Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: November 15, 2025
Located within Tiger Bay State Forest,
Located about seven miles west of Daytona Beach, the trailhead had room for only about three cars. We hiked the 1.5-mile section of this old brick road, built in the early 1900’s and was the first highway to connect Deland to Daytona Beach. The road was named for World War I General John Pershing. The road was abandoned in the 1940’s. The brick road was the trail and was still in good condition. On each side of the trail was thick Florida swamp (Photo #3), with many black pools of water reminding me of the 1974 Doobie Brothers hit song “Black Water”. We didn’t see any black bears, wild turkeys or encounter many mosquitoes, but we heard several owls nearby. There were about ten machines that looked like parking meters erected along the trail (Photo #4). You pushed a button, and a narrator verbally told us unique nature or historical items about the trail. That’s the first time that I have seen something like this.
