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.
When the title “Hiker Trash” gets bestowed on you by friends, it’s an honor – if you love to hike. When it shows up next to your face at random on the Internet, it’s kind of funny.
“A fed bear is a dead bear,” says Florida Fish & Wildlife. It’s time to make homeowners responsible for keeping trash and food out of reach when they live in bear territory.
How do you pack for a Florida backpacking trip? In this video clip from How to Do Florida on how to prep for a backpacking trip, Sandra shows Chad Crawford what she carries in her backpack and why.
What’s it like to hike the Florida Trail? Here’s where we share our personal experiences day hiking and backpacking on Florida’s own National Scenic Trail.
Discovering solo backpacking and group dynamics to be not quite his style, JK decides to re-visit his hike of the Florida Trail by making it a team effort.
The 2013 thru-hikers catch up with us at Little Big Econ State Forest, and we invite as many as we can squeeze in back home for a nero day and a taste of suburban life.
JK discovers that the weird rash on his legs since hiking south of Lake Okeechobee isn’t poison ivy at all, but something much more rare and creepy, a parasitic invasion.
JK starts solo backpacking up the Kissimmee River, encountering cows, sandhill cranes, and an over-medicated driver who runs him off a roadwalk.
JK continues around Lake Okeechobee – a part of the trail he’s done before on the Big O Hike – as part of the support crew for the FT hikers new to the region.
When you reach the turnoff to continue north on the Florida Trail around Lake Okeechobee, you don’t quite reach the town of Clewiston. After all the heat and bugs while camping and cooking outdoors, the group decided to enjoy real food and a night in an air-conditioned, bug-free motel room. The owner gave us a …
On my first day on support crew, the group decided to try a slackpack day. So we were up early, much too early. The faster hikers wanted to get out on the trail by 5 AM. Slack packing would mean that we didn’t have to break camp at Big Cypress Campground, and the hikers wanted …
Leaving the wilds of the Big Cypress Swamp, the trail followed an old road for most of the distance. After a right hand turn on a large main road, I followed the blazes and other hikers footsteps. I stopped while crossing a canal to tend to a few hot spots on the bottom of both …
