The following article was first published in the September-October 2024 issue of The Footpath Newsletter, the newsletter for the Central Florida chapter of the Florida Trail Association.
Although many of you have probably been backpacking for years, some of you may, like me until recently, be long-time avid hikers who avoid camping in the backcountry because of the difficulties involved, especially if sleeping on the ground away from air conditioning or relieving yourself outside sounds unpleasant. But Central Florida’s wonderful outdoor spaces—especially the backcountry campsites on the Florida Trail—are best enjoyed immersed in the serenity and isolation of the forest beside a campfire or waking up to a sunrise between the boughs of a live oak.
It is never too late to start backpacking, and you don’t have to climb a mountain or hike the Appalachian Trail to do it. One year ago, I would never have dreamed of backpacking or sleeping outside, and I had not camped since 1991 when I was a pre-teen Boy Scout. But after losing a little weight and seeing my sleep apnea go away, I succumbed to the temptation to backpack, and in the process fell in love with our Central Florida home and the Florida Trail. If you’re thinking about backpacking for the first time (or for the first time in a long time), here are some of my tips for how to begin. Hopefully it will change your life as much as it has changed mine.
1. Get a Tent and Try Sleeping Outside at Home: Buy a tent (the smaller and lighter, the better) and spend the night in it in your backyard on a cool, clear night, safely near a flushing toilet and an air-conditioned bedroom. This will let you know if you can handle the quiet and claustrophobia of a small cloth bedroom and sleeping on the ground—and provide you an easy way back to civilization if you can’t sleep outside.
2. Hike with Weight: The rule of backpacking is to carry no more than 20 percent of your body weight, but it’s not easy to get a backpack that light when you’re carrying a tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, clothes, food, and water. I started carrying relatively small amounts of weight in backpacks while hiking (first 10 pounds, then 15, then 20), until I felt ready to tackle a trail with a 35-pound backpack. This also lets you figure out how to adjust the straps for greatest comfort. You might also walk around your home with a fully loaded backpack for 30 minutes at a time to prepare your body for the weight.
3. Read Up and Prepare: Two great books for new backpackers are How to Suffer Outside: A Beginner’s Guide to Hiking and Backpacking by Diana Helmuth (a funny how-to guide for beginning backpackers) and Backpacking Florida by Johnny Malloy (which has great trail recommendations and a section aimed at novice backpackers that includes a checklist for what to bring). For trail recommendations, also check out floridahikes.com. Sandra Friend and John Keatley, the operators of floridahikes.com, also have sections with tips for novice backpackers in two excellent books, 50 Hikes in Central Florida and The Florida Trail Guide.
4. Start Easy at a State Park: State parks in Florida charge only $5.00 per night for primitive campsites and offer parking spots less than one mile away. Many state parks also have longer interconnected trails running past their primitive campsites that you can use to practice backpacking, where you can more easily bail out if you’re not having fun. This is also a way to enjoy sunrises and sunsets in the forest, and that is why many of us keep returning to the trail.
5. Eat Well and Take a Lot of Water: Although canned food is easy, those fancy freeze-dried camp dinners are light and easy to cook, taste great, and minimize cleaning (you just boil water and add to the zip locked package, then use the package afterward as your garbage bag—it fits safely and easily in any bear bag or bear canister). You’ll never regret taking too much water, and the more you drink, the lighter your pack becomes. Also take your favorite candy as a reward—There is no more enjoyable way to burn off candy calories than backpacking.
6. Practice Fire in a Solo Stove: Florida’s humidity can make starting a fire here deceptively tricky to the uninitiated, and before I returned to primitive camping, I talked my wife into buying a Solo Stove and became reacquainted with fire and how to move and manage burning logs with a stick. It’s essentially like learning how to bake cookies in a toaster oven, as Solo Stoves are engineered to make fire easy. I also still take the kiln dried kindling and fire-starting briquettes sold for Solo Stoves on the trail to get my backcountry fires started.
7. Look for Hiker’s Only Trails, Especially the Florida Trail: Seek out “hiker’s only” trails, which wind through more pristine settings on trails unsuitable for horses or vehicles, so you’re less likely to fight sugar sand (the soft stuff that sinks under your feet like quicksand). As I’m sure every member of the Florida Trail Association is aware, the gold standard in Florida for hikers only trails in Florida is the Florida National Scenic Trail. But other excellent hikers only trails can be found in state parks like Wekiwa Springs State Park and Lake Kissimmee State Park.
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