as beautyberries get. They have a little taste if sufficiently ripe. Still not a lot of pulp or juice on each small berry. I’m not sure the rules on eating berries from a wildlife preserve, but it seemed the thing to do at the time.

 

Beautyberry

There were lots of passion flowers. I saw a few fruits around, but none looked ready to eat. Passion fruits are ready to eat when they start turning yellow. They taste like a sour, wild grape. It’s actually a very nice taste. Passion fruits are good to find on long hikes. The tartness and liquid pulp quenches a thirst nicely. Pick a few while hiking then spend a few minutes during a break separating the seeds from the pulp in your mouth. A great use of break time.

Passion Flower

The forest had an impressive amount of turkey tail mushrooms. They tend to be plentiful on rotting tree trunks. Turkey tail mushrooms have been heralded for their healing power for many years. Back in China’s Ming Dynasty of the 15th century they used turkey tail mushrooms to maintain health. And there could be a grain of truth there. The University of Minnesota Medical School and Bastyr University Research Institute randomly gave a tea of turkey tail mushrooms to breast cancer patients who were having trouble keeping up their white blood cell counts.  It seemed to help. Who knows? 

Turkey Tail Mushroom

A very nice hike. My total distance was about 4 miles. I stayed on the west side of Lake Alfred. I’ll go back and when I do I’ll try some of the trails on the east side. Or maybe since it’s a sinkhole lake I could go back when it’s dry and check out the lake bottom. In any case the many distinct environments caused by the elevation change makes it a worthwhile hike.

A couple of brochures:  Here's a brochure of the property and here's a picture of the disc golf course. The disc golf brochure is a good general overview, but the layout of the holes is outdated.