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Zpacks backpacking tent

Gear Reviews

Our reviews of gear for Florida’s outdoors, including testing new products, book reviews, best hiking and backpacking gear for Florida, and what we use ourselves

John and Sandra Big Cypress
Authors John Keatley and Sandra Friend, your hosts on FloridaHikes.com

With thousands of miles on foot between us, and a lifetime of backpacking, camping, and traveling, we’ve hauled a lot of gear through the woods and around the planet.

Here are reviews of products sent to us, products we purchase, and products we use every day we are outdoors, from technical clothing to the electronics that help us do the job of keeping you updated.

These include not just items for hiking and backpacking – while that is Sandra’s main focus – but also for biking, paddling, and camping, for which John has lifetime expertise in selecting the proper gear.

DISCLOSURE: Our reviews may contain include affiliate links so you may purchase the item if you are interested in it. We earn a small commission on each purchase, which helps us build content on the website.

Table of Contents

  • Gear Checklists
    • For Day Hiking
    • For Backpacking
    • How to Pack for a Florida Hike
  • Selecting the Right Gear for Florida
    • Hiking Boots For Florida?
    • Hiking Sandals: Light On Your Feet
  • Backpacking Gear for Florida
    • How To Prepare For A Backpacking Trip
    • Choosing Gear for a Florida Trail Hike
    • Backpacking: The Weight Of Things
    • Backpacker Tips for Hurricane Prep
  • Gear Reviews
    • Hiking
    • Backpacking
    • Camping
    • Biking
    • Paddling
    • Travel
    • Clothing
    • Electronics
    • Books
  • What’s In Our Gear Closet?
    • Backpacks
    • Big Agnes Cabin Creek double
    • Columbia Omni-Freeze Zero T-shirt
    • Dirty Girl Gaiters
    • Hydrapak
    • Jetboil Stoves
    • Lightheart Gear Tents
    • Sawyer Micro Squeeze Field Test
    • Tilley Hats
    • Xmas with Zpacks

Gear Checklists

For Day Hiking

Day pack. Water bottles. Snacks. Map. Insect Repellent. Sun Protection (sunscreen, sunglasses, hat). Custom first aid kit. Rain jacket. Small flashlight. Camera and spare batteries. Cell phone. Whistle.

For Backpacking

Backpack. Hydration bladder. Tent. Hiking poles. Sleeping bag. Sleeping pad. Headlamp. Food in food bag. Water filter. Water bottle. Extra socks. Dry clothes to sleep in. Toilet paper. Lightweight folding trowel. Custom first aid kit. Trash bag. Insect Repellent. Sun Protection. Map. Rain jacket. Camera and spare batteries. Cell phone. Whistle. Bandana. Hand sanitizer / soap. Camp shoes. Plastic bags to keep electronics dry. Optionally: Bear canister. Camp stove and fuel plus matches or lighter. Fleece. Extra shirt. Pack cover.

Backpacking gear Florida

How to Pack for a Florida Hike

The Ten Essentials and More: a checklist for items to bring when day hiking and backpacking in Florida, to plan for the differences you’ll encounter in Florida’s unique conditions


Selecting the Right Gear for Florida

If you have not hiked, camped, or backpacked in Florida before, our extreme humidity and wide swings of temperature mean you need to be ready for anything when you plan a trip during hiking season.

Hiking season runs October-April. Paddlers and cyclists can enjoy the outdoors year round, but our sultry, rainy summers make camping tough. As do the mosquitoes.

Things to think about when choosing what to carry on your outdoor adventures in Florida:

  • Hydration is a must.
  • It is always humid in Florida, which makes it less likely you remember to hydrate.
  • Insect repellent and sunscreen are essentials year-round. A hat is a smart idea.
  • You WILL get wet. Either your feet will get wet or your whole body, in the rain.
  • It will get hot. It can get very cold in the winter. Sometimes within 48 hours of each other.
  • Treat your feet right. Sand + water = abrasion and blisters.
Merrell Moab Ventilator hiking boots

Hiking Boots For Florida?

This question keeps popping up: what are the best hiking boots? John explains how, through trial by trail, he figured out what works for him. His advice? Keep trying.

Keen sandals

Hiking Sandals: Light On Your Feet

Can you go lightweight on your feet when hiking? John explains his trial and error with lightweight options and preferences for when to wear lightweight shoes and sandals


Backpacking Gear for Florida

These are our personal preferences for backpacking gear, including Florida-specific considerations you need to keep in mind while backpacking in our state. Florida’s prime backpacking months are January and February.

Sandra and her gear at Southern Terminus

How To Prepare For A Backpacking Trip

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

Backpack Big Cypress

Choosing Gear for a Florida Trail Hike

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.

A more general discussion about balancing comfort vs. weight when backpacking.

Backpacker on stile

Backpacking: The Weight Of Things

Planning a backpacking trip? One thing to consider – very carefully – is what things weight vs. their importance to you, especially on a trip of more than a week.

Once you have your core gear established, keep in mind it has other uses as well. The things you carry on a backpacking trip can do double duty in times of emergency, such as when the power is knocked out by bad weather.

