Thanks greatly in part to the Hillsborough County Parks Department, Florida State Park Service, and the SWAMP mountain bike club, Hillsborough County is home to three of the best mountain biking sites in the State. The combination of the Wilderness Parks, Alafia River State Park, and The Balm Boyette Scrub Preserve draw mountain bikers and nature enthusiast from all over the state.
Balm Boyette Scrub Preserve
   click to enlarge If you are an avid mountain biker and nature lover than then there is no place in Florida you would rather be than Balm Boyette Scrub Preserve. It is a part of Hillsborough County's ELAP program, home to one of the largest scrub habitats in Florida, and with the addition of several new trails recently built by the SWAMP mountain bike club, it is on its way to becoming the cross country mountain biking mecca of Florida. With its new trails, one can easily travel 30 miles through pine flatwoods, scrubby flatwoods, hardwood hammock, grassland, bottomland forest, freshwater marsh, cypress swamp, and bay swamp
Wilderness Park
   click to enlarge The Wilderness Park System is actually 6 parks covering over 7,200 acres of land. Of the 6 parks, the off-road mountain bike trails meander through three of them, Trout Creek, Morris Bridge, and Flatwoods. While the Wilderness Trail is not as difficult as its counterparts in the southeast portion of the county, it does provide its riders a chance to experience a wide variety of habitats, ranging from pine flatwoods, hardwood plain forest, upland hardwood hammock, oak scrub, to cypress swamps.
Alafia River State Park
For the adrenaline junkie looking for his fix, Alafia River State Park is the place to be. Alafia River State Park does support 1600 acres of forested habitat along the Alafia River, 53 acres of xeric hammock, 11 acres of scrub and 3 plants listed on the states endangered list, but that is not what has made it one of the most popular off-road bicycling spots in the state. A former phosphate mine, Alafia offers extreme elevation changes seldom seen in Florida.
For more information on these trails visit the SWAMP Club Home Page
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