The Florida Trail Association develops, maintains, protects, and promotes a network of hiking trails throughout the state, including the unique Florida National Scenic Trail. 

Together with our partners we provide opportunities for the public to hike, engage in outdoor recreation, participate in environmental education, and contribute to meaningful volunteer work.  

Hiking Season is almost here!

September Chapter Meeting

📅 Thursday, September 17, 2026

🕡 6:30 PM

📍 Leu Gardens, Magnolia Room



🧭 Members Share Their Summer Adventures

This month, our program is all about our group summer travels. A lineup of members and guests will be sharing highlights from their adventures—from backcountry treks to overseas explorations. It’s a chance to connect, be inspired, and enjoy a variety of perspectives before we kick off the trail season this fall.

🗳️ Chapter Leadership Vote: 2026–2027

We’ll also be voting on our new leadership team for the upcoming term. Interested in stepping up? We’d love to have you on board!

We are still looking for a Chapter Chair, so please reach out if you’re detail-oriented and want to help guide the future of our chapter.

Proposed Leadership Slate:

• Vacant – Chapter Chair (that could be you!)
• Jerry Rogers – Trail Coordinator
• David Magness – Membership Coordinator
• Kelley Galvin – Treasurer
• Doug Kucklick – Outreach Coordinator
• Chris Stevens – Media Coordinator
• Bill Turman – Activity Coordinator
• Mary-Slater Linn – Program Coordinator
• Tara Treuil – Secretary

Bring a snack to share and join us for an evening of community, stories, and planning for the trail year ahead!

Tips for Road-Tripping on a Chartered Sailboat

By Rob Rogers

Many of us have spent summers vacationing in rented RVs, enjoying the majesty of our national parks with the creature comforts of mobile accommodations, and many of us have also spent weeks island-hopping on cruise ships. But if you’re looking to explore seaside destinations with the privacy and convenience of an RV, it’s easier than you might think to charter a sailboat. I’ll be sharing a presentation about my family’s summer sailing trip to Croatia at our next FTA meeting, and before I share photos of my trip, I thought I’d share my insights on what’s like—and how easy it is—to travel on a chartered sailboat.

To Captain or Not to Captain

Companies throughout the Caribbean and Europe offer sailboats to lease for weeks at a time, but you cannot simply “rent” a sailboat large enough to sleep on. Sailboat charter companies require their clients to first procure sailing certifications, which require the completion of courses that are often packaged with sailboat rentals. For example, many companies in the Caribbean offer two-week packages where you spend the first week obtaining your certification (often while sleeping on the sailboat), then take the sailboat off on your own in the second week.

But there is another much easier option: You can hire a captain to join you and do the sailing for you. Having already obtained our own ASA 101 certifications for smaller sailboats, my wife and I knew we’d rather pay someone else to handle the stressful tasks of docking, mooring, and navigating, and hiring a captain provided us the added benefit of a local guide with restaurant and anchorage recommendations who helped us overcome language barriers.

The Experience of Traveling by Sailboat

The rewards of touring the Caribbean and Mediterranean on a chartered sailboat will be familiar to anyone who has traveled by RV. By taking your sleeping, dining, and lounging accommodations with you, you’re afforded the ability to see many places on a compressed schedule without constantly packing and unpacking bags, and you can fall asleep, wake up, and dine in secluded natural settings without sleeping in a tent.

Of course, adaptation is required. Indoor living and storage space is at a premium on a sailboat, as they are in an RV. Staterooms are considerably smaller than those on cruise ships, with most space taken up by a sleeping berth hardly large enough to comfortably accommodate two adults. Instead of a closet and dresser, you’ll likely have to make do with a storage locker with several small shelves and limited hanging space, so large luggage is better left at home. Although the central salon and galley can be roomier than similar spaces in an RV, most storage space there needs to be saved for food and tableware.

Bathrooms, called heads, are often no bigger than a closet and often contain a toilet and shower in a single room, with toilets typically operated by hand-pump. Appliances like ovens, refrigerators, and stovetop ranges are small, and unless you’re docked at a waterfront with access to electricity, you’ll need to go without air conditioning at night. These inconveniences will be familiar to RV road-trippers, but they can be less than ideal for people used to hotel-oriented European travel.

