by Patricia Lieb

Created on: June 29, 2007   Last Updated: September 11, 2009

South Florida's Sanibel-Captiva is perfect for bicycling

As well as biking, Sanibel, a barrier island just across the Sanibel Causeway from Ft. Meyers in southwest Florida, offers so many activities that my family and I wondered just where to start the day. The option to bike the easy-riding trails across the island won the vote. The assurance that bikers can travel the whole island and get to many areas cars can't was the deciding factor. Before starting off on your venture, though, bring with you a can of bug spray.

Since we (grandparents, parents, siblings and children) traveled nearly 200 miles by cars, we chose to rent bikes after reaching the island rather than hauling our own. Since bicycling on some 22 miles of paved paths is one of Sanibel's biggest pastimes, rental shops supplying various types of bikes and biking gear for adults and children are plentiful. Sanibel's adjacent Captiva Island-so named for pirate Jose Gaspar who kept his women prisoners here, according to folklore-is equally rewarding; however, bikers must share roadway with motor vehicles.

We started our tour at the east end of Sanible Island after wandering around to view and read about the Point Ybel Lighthouse first lit in 1884. Since 1950 the property is a wildlife refuge. While there, we walked out on the fishing pier and viewed the causeway and drawbridge over San Carlos Bay. For those of you who enjoy fishing: people here say that anglers on the pier, as well as those wading the shore, reel in snook, trout, redfish, Spanish mackerel, sheepshead, shark, flounder, red drum, jewfish, grouper, pompano and blue crabs. The Lighthouse Beach tip of island is thick with Austrian pines, seagrape trees and other vegetation. And here, we found a boardwalk leading to clean restroom facilities.

From the east, the bike trail led us on through grassy wetlands, passed a community cemetery and afterwards connected to Middle Gulf Drive and Gulfside City Park to public picnic tables and restrooms facilities. This flowering vegetation-filled park was perfect for a food break.

We stopped often at various shops during our ride to purchase bottled water. One of our most interesting bike-breaks was at the J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge. For $1 per person admission, the refuge is a must-see. We biked the 4-mile shell-and-sand-packed paved loop. (Remember I said bring bug spray? Well, here you need it.)

Our ride through the refuge took us alongside tidal mudflats and mangroves where brown

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