Tates Hell National Forest, Carrabelle, Florida

14 Miles on Jan 5th      27 miles on Jan 6th, 2015
   In 1875 Cebe Tate,  entered the forest to find his cattle. He was lost for seven days,  his dogs took off after a panther, he lost his gun, was attacked by insects, he got sick from drinking murky water and got bitten by a snake. Finally he stumbled out of the woods, living long enough to murmur the words "My name is Cebe Tate, and I just came thru Hell!"

SW of Tallahassee, Fl.	Map of area

We camped at Tetes Hell National Forest, County Line OHV Campground, off of CR- 67 -(blacktop), where there are three large camping sites, no utilities, but there is a outhouse. Cost is $10 per campsite, $10 per ATV for 3 days. The self pay tube is at the Pine Branch Staging Area to the south about 5 miles. The only map we found was one posted at the kiosk, so I took a picture of it and used it as we rode the roads. All the road are marked at the intersections.

   The Area could be described as Fire roads or Logging roads. The roads are all sandy and could be drove on by our pickup.  There are a few puddles, bridges and unbridges (heavily graveled) dips in the road, to let the water flow over. It was quite boring, but we needed to run our machines, so it worked out well.

     The first day we rode 14 miles. We found some men logging the pine trees.  They were running, over sized tires on the skidder, pulling 12 trees.  They loaded the semi-truck with tree length.  We also saw a large pile of bear scat, full of berries. We found several spots of 50 or so bee boxes, with electric fence around the perimeter. There were deer hunters in the area, so we wore our orange hats and vests.

   The second day we followed the Blue Trail, there are large blue arrow signs pointing the way around the boundary. We rode to the Pine Branch Staging area, it is a very large area, with 7 long pull thru, and 7 back in sites for parking, not camping. There is also a nice covered picnic tables and a restroom and kiosk.

   Driving the road, you will see pine trees on each side of the road, with water filled ditches. We crossed several bridges, coming to the East Double Bridge Road.  New River #1 Campsite  is right on the river, but there are only two small sites.  We rode north to Gully Branch Day Use Area,  this is a beautiful spot- restrooms, covered picnic table area, boat ramp and a warm flowing spring right out of a rock pile.  The water was clear and 72*  The large mature pine trees , are right long the river.

  There are 40 acre tracks of land, some logged clear cut, some are logged in strips. There is so much undergrowth you can't see the forest floor. We didn't see any deer, alligators, or bears, but they were in the area.

INFORMATION>
LOCATION>   NEAREST CITY=Carrabelle, Fl   DIRECTIONS=N of Carrabelle on hwy 67
AREA >   TYPE OF LAND=-road riding between forest, OWNER=  Nat Forest
QUALITY >  Pro-one of two in the area / Con-boring, road riding /  Length of stay 1 day / Rating-stars-1 out of 5
TERRAIN>  MILES OF TRAILS,-150 miles
TRAIL MAINTENCE   / SQ. MILE AREA -/  NEAR BY TRAILS-Apalachicola National Forest  
REGULATIONS> Permit required-Yes / Camping-Right at trail / helmets req.
FEE> Camping-$10 / Entry-$10 per machine
KEY SERVICES> Camping-yes / Gasoline / Diesel / First Aid /  Water /  Dump / Food=All in Carrabelle
CONTACTS>Tates Hell State Forest, Carrabelle, Fl