Northern Terminus of the Florida Trail

The Northern Terminus of the Florida National Scenic Trail is at Fort Pickens, within the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  I went and hiked around on the end segment, which is 100% sandy island trail if you’re wondering.  The plaque shown here is next to a little bridge right by where the trail officially ends.  If you’ve visiting Fort Pickens you’ll find the start of the trail just off the parking lot there, and even better if you’re a through hiker the National Seashore area has a campground just before the end of the terminus that the trail goes through.  What does seem odd here however as a choice for the trail’s end is that it is not an easy place to get to for anyone starting or finishing.  You have to pay fees to get onto the area which is part of the National Park service land, it is miles of driving from the nearest beachy tourist zone.  You’d have to do some serious coordinating with a ride for drop off and pick up purposes.  Likewise even though this is the Northern Terminus of the Florida Trail, it really feels like a “western terminus” because it ends at the far west of the Florida Panhandle, instead of what you might expect which is ending on the northern border.  I think many years ago the terminus was set elsewhere near the Alabama border up a spur that now contains the Juniper Creek Trail and some other segments that are part of the official trail, but not counted as the main trail any longer.