Product Description

A guide to 50 hikes and backpacking trips in the northern Florida peninsula, ranging from State Road 40 to the Georgia border and east of the panhandle.

With numerous state parks and expansive state and national forests, North Florida provides the hiker with an extensive array of natural communities to explore. Forests of longleaf and slash pine flatwoods, coastal hammocks, desert scrub, and floodplain forests create welcoming habitats for vanishing species. The region's geology offers physical challenges for the hiker as well—deep ravines, rough riverside trails along steep bluffs, and giant sinkholes. Hiking in North Florida means the opportunity to camp along the state's broadest rivers, to clamber in and out of ravines and up and over relict dunes, to walk to the edge of sweeping vistas across prairies and salt marshes, to hike along vast lakes and bubbling springs.

The hikes described in this all-new guide range in length from 1 to 22 miles. Each hike description includes a topographic map, mile-by-mile directions, and information on distance, difficulty, terrain, and hiking time. An overview chart makes it easy to pick a hike for every ability. 50 black & white photographs , 58 maps, index.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #328944 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Deborah R. Stewart-Kent, President, Florida Trail Association
[A]ttention to the details important to hikers is invaluable...descriptions give credit to the beauty and wonder of the places.

About the Author
Sandra Friend is a freelance writer and photographer who has written for newspapers and magazines including Blue Ridge Country, Appalachian Trailway News, Florida Hiker, and Backpacker. She participates in the Florida Trail Association as an activity leader, a trail maintainer, and a volunteer with organization publications, including its bimonthly magazine, The Footprint. She is also the author of 50 Hikes in Central Florida; Florida in the Civil War: A State in Turmoil; and Sinkholes. A member of the Outdoor Writers' Association of America and a board member of the Florida Outdoors Writers' Association, Friend lives in Ocala, Florida. Friend has hiked more than 1,000 miles of Florida's trails, and is one of the state's top authorities on hiking destinations.