I’m planning a late Feb to mid-March road trip to do some camping and gravel and trail riding in FL. I’ve been looking at places where the tent camping is decent (not sandwiched between big RVs) and there’s a decent network of gravel roads or rail trails nearby. I’m wondering if it’s worth going all the way south to Everglades and Big Cypress for this and whether there are better/other choices. Suggestions? Also what tires work best down there? I have WTB Horizon Road Plus 650x47s which are a pretty smooth tire and work great on pavement and hard packed backroads and trails up here. Thanks!

As Baldy said, Ocala is good for trails. Additionally you may head to Gainesville just north of Ocala. We have the San Felasco trail, which has about 30 miles of bike trails. There are also numerous rail trails in the area. As mentioned, gravel doesn’t really exist in FL, it is a lot of sand and sandy soil, with a fair amount of roots to watch out for. Central Florida at least has some “hills”, with some of that formed by old sinkholes. Feb-Mar is a good time, weather is usually still pleasant and humidity isn’t kicking in yet. As a note - despite the amount of rain we get, I use a dry lube on the chain and just make sure it is cleaned and lubed. You will pick up a ton of sand with the wet lube.

Thanks for the responses. Looks like there are decent campgrounds in the Ocala Natl Forest. I just read something about a January 100K ride that uses levee roads in the Everglades, so I’ll check those out, too. We’ve just had four nights of -10 this week, so I’m looking forward to it!