Tent camping Ocean to Lake Hiking Trail

Backpacker Tips for Hurricane Prep

Backpacking skills are survival skills. Use your knowledge and gear to make personal preparations for hurricane season power loss and evacuations in Florida.


Gear Reviews

Select a particular category to see all gear reviews for that topic.

Day hiking summer Collier-Seminole

Hiking

Gear Reviews

Backpacking Tent Eglin

Backpacking

Gear Reviews
Camping at Doe Lake

Camping

Gear Reviews
Pair of Trek Bicycles on the East Coast Greenway

Biking

Gear Reviews
Kayak launch Welaka colorful kayaks

Paddling

Gear Reviews
Catamaran Fort Lauderdale

Travel

Gear Reviews

Merrell Moab Ventilator hiking boots

Clothing

Gear Reviews
Sandra Friend trail research Aucilla Sinks

Electronics

Gear Reviews
Florida Trail Guide at REI

Books

Gear Reviews

What’s In Our Gear Closet?

Specific reviews of items we have used in the past or are using today, including gear for hiking, camping, biking, and paddling.

Some of this gear was with us on our Appalachian Trail hike, and all of it has seen time on the Florida Trail. Over time, we replace or upgrade our gear to lighten or strengthen what we carry.

Backpack on trail

Backpacks

John’s first backpack is now a museum piece. Sandra went through a parade of packs before settling on an Zpacks Arc Blast. Here’s what we carry and why.

Big Agnes Cabin Creek double

For a couple of backpackers that want to share a sleeping bag, the Big Agnes Cabin Creek turns out to be an economical but bulky solution.

Columbia Omni-Freeze Zero T-shirt

John trail-tests the Columbia Omni-Freeze Zero T-shirt after being introduced to the new fabric by a Columbia rep at the grand opening of REI Jacksonville.

Dirty Girl Gaiters

If it’s tick season, or if it’s going to be wet and muddy, we break out our Dirty Girl Gaiters. Here’s why we don’t leave home with this piece of gear.

Hydrapak

Hydrapak

Hydrapak has served us well as an extremely compact day pack and hydration for both hiking and bicycle rides. Whenever one of us wants to “go light,” we pull the Hydrapak from our wall of packs and go.

Boiling water in a jiffy

Jetboil Stoves

After trying an array of camp stoves over the years, from Whisperlite to Zip and Esbit, I found the Jetboil. Now I feel comfortable cooking in the woods again.

Lightheart Duo Kitching Creek

Lightheart Gear Tents

A fan of lightweight backpacking tents (not tarps) since they first became available, my favorites are those produced by Lightheart Gear. We have two. Here’s why

Sawyer Micro Squeeze Filter on bike rack

Sawyer Micro Squeeze Field Test

On a field test along a long stretch of the Florida Coast to Coast Trail with no potable water sources, the Sawyer Micro Squeeze proves itself a worthy backup plan

John Keatley Tilley Hat

Tilley Hats

When we met, both of us owned Tilley hats and wore them for most of our outdoor activities. Sandy’s had the same one for years; I’ve gone through several. Here’s why.

Zpacks backpack

Xmas with Zpacks

A field trip, Florida Hikes style, to a lightweight backpacking gear manufacturer creating great products – and jobs – on Florida’s Space Coast.


Hiking Gear Reviews All Gear Reviews Contact Us to Review Gear

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Florida Trail Apps

Farout GuidesFarout Guides Comprehensive logistics and offline maps for the
Florida National Scenic Trail (1,500 miles), the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail (108 miles), and the ECT Florida Connector (92 miles).

Our Newest Books

The Florida Trail Guide

The Florida Trail GuideOur definitive guidebook to planning backpacking trips on the Florida National Scenic Trail, now in its fourth edition. Full data charts and maps. B&W, 356 pages. $19.95 + tax & shipping.

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Florida Trail Hikes

Florida Trail Hikes 2nd edition coverFifty of the best day hikes, overnights, and weekend trips on the Florida Trail. Full hike descriptions and maps, full color. 376 pages. $24.95 + tax & shipping.

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Discovering the Florida Trail

Florida Trail mini coffee table book cover of trail into palm hammock
A visual journey the length of the Florida Trail, covering more than 1,500 miles from the Everglades to Pensacola Beach. Hardcover, 196 pages. $24.95 + tax & shipping.
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50 Hikes in Central Florida 3rd edition
Explorer's Guide North Florida & The Panhandle guidebook
Five Star Trails Gainesville & Ocala guidebook

Outfitters in Florida

  • Andy Thornal Company – WINTER HAVEN
  • Bicycle Outfitters, SEMINOLE
  • Bill Jackson's Shop for Adventure, PINELLAS PARK
  • Blackwater Canoe Rental – MILTON
  • Environeers, SARASOTA
  • Flint Creek Outfitters, OCALA
  • Go2 Outfitters, LUTZ
  • Old Florida Outfitters, WATERCOLOR
  • REI Jacksonville, JACKSONVILLE
  • REI Winter Park, WINTER PARK
  • Trail & Ski, TALLAHASSEE
  • Travel Country Outdoors, ALTAMONTE SPRINGS
  • Weatherford's PENSACOLA

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