Biking, kayaking and hiking in Florida's Charlotte Harbor & the Gulf Islands

Birds and beauty welcome nature-lovers to Charlotte County's land and water trails.
By Chelle Koster Walton, member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Charlotte County has more than 70 parks and recreational centers perfect for a hiking expedition.

As I headed down Cape Haze Pioneer Trail, I heard the high-pitched meow of a baby kitten in distress. I searched the underbrush and sure enough, there it was: a little gray catbird flitting nervously, shyly.

When it comes to birding, I'm one of those amateur show-offs who knows all of Florida's headliners. As for the small woodland birds, I need practice, and Charlotte County – with its vast spreads of unspoiled flatwoods, pinelands, and scrub – makes the perfect classroom for budding birders and just plain outdoor lovers.

Hit the field and trails by car, swamp buggy, bike, foot or watercraft. Don't forget your binoculars, because as you travel by wheels, heels and keels, you're going to hear tweets, cheeps, screeches and shrieks from the rampant bird population. In fact, seven sites in the county recently made it to the statewide Great Florida Birding Trail.

Get Rolling
Dedicated January 2006, the South Florida Birding Trail is the last leg of the 2,000-mile statewide route. Designed to be followed by automobile, it takes you to 440 prime spots for rich bird habitat. One spot, the 79,000-acre Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area, lets you survey on wheels its populations of sandhill cranes, herons, bald eagles, woodpeckers and warblers. Take a slow, scenic drive around Webb Lake or pedal along 37 miles of unpaved historic logging

Kayakers can take advantage of the area's good nature.

roads by bike to leave the rush-about world in your dust.

Adjacent Babcock Wilderness Adventures takes you on a different sort of by-wheel trail excursion into the past, this one by converted school buses known as swamp buggies. Revert to the days of Cracker cow hunters, loggers, gator-infested swampland and skies reeling with wood storks and other birds at this ranch still run by cowboys.

To further explore Charlotte County’s natural and historic heritage on two wheels, head to local parks. On Gilchrist Park's path in Punta Gorda you can flow alongside the wide Peace River with vintage homes and seabirds to glimpse. The Cape Haze Pioneer and Gasparilla Island-Boca Grande trails pave the path once pounded by railroad wheels.

Sole Searching
I kept my bird-eyes wide open on Cedar Point Environmental Park’s trails, which rove 115 acres from pine flatwoods to the shoreline of Lemon Bay. An important stop on the Florida Birding Trail, it has a reputation for two biggies on the life list of birders: bald eagles and Florida scrub jays. Gopher tortoises, gray fox and bobcats also find refuge in this last undeveloped bayshore plot in Englewood. It is part of Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center, which maintains another hiker-friendly campus south of Punta Gorda at Alligator Creek.

County and state partnerships have preserved these

Biking is a great way to explore Charlotte Harbor & the Gulf Islands' nature.

crucial corners of wildlife habitat where visitors can learn and explore. More are tucked away around the county, havens for travelers by the soles of their feet. Hidden Amberjack Environmental Park, near Cedar Point, encompasses a marsh – magnet for pelicans, sandpipers and more.

At Sea Level
The osprey circled, puncturing the morning's shroud of stillness with its trademark whistle-scold. We were invading its territory, paddling beneath a miniature canoe atop a piling. The osprey had made its nest in the canoe, which advertises Grande Tours. Strategically located on Coral Creek, gateway to Charlotte County's Blueway Trails, Grande Tours rents kayaks and leads excursions through the region's intricate web of wildlife-rife waterways and coastlines along the Gulf of Mexico and big-mouth Charlotte Harbor. The outfitter specializes in kayak fishing along the trails.

For additional angling adventures in pursuit of some of the most diverse fish species available in back bay or deep sea, contact King Fisher Fleet at Punta Gorda's Fishermen's Village marina. Charlotte County has a swimming reputation for extreme catches, whether it's whopper tarpon or tasty snapper. The restaurants serve the freshest tasting seafood to have crossed my palate, and my adventure trips are never complete without the reward of dinner at Fishermen's Village shop-and-dine complex or, my favorite, Gulf View Grill on Englewood Beach.

Charlotte Harbor's other by-keel reputation gusts around its superlative sailing, which SAIL magazine listed in its top ten destinations. To follow your windborne fantasies, hook up with Paradise Sailing for a sunset cruise aboard a 30-foot yacht to capture beautiful Harbor vistas.