Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides
Looping around one of America’s largest lakes, the Okeechobee section of the Florida Trail provides panoramic views from atop the Herbert Hoover Dike.
It’s a tradition at the Big O Hike to share your talent at Thanksgiving Day dinner. Mine is a poem commemorating the hike and our friends who’ve gone before us.
Where the Kissimmee River pours its waters into Lake Okeechobee, Okee-Tantie Recreation Area offers access to the river and a wild marshy stretch of lakeshore
Atop the Herbert Hoover Dike, looming nearly forty feet above Lake Okeechobee, you expect wind – headwinds and tailwinds – as you hike the Florida Trail. A shallow basin of 730 square miles, the lake plays with the weather.
Breaking away from the everyday for nine days to immerse yourself in the goal of walking around Lake Okeechobee brings on a certain sense of calm, a time out of the normal pace of time, despite time framing each day.
For the first time since the Big O Hike started in 1992, the Army Corps of Engineers denied our hikers access to the dike. So to kick off the 2011 Big O Hike, it’s a roadwalk through Pahokee.
When a sudden dental problem threw our hiking plans awry, we kicked into research mode and went wandering around Lake Okeechobee in search of information for our new guidebook.
Providing access to the Kissimmee River, C. Scott Driver Recreation Area is also an important trailhead for the Florida Trail along Lake Okeechobee
A moment of Deja vu: discovering a scene that Bart Smith had captured in Along the Florida Trail at the 4Es trailhead.
In completing an end-to-end hike of the Florida Trail, I knew I’d need to fill a gap or two left behind at the Big O Hike. Despite having walked around Lake Okeechobee several times, I was missing a few miles. During the Big O Hike, the hike begins and ends at trailheads, and in all …
At Port Mayaca, the shape of Lake Okeechobee is obvious, even at dawn, the curvature extending off to the horizon line at the only place in Florida with horizon to horizon views.
After a dozen years of attending, the Big O Hike had become a welcome routine, a time to gather with friends. This year was very different. Being in charge meant having to worry about both the big picture and the details.
How to order a copy of The Florida Trail: Florida’s National Scenic Trail, our limited edition full-color coffee table book that tells the comprehensive story of the first 50 years of routing, building, maintaining, and enjoying our statewide National Scenic Trail.
