Hi there,

After looking around a bit, I decided to join. I'm a native to Florida, but a newbie to backpacking. Growing up, I did a lot of car camping and day hikes. My husband is a transplant from East TN and he got me hooked on backpacking. He's sharing the mountains with me, and I'm trying to impress him with all I know about Florida.

We live in Winter Park, right outside of Oviedo, so the Little Big Econ Forest is our backyard playground. We also love the Ocala National Forest and visiting Florida state parks.

Looking forward to finding some great hikes in the Central and North Florida area!

Welcome, Vanessa! You're in hiker central near Oviedo. Do you belong to the local chapter of the Florida Trail Association? There are a lot of long-time members in your area and regular organized hikes, too. I'm slowly building up info on Central FL hikes here but please also search the blog at http://www.floridahikes.com/blog for more places to hike in your area.

Cheers, Sandy

Welcome from north east Florida

Vanessa, I second the advice to contact the Cenrtel FL chapter of the FL Trail association. They are very active through the winter with hiking trips almost every weekend. Their current newsletter is atL http://central.floridatrail.org/news.pdf - the transition to hiking season is still in progress so you may find more kayak and bike trips listed right now, but if you stay in touch with them you will start to see more hikes and backpacks as the season progresses. Also in your area is another active outdoors group called Wilderness Trekkers. Their current schedule is at: http://wilderness-trekkers.org/ whatsnew.htm#Support_those_who_support_us!_ ditto on the kayak/baike stuff. Nost of the hiking picks up around November with the guaranteed cooler weather.

You'vd got some great hiking near you. Hope to see you on the trails some day.