Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Our personal experiences, gear recommendations, and what you need to know about backpacking in Florida.
There are many opportunities for Boy Scouts to complete hiking and backpacking merit badges and 50-miler awards along the Florida Trail; this list will start you planning your next trip.
A thru-hike in Florida takes 60-90 days through lush landscapes you won’t see on other long distance trails
Backpackers will appreciate the many places the Florida Trail provides a pleasant overnight, three-day-weekend, or multi-day hiking experience to escape to the outdoors.
Section hiking the Florida Trail provides some logistical challenges, but a sense of satisfaction in being able to complete an 1,100-mile walk across Florida over time
What does a hiker need to spend a week, or a month, or three months on the trail? Here are trail-tested suggestions for backpacking in Florida for trips of a week or more
As Florida black bears become active in late winter and spring, the chances of a bear encounter go up significantly if you leave food unsecured outdoors – whether in your campsite or at home.
Thinking of section hiking, thru-hiking, or simply backpacking the Florida Trail? Plan ahead with this step-by-step guide of what you need to do in advance of hiking the Florida Trail.
Our detailed recommendations and reviews of the best hiking and backpacking gear for your thru-hike or section hike of the Florida Trail based on our own successful use of certain tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, and more.
Explore our top picks for the best scenic hikes along the Florida Trail
It’s Florida’s roughest, wettest, weirdest backpacking trip, best tackled with friends. Along this 30 mile stretch of the Florida Trail in the heart of Big Cypress National Preserve, immersing in the swamp is the point of the hike. Sandra tackled it as the final stretch of her multi-year 1,110-mile section hike of the Florida Trail, end-to-end.
Making the decision to walk the Florida Trail east or west around Lake Okeechobee used to be easy. Now, with construction zones blocking access to much of the southern half of the lake, it isn’t. Here are the facts on each route’s strengths and weaknesses to help you decide the best route for you.
Bear bagging is the art of hanging your food properly out of reach of bears. If you’re a Florida backpacker and haven’t learned how, here’s a short course. Securing your food from bears is required in the Ocala, Osceola, and Apalachicola National Forests.