What’s Special About Traveling by Sailboat

But we never felt stuck in pre-industrial era discomfort. Most modern sailboats are equipped with reliable wireless internet, so even while at sea, my daughter never had to reduce her daily screentime. Limits on interior space were more than offset by the spacious, shaded outdoor cockpit, where we preferred to eat our meals anyway. Bathing suits rinsed by our freshwater outdoor shower were hung overnight to dry in the breeze, and the fold-down transom was a perfect swimming platform and gangway to the waterfronts where we docked.

Even on nights moored offshore when we had to go without air conditioning, our boat had plenty of hatches (windows) allowing cool evening breezes to circulate below deck, which also had screens to keep out mosquitos. And when tied up at shore beside other boats, our neighbors were always quiet, as the sailing culture in Europe skews more toward families than the portable-stereo lovers often found at campgrounds.

Sailboats can also comfortably take you to places you can’t reach in an RV or a cruise ship. We spent half the nights on our trip moored in secluded coves near quiet seaside restaurants, where we spent mornings and evenings snorkeling off our stern. Even when berthed at shore, we tied up in the hearts of historic old towns, with medieval churches and ramparts and cozy waterside restaurants footsteps away. And we traveled from island to island in comfort, lounging in the breeze and sun while being rocked by waves, far from the stress of traffic.

If you’d like to learn more about chartering a sailboat in the Mediterranean (including how much it costs), check out my article in Go World Travel, “Why a Croatian Sailing Charter Is the Perfect Family Vacation.”

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Rob Rogers is the award-winning author of Finding My Way Home: Fighting Depression Backpacking in Central Florida. He also writes a blog called the “Central Florida Backpacking Desk Jockey”, and his essays and articles on backpacking have been published on FloridaHikes.com and in the Wilderness House Literary Review, Outdoors Unlimited, and Go World Travel.

IDIDAHIKE at Withlacoochee River Park

Join us December 11–13 for IDIDAHIKE, a weekend of camping, hiking, paddling, biking, good food, campfire hangs, and fun all weekend long!

Choose your adventure:

🥾 Six hikes from an easy paved walk to a challenging 15-mile trek

🛶 Guided paddle on the Withlacoochee River (Limited Spaces)

🚲Gravel bike ride through the Green Swamp (Limited Spaces)

Your $60 event fee includes your activity + meals, and kids 11 and under are FREE.

There are LOTS of camping options whether you love the comforts of an RV or curled up in your tent with your dog.

$125 RV Camping - Pet Friendly

$95 Car Camping Site - No Pets

$65 Group Camping - No Pets

$65 Group Camping - Pet Friendly

Set up camp, make some new trail friends, grab some FTA merch, and spend a weekend exploring the wild beauty of the Green Swamp and Withlacoochee State Forest.

Upcoming Activties

Upcoming Trail Maintenance

Please join the FTA Central Florida Chapter for a work day in Mills Creek Woodlands on Saturday, September 19th at 8:45 AM!

What to expect: We will use a combination of power equipment and hand tools to bring the trail back up to standard. We will: mow, lop (trim) branches, paint new blazes and at times, inspect or repair infrastructure.

We will meet at the trailhead at 08:45am for a safety session. Volunteers are then divided into crews. When appropriate, crews may need to carpool and drive one vehicle to a starting location. New volunteers will be provided an orientation on the role they are assigned to and all are encouraged to try new tasks!

A Fresh Chance to Lead

10% off all regularly priced clothing, footwear, and gear

Offer limited & some exclusions apply

Travel Country Outfitters supports Florida Trail Members Simply show proof of membership at the register

www.travelcountry.com 407-831-0777

📬 Note on Newsletter Distribution

We’re excited to share that our chapter membership is growing — and that’s a great thing! To ensure we’re able to continue sharing updates with our active members, we regularly remove addresses from our email list who are not current members of the Florida Trail Association.

Due to the limitations of our current email platform, we’re capped at 500 subscribers. As much as we’d love to send the newsletter to everyone, the cost and platform restrictions make it unsustainable.

If your membership has lapsed, this newsletter may no longer arrive in your inbox — but you can still access it anytime on our website and social media pages.



Want to keep receiving updates by email? Simply renew your membership and we’ll gladly add you back to the list!

Florida Trail Association

PO Box #140430, Gainesville, FL 32614

FTA Email - fta@floridatrail.org

Chapter Email - cfchapter@floridatrail.org

Call FTA - (352) 378-8823