Kayaking through the mangroves
Photo courtesy Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau

Just as the winter chill starts to get you down, point your prow and paddle to Florida, where a new paddling trail promises lazy days, abundant wildlife, and plenty of that hard to come by seasonal commodity—blue skies and sun. (Better still, those hurricanes won't be whipping things up for at least another six months.)

The recently opened Great Calusa Blueway (800-237-6444, www.greatcalusablueway.com) is a 35-mile canoe trail through southwestern Florida's wildlife-rich Estero Bay, near the popular resort areas of Fort Myers and Sanibel Island. The first phase of the trail meanders along the back bays, inlets, and estuaries of Estero Bay near Fort Myers Beach, while the second phase, slated to open in spring 2005, will extend northwards through the Gulf of Mexico waters lapping Pine Island Sound. The paddling is never wild, but promises easy-access escape from some of the more excessive tourist privations common to this part of the world.

Designed to accommodate daytrippers, long-distance paddlers, families, and birders alike, the Great Calusa Blueway revels in the variety of its natural surrounds: paddle alongside playful dolphins; log some 300 species of birds including egrets, bald eagles, and pelicans; disappear into the rivulets of countless inland waterways and gnarled mangroves. Tamara Pigott, a project manager with the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau, promises, "You will undoubtedly paddle next to dolphins or manatees. It's inevitable."

Bring your own craft—kayak, canoe, dinghy, whatever—and launch from any number of pre-designated put-ins. There are also a dozen or so local outfitters, like Estero River Outfitters (941-992-4050, www.all-florida.com/swestero.htm), that will rent you boats by the hour, day, or longer. Though there is currently only one on-trail camping area at Koreshan State Historic Park—the site of a bizarre Utopian community founded in the mid-1890s—accommodation can be found at onshore hotels. And while Pigott notes that the second phase of development should bring better camping facilities, she enthuses, "You can paddle along the whole trail and then stay at a nice comfortable hotel. It's a great combination of exercise and pampering."

Other things to remember: a wide-brim hat, plenty of sunscreen, and a willingness to savor those places—like boat-accessible-only Mound Key Archaeological State Park—where a little paddle power will put some room between you and the beach-bound hordes.

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