I headed out today for my second ride at Croom, which is a pathway in the Withlacoochee State Forest in Hernando County off State Road 50. I had been out here one other time, and rode a section of trail referred to as the "yellow" trail system. All the trails in Croom are marked as red, blue, yellow and green trails, and the colors have nothing to do with their difficulty level. The yellow trail was unremarkable, and was full of sugar sand and spiderwebs due to lack of use when I rode it last.
I started out at Croom Rd. and the paved railway trail (better known as parking lot #2 on SWAMP maps). I rode down Croom road looking for the entrance to the blue pathway. I totally missed it, and ended up going on a side trail that was actually a HORSE trail..whoops. Talk about ROUGH. The sand was all sugar, and my legs were burning before I went about 2.5 miles an realized I messed up. I turned back and got back out onto Croom Rd., then found the trail proper. My first gripe: POOR SIGNAGE OFF THE MAIN ROADWAY.
SO I started on the proper blue bike path, and it seemed fine for a few miles. About the trail. Although there are areas of sugar sand, the entire trail is VERY loosely packed. So your tires will fight for grip the ENTIRE time you ride, which makes your speed less than superb when navigating these trails. The trails are very poorly maintained- overgrown in areas, tons of debris on the trail, and as you can see by the above pic, deeply rutted sugar sand throughout. I stayed in a high gear the entire time just to be able to maintain speed and pedal through the slop.
The trail is well marked by signs throughout, and I didn't have much of an issue staying on it. Word of advice- print out a map and take a GPS with you if it's your first time out here- YOU WILL GET LOST WITHOUT THEM!
I finally reached an area of the trail called "Drunken Monkey", which had some pretty nice downhills and climbs. Fun. Nothing like Alafia or Boyette though. The drops all ended in sharp turns or sudden stops- not very fun, since if you got ANY speed coming down off the hill, you had to brake like a madman at the bottom to navigate the turn. It just didn't flow well at all.
If this is all Croom has to offer, I say skip it. Granted, there are many mile of trails I did not check out yet, and there may be other areas that make this ride worthwhile. But here is the bottom line:
1) Trail is boring and unremarkable scenery wise
2) The sugar sand will drive you insane and greatly slow down your speed
3) The uphills are gradual and the downhills are few and far between, but it's a good cardio workout.
4) Drunken Monkey is OK, but do yourself a favor and ride the paved rail trail to the bypass and ride directly into Drunken Monkey, skip the rest of the blue trail prior to that- unless you're looking for a good leg workout.
5) There are some whoops and jumps, but because of the loose soil, you have to pedal like a crazy person to get any speed up to catch air and have fun...it's not worth it, in my opinion.
6) If this is close to you, then it's worthy of a trip. But if it's the same distance to Wilderness Park/ Flatwoods and/or Alafia/ Boyette, stick with those rides. The trails are in better shape, there are less bugs and crap in the trail to navigate around.
Oh, a hardtail on this trail will kick you ass. The trail is very uneven, and with the bumps, sand, roots and debris, you will certainly develop a hemorrhoid riding the trail with a HT. The FS will be a lot easier on your back and ass...lol.
I mention bugs because on this jaunt I did 18.67 miles, and I swallowed 3 small flying insects, got hit in the face and upper body by huge locusts more than I can count, clotheslined 2 spider webs with BIG spiders in them, and picked up a ton of hitchikers. Nice.
