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.
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.
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.
A field trip, Florida Hikes style, to a lightweight backpacking gear manufacturer creating great products – and jobs – on Florida’s Space Coast.
How to Do Florida TV host Chad Crawford takes his daughter on a backpacking trip on the Florida Trail. Let him inspire you to plan your next family adventure!
On March 28, 2014, Stuart resident Elaine “Cadi” Cadigan Zumsteg began her Appalachian Trail thru-hike. After meeting “Hobo Nobo,” the ladies finished together on September 30.
The founder of Trail Dames, a national organization to empower female hikers, Anna Huthmaker took on the Appalachian Trail in 2003 despite her own self-doubts.
Hiking the AT before and the PCT after, Rayana “Acorn” Adra is one of a handful of women to thru-hike the Florida Trail during the 2014 hiking season.
A volunteer for ALDHA and on the Board of Directors of the Florida Trail Hikers Alliance, Luanne “Tigger” Anderson has not just hiked, but helped manage an Appalachian Trail hostel.
After completing the Appalachian Trail, Misti “Ridley” Little thru-hiked the Florida Trail with her husband Chris in 2011. She actively promotes the Florida Trail to the hiking community.
A long-time trail maintainer and hike leader, Lori “SwampTromper” Burris has encouraged many women in South Central Florida to take that first step into the wild.
Jacksonville resident Susan “Hammock Hanger” Turner is an amazing woman. She’s been hiking on some long distance trail somewhere on Earth for the past 13 years.
Completing the Appalachian Trail on her own in 1996 earned Gail Johnson her trail name, Gutsy. She was the first woman to share her journal and journey online.
