Longest loop hike in Florida

[Justinla45]

I am looking for a very long loop hike in Florida to plan for this winter. I am a very experienced distance hiker but have no way of knowing how to deal with transportation on the florida trail and cant be gone that long. So, a loop trail makes the most sense. Any ideas?

[treesloth]

A "very long" loop here I'm not sure about. The Florida Trail is about 1400 miles long though, and wonderful walking in the winter. Take a look at the following site, you'll likely be able to amalgamate something together.

http://www.floridahikes.com

[moytoy]

The only real loop on the FT is going up the east trek and across ONF and down the west trek or do the opposite. But I hesitate to propose this because of so much road walks. Here is a map if you don't have one. http://www.arcgis.com/explorer/?open...223c1381aab438

[WingedMonkey]

I am looking for a very long loop hike in Florida to plan for this winter. I am a very experienced distance hiker but have no way of knowing how to deal with transportation on the florida trail and cant be gone that long. So, a loop trail makes the most sense. Any ideas?

Might be easier to give you ideas, if you give us your time allowed or you miles desired.

There are many trails that are a part of the FTA system that connect to the main National Scenic Trail.

[damifino]

There is a longish (for FL) loop in Croom (Citrus Tract) that is 40 something miles. Little to no water on or along the trail.

There is also the LOST trail (Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail) but much of it is closed due to construction.

Maybe consider doing the Florida Trail around Orlando? Take the East option in one direction and the West in the other. I just measured it from my GPS track - It is 434.3 total miles. Quite a bit of road walk but good resupply points the entire way.

[floridahikes]

Hi, Justin,
The longest loop hike in Florida is indeed the Florida Trail loop around Orlando. Nearly 100 miles of it is roadwalk, still no getting around that. Back when I hiked it we called it the Big 360, it's a good bit longer now at 430.8 miles. There was a major relocation of the middle of the Western Corridor this year to get it off a long bike path and into the woods, that added more miles but makes for a nicer hike.

Big O is 2nd longest, but there are so many construction zones it's not worth backpacking. After that Citrus Hiking Trail, Withlacoochee State Forest (43 mi) and Myakka River Hiking Trail, Myakka River State Park (39 mi). Have info about them on our website.

Regards FT logistics, JK & I are just finishing up the new Florida Trail Guide this week. It's the first one I've worked on since 2007. We set it up a lot like AWOL's book, we certainly liked his format when we were on the AT last year. Thousands of logistical details and services - my head is swimming working on nothing but this for over a month. We expect to have copies back from the printer by early October and ready to ship; we'll be at ALDHA in PA with copies of the book and will give a talk on FT logistics.

Cheers, Navigator
www.floridahikes.com

PS. AFTER we get the book in print, we'll be updating the website to include the entire new Western Corridor route and update overall mileages across the board to match the new calculations for the book.