The longest-running group hike in Florida history just hit 20 years in 2011. Held during Thanksgiving week each year, the Big O Hike is one of those “must do” hikes for your bucket list. For some of us, it’s an event we return to year after year. And why, you ask? There’s no better place to share than here. I’ve been hiking the Big O since 2002, and took on the task of producing the annual guidebook back in 2010. With a little help from my friends – especially Wagonmaster Mike Nomad, long-time hike leader Paul Cummings, and hike founder Gordon Johnson – I’ll be providing logistical information, sharing hiker stories, and documenting the history of the Big O Hike in these pages.
AUDIO
Listen to my hour on “Good Morning Glades,” Call.FM 91.5, November 23, 2011, talking with host Jeff Barwick about the Big O Hike and hiking on the Florida Trail.
Original songs by Helen Bollinger performed at the 2011 Big O Hike:
Hiking Around the Big O (sung at the annual Talent Show)
Blisters (sung at the campfire)
ARTICLES
Blogging the Big O, 2011
In 2011, I returned to the Big O Hike for the full 9 days, my first time to do so since 2007. The experience was so immersive, so in the moment, that I never took my laptop out of the car, never wrote down anything in the notebook I’d carried to keep a journal. But [...]
Oh, Okeechobee!
Put one foot in front of the other. Walk nine days. Cover more than 110 miles. Circle the second largest freshwater lake entirely inside the United States. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? If so, you’re ready to tackle the Okeechobee section of the Florida Trail, also known locally as the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST, that [...]
Saga of the Big O Hike
In 2002, I arrived at Lake Okeechobee for the Big O Hike in November, not knowing exactly what to expect. My good friend Sunny Piskura had bugged me for years to join her on the annual walk around the lake, and I thought she was crazy. Then I got two book contracts in which I [...]
The Big O: Going the Distance
What do Ontario residents Leona Belcher and Don Galbraith, California resident Connie Harris, and Maryland resident Rosalind Suit have in common? Every year for the past six years, they’ve made the long drive to Florida in November to take a hike—a long hike—around the second largest lake entirely in the United States, Lake Okeechobee. Sure, [...]
