I received this follow-up email after the family’s trip:

Thanks for your wonderful suggestions, we managed to do the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve walk (my kids and I) and we had a wonderful time. We were very fortunate to get in touch with a wildlife volunteer and thanks to her, saw some good birds and an alligator and learnt a lot about nature. My sons (10 and 8) loved it so much that when asked to rate their favorites of an action-packed vacation, they ranked this walk #2. Just to get an idea of how huge this is, here is their list

Pretty cool, eh?

Photo courtesy of Venkat Iyengar
Learn more about Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

It’s not all hiking, however. Like a traditional Florida Trail conference, there will be workshops, guest speakers, and guided tours of all types, including historical and birding.

Learn more about the festival and register now!

Barberville, FL – The Florida Black Bear Scenic Byway, along with the Barberville Pioneer Art Settlement, will be hosting an event to raise awareness of both the Black Bear Scenic Byway and the Pioneer Settlement, on Saturday, February 25th, 10am to 5pm, at the Barberville Pioneer Art Settlement.

The highlight of the day will be The Great Southern Cracker Roadshow (from 2pm to 4pm), hosted by author and historian Dana Ste. Claire, along with Janis Owens, and Keith Bass & The Florida Bluegrass Express. The show is a combination of humor, stories, music and the Cracker culture.

The day will also feature other musical acts, southern food, crafts, food trucks, and book signings by several local authors including: Dana Ste. Claire (Cracker Culture), Rick Tonyan (Guns of the Palmetto Plain), and Janis Owens (Cracker Kitchen; The Schooling of Claybird Cats).

“Meet us on the Byway” is designed to do just that….. get people to the Ocala National Forest and the Florida Black Bear Scenic Byway” by bike, motorcycle, hike, car or boat, and convene at Barberville by lunchtime. Several ecotourism events are scheduled to meet on the byway …such as an interpretive hike with a forest ranger, a guided photo hike with a professional photographer, a mountain bike ride, a kayak tour, and boat tour of the St. Johns River.

The Florida Black Bear Scenic Byway is a National Scenic byway and one of only six national byways in Florida. The event also is designed to promote the byway, its recreational and scenic places and the current Master Plan project for the byway. Come out and join us!

To learn more about this event, along with the mini-events scheduled for that morning, please visit our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/FloridaBlackBearScenicByway.

The “Fun Walk in the Park” meets at 1 PM and 2 PM each Sunday, 5 minutes before the start of the hike at the Nature center. The Nature center is located next to the concession stand on the hill above the springs. Lasting 35-40 minutes, the pace and duration of this guided walk is good for all members of the family.

Learn more about Wekiwa Springs State Park

As most of my readers know, I’m an avowed day hiker, and while I’ve put in more than 3,000 trail miles in Florida and another 500+ on other trails, including the AT, I’ve never been as fond of backpacking as day hiking. I started backpacking in 1997 but never liked going solo. There are logistics to juggle. Gear to decide on. Food choices to manage. Water treatment. Weather to deal with. And lots of little mechanical issues that can go wrong, from stoves to tents to backpacks themselves.

Backpacking as a couple smooths out a lot of these worries that a solo hiker, even hiking with a group, has to cope with alone.  For me, the toughest part of backpacking has been coping with mechanical problems, from stoves that won’t light (or explode if lighted incorrectly) to jammed-up water filters. I’m quite thankful that my partner is an expert with mechanical stuff.  The easiest part for me is planning and route-finding, and I lend those skills for the betterment of us both.

Back in the 1990s, I knew quite a few backpacking couples who wrote about the experience for others to learn from, including Cindy Ross & Todd Gladfelter, Frank and Victoria Logue, Karen Berger and Dan Smith among them. Plenty of couples head into the woods together today, but there aren’t as many people writing about it.  As our expertise as a team grows, we look forward to sharing our problems and solutions as well.

Some of things we’ve discovered already:

• Get a lightweight tent. It makes a serious difference in comfort when your tent is roomy AND lightweight. Our solution: the Lightheart Duo.
• It’s a good idea to find a solution (such as Thermarest Couplers) to attach sleeping pads together to keep them from sliding across the tent while you sleep.
• If you’re coming into the relationship with two very different sleeping bags, a joint solution might be a shared bag like the Big Agnes Cabin Creek. Alternatively, think about using one bag as a bottom layer and the other as a quilt on top, depending on their shape, size, and how chilly it is outside. Two together do sleep warmer than two apart.
• Rather than evenly divide pack weight as some books recommend, it makes sense to load more into the larger of the two packs / divide according to the hiker’s strength.
• Share camp duties. He cooks while you get the tent prepped for sleeping or filter the water (or vice-versa).
• Capture the experience! Take turns taking photos to share later. You’ll be glad you did. Here’s ours.

