Sometimes when it’s time to hit up a trail I'm just not sure how far I feel up for going. Thankfully I noticed a part of the West Orange Trail has an outpost called Mccormick that has routes on either side that are a bit shorter to take.
The Mccormick outpost is mostly just a place to park. The biggest issue is on many trail maps they don’t list the distance this outpost is at along the trail. So, it was a bit of a mystery the exact amount I'd be going without doing so. I could just tell, however, from the map that it’s not a huge amount in either direction.
I first decided I would head towards Ingram Outpost side of the trail. That would take me also through Apopka Vineland Outpost. I, however, was not planning to go all the way to Ingram Outpost since the last little section I know is all running along a highway, and I don’t care much for that.
The area around the starting area here is also a bit confusing. There is not that far away a third direction you can take. It’s from the looks of it the longest section of the trail before you hit a station or outpost as well.
That was going to be my next trail part to hit up after this little adventure. I, however, quickly noticed while heading on my way to Vineland that I had missed noticing the trail that took you up to Apopka Station.
On my way back I yet again noticed after looking at AllTrails map that I somehow missed the entry into that third direction as well. I did a little backtracking and lined myself right up into a much smaller trail that is marked biker trail.
I also noticed quite a few bikes going in and out of that trail. While there is no sign of no walking along it. It’s quite narrow to the point I feel it’s best just to leave that part to people on bikes. This is kind of funny as there is a sign just past the horse sign a bit that indicates no bikes right where you would need to cross the road to get to the bike path.
Once I was past all that nonsense it was not that far away till I hit Apopka Vineland Outpost. I almost feel like the Mccormick outpost was put in place just to add more parking along the trail. As it was not that far away from this point.
While Vineland Outpost is a proper resting area. That was quite not needed yet. So, I just pressed onto the next part of the trail which would now be heading to Ingram Outpost.
There was just some rather confusing stuff going on here as well. This almost looks like a full-on real road. Expect it leads right onto the trail and it’s quite narrow. I have no clue what this is all about. I decided to just shake my head and double check I was going in the right direction before going any further.
Once all that odd stuff was out of the way. I was rather pleased with just how far you went away from all the hustle and bustle of life. At least for the time being. It appears land developers are now heavily developing near this trail.
I can only imagine when this trail was put in quite a few years ago there must have been just a lot of amazing woods and nature to enjoy. At least for the time being it is that way. I would not be shocked if they ended up putting a lot of retention ponds for water.
If you ever wonder, why flooding is such an issue in some areas. Just look beyond the tree line here. Massive development is going on. There was a lot of what almost felt like swamp lands in this section of the trail. Heck, even at the point of the trail I'm standing at seems to be higher in evaluation than where they are building that massive development. This was not the only one either.
It is that kind of nonsense you need to make sure you avoid even getting a rental nearby. Why or how that is even permitted is beyond my understanding. I can only assume all that space between that building project and this trail will have to be a giant retention swamp of death to have as a runoff without flood insurance being through the roof.
This is what I imagine most of this trail used to look like. It is quite thick with a path going through it. Certain parts of it did thin out to be someone's fence in a couple of places some homes were plopped down.
Then things would open up yet again to see yet another massive building project going on in what looked like at the bottom of a ditch. You would think the trail would be at the bottom and a place where they could have flooded out if needed. Certain parts of this trail were the lower-lying areas. It was, however, just beyond comical what was going on here.
I would not be shocked even a bit if at some point they drained this section and tried to build some homes there as well. This is the kind of land one can only guess they are trying to build on.
There came a point where there was quite a hill of an incline to go up. I somewhat wish I had opened up my map and checked how far away I was from Ingram Outpost as I was getting close to where I had plans to turn around.
My reward for going up the massive hill was a short time later realizing I was about to hit a few stoplights and nothing but the path running next to the road. At least the hill was fun to walk back down, and it did not take too much energy out of me on my way back that I wanted to call it a day once I got back to Mccormic Outpost.
Before getting there, I'd have to go back through Vineland Outpost again and this time I took a moment to stop and do some sightseeing. There was a decent amount of parking and some places to sit out of the sun or even rain if needed.
They even had a nice sign that stated how far I was from where I started and the rest of the path I wanted to take. This was now the second one I’d seen in the area. I wish the rest of the trail I went on would do as they were doing here.
While I do understand they have these markings on the ground every one tenth of a mile or so along the trail in case you need to call for help. I also believe that it is supposed to induction in some way how far you are to the next stop. Many of them have been worn off or damaged. I’d prefer actual wooden signs.
Since it was such a short distance back to Mccormic Outpost there was no need to rest there. I was also doing quite well on water, so I did not even need to restock. I was almost tempted to drop my backpack off since the remaining trail I had plans to do was not that long.
It was not time to head off towards Clarcona Outpost. The trail went next to the road a bit you ended up crossing the highway and onto this rather old-looking section of the trail. At first, I thought I might have somehow missed what I was supposed to be doing. Things started to get a little odd again down this section as well.
One side opened up to what I can only describe as a mega church. There must have been enough parking for 500 or 1k cars. It was almost empty as well and it went on to quite a few other buildings as well. At first, I had no idea what it even was until I looked at the maps.
Then I started to hit areas that looked like they could be closed off. As if you were now on private land or something. There were no trespassing or other kinds of warning signs in the area. I even passed a worker who was cutting some fields of grass and was using the trail to drive down.
This all ended up leading down to what is now an abandoned school. I thought for sure this was going to be the end of the trail but there was an open area that was part of the trail that let you keep going.
From the best I could tell the school is still listed as being “temporarily” closed. Other than they still maintaining the fields, the place looked quite old, and I can only guess it was not used for quite some time. Some bits of the roof almost seemed to be quite damaged without any attempt to even cover them or temporarily repair them.
I’m rather glad the trail did not end there as it was not far before hitting a horse rack track of sorts with RV camping and normal tent camping. While there were no horses there at the time that I could tell. It looked like quite a few people were camping out here for some reason or another.
This also got me to start wondering if this is why a lot of the West Orange Trail is marked for allowing horses as well. I was hoping at some point to run into something like this to explain it. It also explains why I have not seen anyone on a horse as there was no event going on down here any of the times I'd go out onto one of these trails.
Final Thoughts
Well, thankfully I did not get lost at any of the forks on this one. There was also just some odd stuff going on. It was at least fun to find a horse track. There was even a decent amount of parking that seemed to be set aside for those going along the trail.
Other Content
Information
Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.
