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Hike Bike Paddle Camp Florida with authors Sandra Friend and John Keatley as your guides

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Lake Okeechobee

Okeechobee

Okeechobee is the heart of Florida’s old frontier, surrounded by vast prairies with cattle ranches and the sweep of Lake Okeechobee, one of America’s largest lakes.

INTERACTIVE MAP

Okee-Tantie Recreation Area

Okee-tantie Recreation Area

Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail  |  Okeechobee
( 27.150344, -80.868450 )      

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

Okeechobee Battlefield Historic State Park

Okeechobee Battlefield

Okeechobee      ( 27.211616,-80.789504 )      

Okeechobee Battlefield State Park protects a part of the landscape where the Battle of Okeechobee occurred during the Second Seminole War on Christmas Day, 1837

Okeechobee Wind

November 26, 2015    Sandra Friend

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.

Prairie Loop Trail

Prairie Loop Trail

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park  |  Okeechobee
( 27.584209, -81.045357 )      5.6 miles

On a day hike into one of our state’s largest prairies, sample Florida’s own big sky at the state’s first International Dark Sky Park

Prairie Reflections

February 20, 2014    Sandra Friend

Walking the wilds of Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park means hours spent in blazing sun and a landscape that makes you feel inconsequential on this earth.

Primrose and the Big O Hike

Primrose in Kenansville

January 22, 2015    John Keatley

Our first outing with Primrose this hiking season was a trip to the Big O Hike. It rained, of course, in both directions to and from Okeechobee. But we had a splendid road trip in our VW camper.

Rafael Sanchez Trail

Rafael Sanchez Trail

Okeechobee Ridge Park  |  Port Mayaca
( 26.986849, -80.617104 )      5.7 miles

Snaking through an oh-so-slender slice of the rocky Okeechobee Ridge, the relict shoreline of Lake Okeechobee, the Rafael Sanchez Trail stays in deep shade for its 5.7 mile traverse of this skinny stretch of forest.

Scott Driver Recreation Area

Kissimmee River

Florida Trail, Kissimmee  |  Okeechobee
( 27.152666, -80.867591 )      0.5 miles

Providing access to the Kissimmee River, C. Scott Driver Recreation Area is also an important trailhead for the Florida Trail along Lake Okeechobee

Simple Beauty

Live oaks at 4Es

November 18, 2012    Sandra Friend

A moment of Deja vu: discovering a scene that Bart Smith had captured in Along the Florida Trail at the 4Es trailhead.

Still Life, with Cows

January 23, 2014    Sandra Friend

Walking the whole Florida Trail means miles on pavement where the trail follows roads. On this lonely dead-end road in Basinger, your companions are cows.

Taylor Creek STA

Canal with cypresses, tall reeds, and birds

Okeechobee      ( 27.30506,-80.82742 )      2.2 miles

Encompassing the ancient shoreline of Taylor Creek and man-made marshes, this wetlands park is a gem for birding and wildlife watching just north of Okeechobee.

Up the Kissimmee

Water break at the S-65E lock on the Kissimmee

January 22, 2013    John Keatley

JK starts solo backpacking up the Kissimmee River, encountering cows, sandhill cranes, and an over-medicated driver who runs him off a roadwalk.

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