Your guide to Florida's outdoors, by Sandra Friend, Florida's hiking expert, and her co-author John Keatley, covering the Florida Trail and other trails throughout Florida.
The Big Oak Trail is one of the most scenic hikes in North Florida. Much of the hiking parallels the Suwannee and Withlacoochee Rivers, which meet here at a confluence.
On the Disappearing Creek Loop off the Florida Trail along the Suwannee River, watch Camp Branch burble through rapids and cascade into a giant sinkhole
When North Florida and the Florida Panhandle experience severe flooding along major rivers and their tributaries, add in icy temperatures and it’s a recipe for hypothermia.
This roly-poly section of the Florida Trail is pretty rugged despite its short distance, since it involves a lot of scrambling in and out of ravines and eroded bluffs created when the Suwannee River seasonally overflows its banks.
78.9 miles. For more than sixty miles, the Florida Trail follows the floodplain of the fabled Suwannee River, clinging to its bluffs and terraces, dropping down to sandy beaches, and scrambling past waterfalls and ravines. It’s a physical challenge and one of the most scenic sections of trail, with both Big Shoals – Florida’s fastest whitewater – and the Big Oak Trail at the confluence with the Withlacoochee River a delight.
Attend a public workshop in a community near you this October through December to voice your opinion on changes to the Florida Trail route and priorities for new bike and water trails in Florida.
As part of a question sent to me by Rick, a reader in New England, he asked “we would be interested to find an area where we hike from inn to inn over a few days” as part of a vacation day hiking in Florida. As I’m in the midst of working on a new […]
Lafayette Blue Springs was an old swimming hole for folks in Mayo and the rural communities west of Live Oak, a hidden beauty spot along the Suwannee River that is now a state park.
With the Suwannee River to the north and Osceola National Forest to the east, Lake City is a hub for hiking, paddling, and off-road biking along the Suwannee basin.
Nestled against the Georgia border, the easternmost corner of Northwest Florida is Madison County, with its county line defined on one side by the Suwannee River.
