A podcast of the Florida Trail Association
right click and "save target as" to download to your MP3 player:  podcast: Lake Okeechobee

Thirty-five feet above the shimmering surface of this shallow inland sea, the views go on forever. It’s not a natural bluff, however – it’s the Herbert Hoover Dike that the Florida Trail follows, built to protect lakefront communities flooded by deadly hurricanes in the 1920s and 1930s. Made of compressed limestone rocks and muck scooped from the lake, the dike is studded with fossils and covered in grass. Shade is at a premium. You’ll find it at water control structures and locks, and under cabbage palms and ficus trees planted at campsites and parks along the route. Along parts of the route, covered benches offer respite from the sun. 

Sunscreen and a hat are essential when you walk this section of the Florida Trail, but don’t let the lack of shade hold you back. What you get in return are the most sweeping panoramas the Florida Trail has to offer, with sunrises and sunsets in a full spectrum of colors. It is a birder’s paradise, where sandhill cranes pick at insects along with dike, formations of white pelicans glide overhead, and eagles perch in the ghosts of long-dead trees. 

Atop the dike, there are days you can see a full day’s hike ahead of you, in the distant curve of the landscape. But no day is ever like the next. Mists rise off the lake and flow into farms beyond the dike, where the textures of sugar cane fields yield to grasslands. Cattle graze beneath palm trees along the ancient shoreline. Between Indian Prairie and Moore Haven, the lake recedes to the horizon, and vast marshes make up the landscape. Between Port Mayaca and South Bay, dark blue waters become shallow grassy waters where islands are topped with royal palms reaching for the sky.

This is a land defined by agriculture, where the trail connects small communities. Clewiston, the sweetest town in America, is the heart of sugar production. Pakohee is the westernmost town in Palm Beach County, with camping and cabins right where the waters lap the shore. Okeechobee boasts a proud ranching heritage, with steak and seafood restaurants to please all palates. Moore Haven is the county seat of Glades County, where the Caloosahatchee River flows. All four are Florida Trail Gateway Communities, destinations for hikers to explore the region.

Inspired by hikers' enjoyment of the Florida Trail following the dike's crushed limestone and grass track on top of the dike, the Florida Office of Greenways and Trails has overseen the effort to pave much of its route to the delight of cyclists.  The trail retains its more primitive qualities above the broad marshlands stretching from the Kissimmee River to Moore Haven on the lake's northwestern side. New bridges help hikers across some of the waterway crossings, including the Miami Canal and at Chosen, but there are still several places – at Moore Haven, Clewiston, Port Mayaca, Taylor Creek, and the Kissimmee River – where the trail leads you out to the road to cross a major waterway on a highway bridge.  

You can easily access the Florida Trail at dozens of different points from trailheads on the roads surrounding the lake, including US 27, US 441, and State Road 78. The Okeechobee section of the Florida Trail is a popular destination for winter backpackers, especially between Christmas and New Years. Each Thanksgiving week, the Loxahatchee Chapter of the Florida Trail Association hosts the annual Big O Hike, a 9-day series of day hikes around the lake. Hikers camp together in campgrounds, enjoy authentic meals at local restaurants, take the time to explore the communities, and work together to shuttle each other around the lake. Watch the website for details. 

Music for this podcast includes Ice Caps and Inner Peace (Shaun Harris, www.royaltyfreemusic.com ) and Song of the Florida Trail, by Gordon Johnson.