Some books from which to learn about the “backpacking as a couple” experience:
A Blistered Kind of Love: One Couple’s Trial by Trail
Solemates: Lessons On Life, Love & Marriage From The Appalachian Trail”

Held at the Orlando Public Library downtown and led by veteran hiker and activity leader Rodney Posey, the two classes, followed by a short backpacking trip, will get you comfy with living outdoors on the weekends.

Class 1:  Wed Feb 15, 6:30 PM – learn about clothing, gear, and logistics
Details: http://www.meetup.com/Florida-Trail-Association-Central-Florida-Chapter/events/48384372/

Class 2: Web Feb 22, 6:30 PM – learn about food, cooking, water treatment, safety, and first aid
Details: http://www.meetup.com/Florida-Trail-Association-Central-Florida-Chapter/events/48385232/

Field trip: Sat Feb 25. Six mile overnight backpacking trip, location TBD during the above two classes.
Details: http://www.meetup.com/Florida-Trail-Association-Central-Florida-Chapter/events/48385772/

Hiking at Devil's Millhopper

On Thursday Feb 16 I’ll be speaking in Ocala at the Florida Trail Association Cracker Chapter meeting on hiking trails in Florida State Parks.  Over the past 40 years, many of the longer-distance trails – particularly those nice backpacking loops in places like Torreya State Park, Myakka River State Park, and Kissimmee River State Park – were established and maintained by Florida Trail volunteers. Add to that hundreds of short, family-friendly nature trails and easy day hikes, and our state park system has plenty for everyone to enjoy.

I’ll present a slideshow of some of our state parks most beautiful hikes, talk about our award-winning state park system, and sign copies of my latest hiking book, “50 Hikes in Central Florida.” Come join me!

The meeting will be held at the Marion County Growth Management Office, 2710 East Silver Springs Blvd, next to the Ocala Public Library, at 6:30 PM on Thursday evening.

Find places to hike in Florida State Parks

Tomorrow: the St. Francis Trail near Deland, one of the finest hiking loops in the region. The weather should be wonderful, so if you can join the group, you’ll enjoy yourself and make a lot of new friends. Bring plenty of water for the 7-plus mile hike plus a lunch to eat along the trail. Meet at 9 AM. Get directions from either of the links below.

Can’t make it tomorrow? Each Wednesday brings a new hike through the end of winter. Check ahead on the schedule and see where you can get outdoors!

Check Meetup for the Winter Wednesday Hike series
Learn more about the St. Francis Trail

Wiley Dykes, Sr. (right) overseeing a trail crew, 2001

One person CAN make an enormous difference. Wiley Dykes, Sr., one of the strongest and most persistent trail builders of the past 40 years in the Orlando area, has died at the age of 81. Working tirelessly to find a route for the Florida Trail through the suburbs and wild lands of Orlando, he devoted much of his life to building and maintaining the trail for nearly 250 miles through the region. My friend Jon Phipps shared this obituary for our Central Florida chapter of the Florida Trail Association:

Wiley founded the Central Florida Chapter of the Florida Trail Association and volunteered  countless hours of work over the years, laying down the Florida Trail through Central Florida.  In so doing he established lasting bonds of respect with land managers in the area and developed a trust which lasts to this day.  Wiley served as Vice President, Trails for the Florida Trail Association and is a lasting example of selfless, self-motivated volunteerism.  Trail workers who’ve enjoyed his company and perfectionism will long extol his virtues and abilities.  Hikers who’ll never know this unique man are forever indebted.

Wiley’s family was the First Family of our chapter, with son, Wiley Jr. working many years on trails and his wife, Joyce serving in various officer positions, to include Chapter Chair.

***

In addition, there is an excellent article and obituary on Wiley’s extraordinary background and efforts in building trails that we all now love and appreciate.  Condolences and love to his wife Marguerite and the rest of the family as the Florida hiker community loses a legend among us.

See the Orlando Sentinel obituary

A mass will be held on Saturday, February 11 at 9:30 AM at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Winter Park.

You’ll find plenty of places to play outdoors here in the pages of FloridaHikes.com, starting with the overview map that lets you find hikes within proximity to where you live.

See the overview map

There are many other ways to discover interesting hikes, too, using the menu options above to search for hikes for your particular interest, from backpacking to taking your toddlers out on the trail.

This is OUR time of year, hikers … make the most of it! Enjoy the outdoors on Florida’s many thousands of miles of hiking trails.

See the press release / proclamation details from the Department of Environmental Protection