Fort Braden Tract - Lake Talquin State Forest

A fantastic stay over all. About a mile hike in. Primitive, which is exactly what we wanted. Fetch your own water from the lake. No modern amenities. Brilliant view of Lake Talquin, right on the water. Thickly treed so hanging hammocks and bear lines was no problem. Brilliant quiet spot, mostly, I’ll get to that in a bit. Even got a visit from your friendly neighborhood alligator in the middle of the night, which when I realized after the fact what the sound was was terrifying. Lol. Steep bank on this sight though so fewer worries about him actually visiting camp. Fabulous spot for fishing and camping. But, and this is the one star off, the camp sites are about 30 feet off the trail. So there is virtually no privacy. Makes… let’s use the euphemism “#2”… a bit challenging. The trail wasn’t heavily trafficked but it was travelled so we had maybe 9 or 10 people pass the site over the course of the weekend. If you can tolerate that I’d say put it on your list.

Three wonderful loop trails 2 primitive camp sites and a great view through the trees. Camping was in the Center and West loops with 2 of the 3 sites being near the lake (the third site was in the center of hte Center Loop and for groups). Nice elevation changes (refreshing for Florida hiking)

It took us an extra try to find this location - first our directions lead us to the Lines Tract - great for biking and bike camping - but not so much for hiking and camping. Make sure you review your directions because there is not much of a signal out there. There are 5 separate tracts to this forest.

When we finally got to the correct location the hike was beautiful. We chose the 2 campsites that were near the water for our stay (but a bit of a steep drop off (you do not want to fall in - we were told lots of gators hand along the shore). The shore was fish-able though. Lots of frogs to sing us to sleep. There was some boat activity on the lake, but not as much as I expected. You do have to watch your step - this is prime copperhead territory.

Primitive campsites were small and cozy. There was a group site in between that was very nice and we were told was often used by youth groups. Was worth the hike in and we had a lot of down time to relax even hiking all 3 loops. Was nice to have sit down quiet time. only saw 3 other people in the 3 days we were there.

Call ahead for your camping permit!