Hiking the Marshall Swamp in the Summer

The United States is not really a tropical country (with the exception of Hawaii) and most people do not really think of it as such. However, these people have probably not hiked much of the Florida trail in the summer time. This is where the original Tarzan movie was filmed in the 1930s and 1940s and it is, for all intents and purposes pretty much a tropical swamp. Needless to say, going in the summer really stresses this jungle notion.

The Marshall Swamp portion of the Florida Trail is just one part of a much larger trail system and officially begins at Sharpes Ferry Road (CR 314). Nevertheless, we opted to just join the trail at he 64th Avenue Road, which means we skipped a lot of the more touristy bits and jumped right into the swamp. Despite all the concerns that most people would have about walking through a tropical swamp in the summer, realistically this trail is not too bad. It is well laid out, wide and properly maintained and offers a lot of shade along the way.

Perhaps the primary thing that most people notice first and foremost when hiking in Florida – and especially in the summer – is the bugs. Flies, mosquitoes, knats and many other flying insects are joined by legions of creepy crawlies on the ground and in the foliage. If you have a serious aversion to, or phobia of, insects this would not be the right hike for you. Luckily this does not bother me and my friends too much, so we all got on well enough. The real concern are for fleas and ticks – as well as leaches – which not only annoy you but feed on you and can potentially make you ill. Needless to say, we all ticks by the end of the day and spent a good hour or so in the evening picking them all off.

Besides the bugs though, the hike is actually quite easy. The heat is stifling – even under the canopy – but not utterly unbearable and the trail itself is incredibly easy. We all had basic walking sticks and decent boots, but did not really need too much serious hiking gear. Of course hydration was a major issue for everyone and we all brought our own hydration packs as well. Although I have larger packs, this hike did not really require that much additional gear since it was all on a well defined and maintained trail, so I just brought my Osprey Raptor 10, which was more than suitable for the task at hand. A friend of mine who brought is full sized Camelbak M.U.L.E. plainly regretted it toward the end of the walk as it was just too much: too heavy and too hot to wear all day in the swamp.

The Florida trail in general is much more popular in the autumn, when the temperatures are lower, the bugs are less, and it is easier to navigate. However, assuming you can deal with the insects, it is just as fine in the summer time. Anyone that knows Florida knows that there really is no getting around the heat if you intend to do anything outdoors, so the Marshall Swamp stretch is pretty good since it at least includes a lot of shade and tree cover.