The Pinellas Trail

The Pinellas Trail is a cycling & pedestrian trail on the Pinellas Peninsula west of Tampa Bay. The trail extends from St. Petersburg in the south to the Pasco County line in the north. It will eventually be joined to other trail fragments on the peninsula to make a roughly 75-mile loop. There is also a spur north into Pasco County that connects to the still-to-be-completed Coast-to-Coast Trail that will eventually connect to the Gulf to the Atlantic. Much of the trail is along the Orange Belt Railway right-of-way, some of which is still an active rail line.

Since this is Florida, there are few hills on this trail, though there are bridges over roadways that require climbing up some ramps. The maximum elevation along the trail is about 90 ft; the lowest point is a few feet above sea level. This travelogue includes pictures, Google map links, and my observations on entire length of the trail (including the Starkey Trail), as well as some links to online resources related to hiking and biking trails. It is in geographical, rather than chronological, order.

The trail begins at Demens Landing (map link), named for a Russian who came to Florida in 1881, founded and named St. Petersburg. He eventually took over and extended the Orange Belt Railway.

After a ten-mile ride through a drab urban landscape, one encounters a pedestrian and cyclist’s causeway that crosses an inlet known as Long Bayou (map link). This is a view looking northwest toward Seminole.

After crossing the water, the trail is pleasantly tree-lined (map link):

A short (0.5 mile) detour at Walsingham Rd. rewards the rider with a visit to the Florida Botanical Gardens and Heritage Village. The Village consists of a collection of historic buildings moved there from various nearby locations in Pinellas County. This is an early 20^th century garage and general store that once stood in St. Petersburg (map link):

The Botanical Garden has lots of plants and ponds (map link)

In a nod to the rail provenance of this trail, there are signs like this for most of the towns along the way (map link):

Shortly thereafter, we encounter the first bridge across a major road, Bay Drive (map link):

This is a fairly typical intersection with a cross-street, a four-way stop (map link). As a practical matter, it is rarely necessary to stop because there is no cross traffic and drivers are extremely (perhaps, overly) deferential to cyclists on the trail, always yielding the right of way.

While almost all of the trail is well-separated from roads, parts through the highly-urbanized Clearwater are not so pleasant. This 100-yard section is essentially a sidewalk alongside Ft. Harrison Avenue (map link):

Soon enough, the trail returns to its tree-canopied form (map link):

In traversing downtown Clearwater, the trail runs along an active rail line, though I’ve rarely seen a train on it. Rarely is not the same as never (map link):

In downtown Dunedin, there are 4-way stops at cross streets and little cross traffic (map link):

The trail continues, sometimes alongside a street but more usually as tree-lined path, to Tarpon Springs (map link). The pedestrian path is often separated from the bike path by a grass strip:

In Tarpon Springs, the trail continues along the median of Safford Avenue (map link). The former railway station, now a museum, is on the left:

At the north end of Tarpon Springs, the trail parallels Keystone Road, making for a noisy ride (map link):

At this crossroads, one can continue on the Pinellas trail south, on the east side of Lake Tarpon, or east on the Coast-to-Coast Trail (map link), about which more later. This is the fork at the very top of the map above.

If one takes the southern fork, the trail ends unceremoniously in the middle of nowhere, or so it seems (map link):

The other fork takes one to the Pasco County line through some pleasant rural areas: Brooker Creek Preserve (map link).

The trail continues as the Starkey Gap Trail in Pasco (map link):

After a nice ride through Starkey Wilderness Park (map link),

one finally arrives at the Sun Coast Trail (map link), having traveled 60 miles from Demens Landing:

But wait, there’s more. A section of trail that provides another entry point to Pasco County is closed off, presumably because of a problem with the bridge (map link). However, it can be approached from the other side to find another trail end (map link):

A good ride concludes with a beryllium/erbium combination — an alkaline earth and rare earth.

There are many breweries along the trail, most of them probably good.

Some useful resources for the trail aficionado:

All Trails: Specializing in hiking trails. Gives the elevation profile of trails.

TrailLink: Operated by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Emphasis on converted rights-of-way.

Both of these sites have mobile apps that are useful while on the road.