Another of the Lake County Water Authority preserves, Sawgrass Island is not far away but feels remote. Steve and I recently hiked the North Loop Trail and enjoyed a pleasant hour or so on a mostly shaded trail through an upland forest of mostly slash pine with some oaks for variety.
The North Loop is marked with yellow blazes, but the markings could be better. There were several places where we could have turned, but there was no blaze to mark which arm of the trail was the correct one. We did well by sticking to what seemed to be the “straight ahead-est” arm, except near the end. At the end of the loop, there is a long section that follows fencing which marks the boundary of the Preserve. At one point, I noticed a blaze that was far to our left with a visible trail – we are not sure how we missed moving from the fenceline back to the “real” trail, but even if we had followed the fenceline, we would have ended up in the parking lot. This could have been avoided if we had read the information at the trailhead kiosk more carefully. There is a QR Code on the kiosk that, when scanned with your phone, will take you to a web-based map. We did not discover this until we were leaving, but the map looks very good. There are no print maps showing preserve trails available onsite and no map on the kiosk.
This preserve allows horseback riding, and we saw piles of evidence that riders had been on the trail recently. Pets are not allowed in the Preserve, though, even if you clean up after them.
Very early in our walk, Steve saw two deer cross the trail. I was quick enough to see the second one, but not quick enough to get a picture. We heard many songbirds, cicadas, tree frogs, and woodpeckers. We were on the trail early enough to enjoy the morning dew on spiderwebs, and we’ve had rain recently so the resurecction fern was growing deep green on the oak branches. We saw blooming tillandsia and many mushrooms and other fungus. The North Loop trail was a short hike and would be suitable for young children if you do not go in the heat of the day. Make sure to have water and sunscreen. We did not need insect repellant but it’s never a bad idea to keep this handy!
There are two other trails accessible from the North parking area. They are Sawgrass Causeway trail and Bear Prairie trail. We followed the Causeway trail for a short while, but the sun was getting hot so we decided to come back another day to finish that trail. Had I realized that the causeway is less than a mile long (0.85 miles), we might have walked to the end. Bear Prairie trail is the longest of the three at 3.7 miles and is also accessible from the South parking area.
The preserve is home to four other trails: Bog Button (0.56 miles), Hammock (1.03 miles), Bent Pine (2.02 miles), and Cactus trail (0.73 miles). These trails are on the far side of the preserve, and it appears that they are only accessible from the North Loop and Causeway trails, but I have not yet confirmed this. I’ll update this post when I have a definitive answer. Here is a link to a brochure that has a map that shows these trails.
The address for Sawgrass Island Preserve is 11931 Sawgrass Island Rd, Umatilla, FL 32784. There are shaded picnic tables at both the North and South parking areas. The preserve appears popular with equestrians but lightly used. Go early in the day if the summer heat is troublesome for you, and take plenty of water.
NOTE: Google Maps may direct you to turn on R Road. Don’t do that because this road dead ends into private property. Instead, turn east on Sawgrass Island Road (just south of R Road) and park in South Preserve parking or head to the left to reach the North Reserve parking area.