Jay B Starkey Wilderness Park MTB Trails

After a few days in Orlando visiting with my mother, it was time to head towards the Tampa area with my wife and her parents. They were there for the beaches, I was there for the riding. And lucky for me, there was some good riding to be found. First up on my agenda was an area called the Jay B Starkey Wilderness Park in New Port Richey, FL. This was about an hour north of where I was staying. Distance-wise, not that far, but time-wise, it seemed like it took forever because it was just one traffic light after another after another after another. And, each traffic light seemed to last like 48 minutes. But I digress... oh, one more note about the drive though... I think this area of the country has more injury and accident lawyer billboards than in any area I've driven in. Billboard after billboard asking if I had been hurt or an in an accident... Okay, now let's talk about the riding...

This park, along with many of the trails in the area is marked, mapped, and maintained by a group called the South West Association of Mountain bike Pedalers, or SWAMP. They have an excellent web site which is a great resource for trails in the area. This particular trail network has two sections, a 7-mile and a 5-mile, both of which a pretty similar in that they are flat and non-technical. Despite the fact that the trails are flat and easy, they are still quite fun, with lots of twists and turns and great scenery. I think SWAMP did an excellent job with these trails as they are all well marked, with the possible exception being at trail marker 2 where you have to cross over the paved path. There's a small (easy to miss) arrow that points to the right, but looking directly across the path there's a trail, so I flew straight across and it took me a bit to figure out what I had done wrong.

At the end of the single track sections, I took the fire roads and then the paved path back to the parking area, and along the way I had to traverse a loooooong puddle that was about hub/bottom bracket deep. It was refreshing to cool my feet off, but this being Florida, I had to wonder if there were any alligators or snakes floating around...

Anyway, I enjoyed the trails enough to make the trek back a second day with my wife because I knew she'd have fun too. And she did.

It was $2 for park access and there are bathrooms and other facilities near the parking area, including a bike wash station at the trail head... that's pretty awesome!