Bear-N-Oak trail in Indian Lake State Forest is one of the Florida Trailwalker program trails, and we highly recommend it. It is an easy hike, and while the trail is blazed in a haphazard way, it was easy to follow and never far from the road. Part of this short loop trail was flooded on the day we hiked – but more about that in a minute. Beautiful swamp views are worth the mosquitoes, and I’m happy to report that my homemade beautyberry insect repellent was effective!
Indian Lake State Forest is located in Marion County very close to Silver Springs State Park. Comprising nearly 4500 acres, the main feature is a beautiful sinkhole lake which drains into the Floridan aquifer. The Bear-N-Oak trail is a wonderful place to observe a karst topography. We came upon several depressions that ranged from the size of a small room to full-blown sinkholes. This results when our Florida limestone is dissolved by water and falls away.
From the parking lot at the southern end of the trail, we proceeded counter-clockwise on the loop trail. The oaks — which outnumber the bears, thank goodness — were cloaked in resurrection fern. Many of them had long, graceful branches that created archways over the trail.
All along the trail we could see remnants of sinkholes. Some were small and others were quite large. A side trail led to a large sinkhole that had water in it; the rain was insane in the days before our hike, so we aren’t sure if this is a permanently water-filled hole, but it looked like it. The picture below is of a puddle in the bottom of a much smaller sinkhole.
This trail was remarkable for the variety of fungi we noticed. There were many branches and fallen trees being worked on by these decomposers. What I loved was that so many of these fungi were on trees that have not yet fallen. Of course we’ve seen fungi on standing trees before, but never such an abundance and variety!
The lake itself is beautiful. Many cypress surround the shoreline, which was flooded on the day we were there. Still and reflective, the water mirrored the sky and trees perfectly.
As we neared the halfway point of the loop trail, it became flooded. There was a lovely little footbridge, but as the trail leading to it was flooded, we decided to turn around and hike to the other side of the bridge so we could feel confident about requesting our Trailwalker credits.
The standing water was deep! The flooding was so severe that there was quickly moving water in this general area. We tried to follow it to see the source, but the area was so swampy that we could not. With chest waders and hiking sticks, we might have dared, but we were in simple boots and had not brought our sticks on this day.
As we reached the north shore of the lake, we noticed a really nice recreation area. There are picnic tables, hanging gliders so you can really settle in and enjoy the lakeview, a vault toilet, and primitive campsites.
