Another day out on the West Orange Trail and some mistakes were made during this one making it a bit rougher than I was expecting. Sometimes you just must trust your information and not always take information on maps to be 100% correct. It was still a great time and I ended up going a bit further than expected.

At this point in my adventures, I've had a lot of trail miles under my belt. It has also been quite a few weeks since I only do these things a couple of days a week if I have the time and they are not always posted in the order they occurred in.

This ended up being part of the West Orange Trail that I'd end up having an option of taking. The first plan was just to make it to Winter Garden Station. According to the map, it’s only a certain distance away but the apps that I use ended up indicating a bit further away than expected.

Once getting there the next stop along the trail is called Tildenville Outpost. It’s not that long of a walk along the trail to get there. One, however, has to remember during things like this any X number of miles you walk in one direction you have to walk back to get to the car. It would have to be an option to consider walking further once we got there and seeing how everyone was doing.

I liked this section of the trail. They all have some proper outposts with at least a bathroom if not more activities. Leaving out of Chapin Station it really would have been a wonderful place for a break if you were passing by it. They even have rental pavilions apparently which is kind of tempting to do at some point.

Once we exited the park area there was a short walk along the road the trail took before diving a bit into some wooded areas. I believe the sooner the highway is out of my sight the better. I want to enjoy nature and not hear cars.

It also ended up being quite an amazing day on the trail. There were very few people in this section. Even better, almost no one was on a bike. People on bikes tend to be more on the other end of the trail. Let’s just say I've started to get a bit annoyed by how rude many of them end up being to people walking along the trail.

I wish this was what the entire trail looked like. While there had been sections in the past, I went on that were more or less this. There ended up being some further road crossings. At least none of them were bad on the way to Winter Garden Station.

A lot of the time while walking it was fun to try and notice all the wildlife you could. This part of the trial ended up having quite an insane number of squirrels along it. I have no idea why but every couple of trees I'd spot one. Other times you would notice one running along a fence.

We then got to the section of the trail that I feel might have been where the photo on the AllTrail cover for the trail was taken. Every time I use the application for this trail see something similar to this just the white fence was a lot cleaner, and it was not a shady day here like it was when I took the photo.

There was just something amazing about realizing that it gave me a little more energy. I also kind of knew going into this that if I was feeling great this day this would end up being one of my longer hikes along a trail I've done in quite many years.

After a while one side of the white fences faded away and opened up to what must have been a retention pond. It was also somewhat funny seeing someone trying to fish in that pond. That person would later pass by on a bike empty-handed.

While I would be shocked if there was any fish at all in that little pond. When I looked down further into it the birds seemed to be going after something in it. I don’t think the birds were there for a little swim. It’s not like it was that hot of a day since it was starting to be the cooler months of the year.

After a bit more walking, we ended up going down this massive hill. Now it’s usually a good idea to keep mentally a list of things like needing to up a massive hill on the way back. For whatever reason that day that hill quickly left my mind, and I did not consider it later on in the day when I needed to make an important choice about whether I was going to go further or not.

Once I got to the bottom of that hill my mind quickly switched over to noticing a sign. In the direction I had just come from it pointed to the trail I was on. In the direction forward it was pointing to a differently named trail.

I looked across the road and noticed what looked like the West Orange Trail. The is a kind of nice thing about this trail. When they can they try and keep it the same materials and width. That way if you end up having to cross or run onto different trails it’s easy to spot it.

Just to double check I took out my phone and looked at AllTrails. I did need to go across the road to stay on the trail. I did end up taking a photo of the sign just so I could look up at the other trail when I got back home.

From the best I could tell the other trail appears to be quite small and not something I'd return just to do unless I was already on in the area and just wanted a different alternative. It was not listed as a trail on the application, and I could not find much online other than looking at an actual map of the area I was in. Even then to see how far this other trail went was hard as it was not named on a map.

I’ve learned somewhere between half an hour and an hour along going on a trail it’s really good for me to just take a short break. There ended up being a bench and some amazing-looking plants to look at in the area. This was the only break I felt I needed just for my ankle. After this, it felt like it was properly warmed up now and I'd have no further issues with it.

After quite a bit of walking, we finally got into a little town where the Winter Garden Station was. Up to this point, we thankfully did not need to go too much walking into a town. Outside of some walking closer to the road and seeing some homes that was it. I had no idea the next section of the trail would be right into a town square with shops and everything.

Winter Garden Station is quite an amazing place to just take a short break. Lots of places to sit, many of them well-shaded. Anyone who needed a restroom break got to take one. The plan was to just rest here for a bit and see how everyone was feeling.

I also pulled up the application I was using and noticed it said we went a lot further than what was shown on the trail map. In the past I've spotted some margin of error differences I'll call them between what the applications I'm using are reporting and what I tend to see on trial maps.

