Rob Rogers
Author, attorney, backpacker, and lover of the outdoors
Author: Rob Rogers
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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 Read.
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Chuluota Wilderness Area and the Bronson State Forest: Flatlands, Wetlands, and Much More
In my quest to get acquainted with more sections of the eastern corridor of the Florida Trail, I celebrated this past New Year’s Day backpacking on the Florida Trail in the Chuluota Wilderness Area and the Bronson State Forest. A week earlier (yes, on Christmas Eve), I had done the same in the busy Little Read.
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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 Read.
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Thank you to Sandra Friend for Posting My Piece on FloridaHikes.com!
I was honored today to have Sandra Friend, the author of The Florida Trail Guide and many other great books on backpacking, post my first article on the FloridaHikes.com website and feature me as an author there. The piece, titled “It’s Raining in the Ocala National Forest,” is a humorous account of my first backpacking Read.
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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 Read.
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Disney Wilderness Preserve: A Great Place Near Orlando for Families to Hike
The Nature Conservancy has several great hiking destinations in Florida, and perhaps the best one near Orlando for families is the Disney Wilderness Preserve. Located in Poinciana not far from the Disney parks, the Disney Wilderness Preserve is close to the attractions but feels far away. It also has several interconnected trails ranging in length Read.
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Lake Louisa State Park: A Great Place to Learn to Backpack
When I began dreaming about backpacking 14 months ago at age 47 after impulsively purchasing a tent, I did not think I would be solo backpacking on national scenic trails by now. I only wanted to sleep under the stars away from city lights and the noise of parking lot campers. I eventually learned to Read.
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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 Read.
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The Little Big Econ State Forest: A Great Way to Taste the Florida Trail
The following article was first published in the January 2025 issue of The Footpath Newsletter, the newsletter for the Central Florida chapter of the Florida Trail Association. Having recently written a book about several one-night backpacking trips I did last year while discovering backpacking in Central Florida, I had not yet actually done a trip Read.
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“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 Read.
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