Over the last two years while discovering weekend backpacking near my home in Central Florida, some of my most thrilling experiences have been one-night adventures far from home that I’ve added to family vacations and road trips to college football games. In fact, I now consider backpacking options when deciding where to travel. As fun … Continue reading Tips for Backpacking During Breaks on Business Trips or Family Vacations
Category: Tips for New Backpackers
Labor of Love: My first trail maintenance work party with the Florida Trail Association
I finally got around last Saturday to joining my local Florida Trail Association chapter for a trail maintenance work party, one of the most popular activities the FTA chapters host. If you’re looking for a great way to get acquainted with some of the most beautiful sections of trail in Florida and the people who … Continue reading Labor of Love: My first trail maintenance work party with the Florida Trail Association
Hunting Dates for Central Florida’s Eastern and Western Corridors of the Florida Trail
With November now only a month away and temperatures (hopefully) beginning to cool, we are finally approaching backpacking season in Central Florida. But as most Florida Trail lovers know, many of the great places to backpack here, including most of the forested sections of the Florida National Scenic Trail, are on land that we’ll have … Continue reading Hunting Dates for Central Florida’s Eastern and Western Corridors of the Florida Trail
Don’t Let Ticks Ruin Your Time Hiking and Backpacking in Florida
As a review through my recent summer posts will show, your Central Florida Backing Desk Jockey has not written much lately about backpacking and hiking, particularly backpacking in Florida. The truth is that I have not been on the trail much recently—I haven’t hiked in Florida outside a state park in several months, and I’m … Continue reading Don’t Let Ticks Ruin Your Time Hiking and Backpacking in Florida
Eating, Drinking, and Cooking on the Trail: Tips for Weekend Backpackers
Perhaps the most creative adaptations new backpackers learn to make are culinary. Regardless of what you like to eat or cook at home, your choices change when you have to carry your kitchen and pantry on your back. Although camping brings to mind visions of s’mores and roasting hot dogs over an open fire, the … Continue reading Eating, Drinking, and Cooking on the Trail: Tips for Weekend Backpackers
Concerned About Fire on Your Trail? Use This Link to Know Before You Go
Hopefully I'm not the first person to learn the hard way when I arrived at a trailhead that I'd have to find my way around a controlled burn. It's happened twice, most recently when a controlled burn begun on a Wednesday was still smoldering in several trees on the side of the trail when I … Continue reading Concerned About Fire on Your Trail? Use This Link to Know Before You Go
About to Backpack for the First Time? How to Suffer Outside by Diana Helmuth is the Book for You
It is with great pleasure that I am finally writing my first book review on this blog, and it could only be for How to Suffer Outside: A Beginner’s Guide to Hiking and Backpacking. As its title suggests, this award-winning book is the handbook for all things backpacking. But even if you have no interest … Continue reading About to Backpack for the First Time? How to Suffer Outside by Diana Helmuth is the Book for You
Florida Hikes is THE website for anyone hiking and backpacking in Florida
Anyone who has planned a vacation knows it can be difficult to mull through a world of online information to figure out the best places to go, stay, and see. For backpackers, there is just one definitive website for planning hikes and camping trips in Florida, and it is FloridaHikes.com. If you’re a novice backpacker looking … Continue reading Florida Hikes is THE website for anyone hiking and backpacking in Florida
Sleeping on the Trail—Tips for New Backpackers on Tents, Sleeping Bags, and Other Items that Will Help You Rest Between Hikes
When you hike in the backcountry or even at a state park, you often need to sleep at a primitive campsite that has nothing but a firepit and possibly a picnic table—indeed, that’s much of what makes it fun. But unless you’re a deer or a pooch, you’ll need a comfortable place to sleep that … Continue reading Sleeping on the Trail—Tips for New Backpackers on Tents, Sleeping Bags, and Other Items that Will Help You Rest Between Hikes
“Non-Necessities” I Always Take Backpacking
Backpackers live and die by weight. Abiding by the commandment that you should never carry more than 20 percent of your body weight (not an easy feat for a fit demographic), competent backpackers obsess about ounces, always consider the weight of anything they take on the trail, and avoid even light luxuries that they’ll feel … Continue reading “Non-Necessities” I Always Take Backpacking
