To calm my post-election tenterhooks while awaiting the outcome, Dennis and I sought refuge in the Jelks Preserve near Venice, FL. There the cool breeze, the buzzing of insects, and the sun reflecting on the river chop helped calm my spirits. I suggest downloading the map and following the markers 1 to 19 around the 3.7-mile loop. With the side trips to view the Myakka River and with having to backtrack a bit to avoid a swampy area, we walked 5.5 miles in the preserve.
The path is enticing and the first half is shaded. Live Oaks and Slash Pines dominate the tree canopy.
The trail is easy to walk, mostly sand with patches of pine needles, wiregrass, wildflowers, or ground cover. Wild boar have dug up large areas making it difficult to walk, but passable. Though we did not see the pigs, we did see deer on two occasions.
In two different areas we spotted unused boar cages. From the trail damage, it does seems apparently that they have not be recently used.
There are three opportunities to see the Myakka River: at marker 2, 4, and 6. At the first river sighting, I could feel the stress leave me. I was so glad we came. Marker 6 had a picnic table, so we picnicked there.
The path was muddy in places but planks or bridges made them easy to cross, though I was glad for my poles.
Unfortunately, there was no way to cross the swamp between Markers 12 and 13. We backtracked to Marker 9 and made our way to Marker 14.
We spent about three hours at Jelks Preserve. without meeting people other than those leaving when we first arrived. With a few more hours we could have walked all eight-miles of trails.