I’m at a point now in getting into better shape that the amount of distance we have gone and even returning was not going to be near what I was looking to do for the day. I at least do have the option of putting on a couple more miles once I get home and that is sometimes something I do even when I'm not hitting up a trail. Funny enough, despite how this trail went, I in fact did go home after resting and put in some more distance.

I talked it over with the group if everyone felt up for going to Tildenville Outpost. The main feature there was a butterfly garden which would provide a nice area to rest as well. On paper, according to the map, this would be adding about a 40% increase in total distance to our trip which everyone at the time felt fine with doing.

There is always something I have in the back of my mind ever since I've started to hit up trails. Every extra half a mile you go on a point-to-point is another half a mile you will have to go back. Now thankfully on this section of the West Orange Trail, there are quite a few places you could call a friend to pick you up if you did push yourself too far. Thankfully that was not something that needed to be done this time around.

So, we ended up leaving out of the outpost to head up to the next one. Since I've never done any of these two parts before there were some unexpected complications I was not expecting. We would not just be going along a major road. We would be going into the middle of a downtown area.

At first, it was kind of cool. If I had been alone and had all day, I might have stopped at quite a few locations and checked things out. There was a heritage center, a train, and lots of shops and little restaurants.

With all the sightseeing to do of stuff, lots of people around, and far too many road crossings with lots of traffic. This section of the trail ended up slowing us down a lot. This would end up creating two issues later on. The lack of time and it gets into the hotter part of the day.

Even for someone like me who would rather avoid having to go into populated areas with lots of people. I rather loved the vibe of the older building and just all the nature around the place. It was well worth checking out.

One thing I did notice at the time was that in the middle of the road was a sidewalk. That was in fact where the “real” trail was. If we had crossed over to it that would have made things a little easier to get past just all the people walking along shops and that sort of thing.

It felt like this little center went on for ages. Thankfully after a while, we made it to the end and quite quickly back into the more wooded areas. There would be on a couple of occasions the random rundown building. Along with some buildings that looked run down but were still in operation.

It was perhaps a mile further before we would end up reaching the next outpost where the butterfly garden was. I don’t know if the route we took through the town somehow added a little extra distance than expected. For all I know some changes were made to the trail. We were getting even further out of whack from a recorded distance and what the trail maps claimed things were supposed to be.

We then finally saw the garden and up to this point this entire adventure had been worth it. I was quite shocked by just how many different flowers and plants this garden had. They also made a point of labeling everything.

It looked like this entire thing was set up as a way to educate people on how to set up your own butterfly garden. There were even signs with tips for attracting butterflies and a group you could join if you wanted.

<center.

While they did not have an insane number of butterflies this place did at least live up to its hype. There were more than enough to notice them flying around and landing on different flowers.

After enjoying a short break, I went around taking photos of most of the signs saying what was planted there. I would not mind having such knowledge in the future when I have some land for planting stuff to increase the chance of bringing in butterflies. There is just something so tranquil about them.

,center>

After walking around the place, it was time to head back. We had a bit of a journey. At this point, I'm still feeling rather fantastic. I'm not worried about the distance we have to go. As long as we took some breaks along the way and there were some fantastic spots to do so it was not going to be an issue.

Since it was getting so late into the day by now and it was getting a bit hotter some people wanted to go walking quite a few miles in. A portion of the group at one point demanded no further breaks. At first, I was okay with that idea. We did get a quick bathroom break at the Winter Garden Outpost.

At least this time around getting back to that outpost was a lot quicker. Since we took the middle trail lane through the town center. That helped shave off some time and we did not have to go around people or wait either.

I was doing great for most of it. That was until we made it back to that one massive hill. By the time I got up the hill, it felt like my heart wanted to jump out of my ear. I thought at this point we had pushed ourselves more than enough. Turns out despite the fact it sounds like some people were dying they refused to take any kind of break.

We made it back to the car almost dead. The total trail ended up being about a mile further than expected. That last mile I say is what nearly killed us. While it does not sound like much once you hit that point of needing a break and not being one; along with, people in a sudden rush. It sure felt like it.

Thankfully I at least had managed the single bottle of water I had brought along for myself quite well. I took the last couple remaining sips I had left and enjoyed the car AC on full blast. There are water bottle refilling spots along the way on this trail so if I had to go I doubt it would been a huge issue to get further water. That is, however, something you always have to keep in mind.

Final Thoughts

Screenshot from AllTrails

If I ever do this route of the trail again, I at least know quite a few things now. I think I might even opt to just go the shorter router route as well and not push to make it to the second station.

It was also kind of funny thinking back about this one. There was something else to check out. It would have added half a mile both ways out from where we stopped. Perhaps in the future, I'll end up checking out that part of the trail and seeing it. I’m rather glad I did not option to push for it.

Information

Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.