Florida’s southwest coast barrier islands are legend amongst beach aficionados and snowbirds. Starting just above the Ten Thousand Island portion of Everglades National Park, the long, skinny islands run north and occasionally west, finally giving way to large areas of coastal cordgrass above Tampa Bay. Composed of white sand on the Gulf side and darker muds on the inside, they are restless islands, moving slowly with the prevailing winds and currents. They can also change dramatically when a larger storm comes through; hurricanes have carved out new passes or filled in old ones in a day.

Each winter, hordes of shivering northerners drive or fly south to spend days, weeks and even months living on or near these islands and their white, sparkling beaches. Many others have amassed enough money to retire to the region, turning areas that haven’t been protected into expensive collections of condominiums, restaurants and shops. This sort of development often tries to stop the barrier island beaches from moving by spending millions each year on erosion control and even beach replenishment, continually dredging up sand to replace beaches that naturally want to move.

Why should you consider a trip to this snowbird Mecca? Well, haven’t you always wanted to wear polyester pants up to your nipples, tight black socks up to your knees, and give in to that irrepressible urge to complain about the government? Perhaps you’d love to ogle aged sun worshippers, whose skin has become so wrinkled and leathery they look a bit like swarthy rhinoceroses lying on beach chairs. And if all that’s not enough to make you drop what you’re doing and plan a trip, there’s some pretty excellent kayaking as well.

What makes these islands interesting to paddlers? The beaches are excellent, that’s for sure, and being able to stop for a break and bask on some of the world’s finest beaches is a definite plus, particularly if you’re escaping cold drizzle back home. But despite what the hordes of vacationers might think, there’s more to the barrier islands than their beaches. This sub-tropical outing, we’ll look at a dozen reasons why a sea kayaker might want to seek out the islands that protect Southwestern Florida from the Gulf of Mexico.

CAUTIONS
A few words of caution before you reach the beach. Southwest Florida is quite benign by many standards of sea kayaking, and that can lull you into carelessness. The Gulf of Mexico is relatively calm for a big body of water, and even medium sized surf is rare. It’s also warm and shallow. However, lightning storms are common, especially in summer, and you’ll find very few places to hide. Summer and fall are also hurricane season, and you do NOT want to be on or even near the water for a hurricane. Summer and fall are also the wet season, and the mosquitoes and noseeums in Southwest Florida get so bad they can make you pray for the sweet obliteration of a hurricane.
Less dramatically, the classic hazards for snowbirds are sunburn and dehydration. I live down here now, and I wear a hat, sunscreen and long-sleeved shirt to paddle, even when the air is hot. Another common hazard is boat traffic—some areas are very busy, and while kayaks are becoming an increasingly common sight, there will always be obnoxious or clueless boaters.

For those of you who watch too many nature programs, yes, there are sharks and stingrays. Stingrays might be a problem when you’re wading—tread carefully. As for sharks, well, you’re much more likely to encounter dolphins and manatees. Still, I don’t go swimming at sunset, particularly near channels.

Finally, paddling along a beautiful beach, it is nearly impossible to get lost. However, the insides of the barrier islands can include mazes of mangrove islands, all barely above sea level, all of which look remarkably similar. Venturing into them without a compass and map (or aerial photo) is not wise. A GPS can be quite helpful as well.

All right—now that you know what to avoid, what are the benefits of a kayaking trip to Southwest Florida? Here are a dozen.

BEACH BABY BEACH!
Let’s face it—the reason you’re on a barrier island in Florida isn’t for the rich culture, the charming company or the haute cuisine. You’re here for the beach and the glorious weather. And Gulf Coast beaches are among the best, with soft white sand that doesn’t get too hot despite all that warm, winter sunshine. The powdery sand is much too fine for me, but people love it, and on larger islands it stretches as far as the eye can see. Kayakers, retirees, spring breakers—everyone can appreciate a beautiful beach, and on busy weeks in busy spots, it might seem that just about everyone is.

SEA OATS
Sea oats grow on the top of natural beach dunes and help stabilize the shoreline—at least, they do when they haven’t been picked or stomped or paved or condominiumized. The dunes aren’t especially high on Southwest Florida’s barrier islands, as the Gulf rarely produces big waves. As a matter of interest, sea oats are protected, and many developed beaches have boardwalks to get you over the dunes without damaging them. If you’re kayaking more remote areas, there won’t be boardwalks, so be sure to take extra care. Sea oats are a good way to tell that the beach you’re on has at least some healthy natural space left.

MANGROVES
On the “other” side of the barrier islands, the inside, you won’t find beaches. Instead, you’ll likely find mangroves. Larger islands can have extensive mangrove forests that include numerous small islands with maze-like channels between them. Several places have marked canoe trails that will take you through channels so narrow the mangroves cover them, forming a narrow tunnel that makes for a unique paddling experience. As mangroves are not ideal habitat for humans (see Oct/Nov 2002), they’ll be mostly or even completely absent from the more developed barrier islands.

CANALS & FINGERS
Do you like window shopping for expensive waterfront property and/or boats of all shapes and sizes? Have you always wanted to visit watery cities like Venice? On the back side of many of the barrier islands, branching off the intracoastal waterway, are thousands of man-made canals and fingers of land that you can cruise in and out of. A quick glance at a chart or aerial photo will reveal these odd inlets and islands, many entirely artificial and surrounded by seawalls. Their sole purpose is to provide a spot for vacationers and/or wealthy homeowners to put their boats, and a way to get those boats to the Gulf. If you love nature they can be somewhat disconcerting, but there is some wildlife in the murky water, including manatees, a surprising variety of fishes and even the occasional large bull shark.

CHANNELS
Natural channels cut through the dune line much more often on the Southwest coast, making for a lot more islands than on the east side of Florida. Typically named passes on the charts, they can be fascinating places to paddle, full of fish and other wildlife. Some have surprisingly strong currents and you’d be wise to check a tide table if you’re planning on traversing some of the longer or stronger ones. On the Gulf side, currents and wind can combine to create some challenging rips here and there, though most are mild when compared to other places. Boats are another hazard in the busier channels, particularly the not-so-natural ones that people have attempted to fix in place with seawalls.

SHELLS
One of the things that keeps people coming back to the barrier islands is the “shelling,” wherein you wander down the beach at the high or low tide line, scanning for interesting shells that have washed up. They can be plentiful—places like Sanibel Island are known for the remarkable beauty and variety of shells that appear on their beaches, and if your timing is good you’ll find a wide assortment in great shape. On many stretches (especially near Venice Beach) there are also glossy black fossilized shark’s teeth, remnants of a time when most or all of Florida was underwater.

BIRD NESTS
While we’re considering eggs on the beach, quite a few of the barrier islands include essential seabird nesting areas. Depending on the season of your visit, this will be obvious, as you’ll see an awful lot of birds. Some of the central parts of the narrow islands will also be posted with signs and possibly fences intended to keep people out of the most critical habitat. Luckily that won’t stop you from paddling past or spending some quality time on the beach. Paddling the inside of the islands, you’ll see larger birds like pelicans nesting up in the mangrove branches.

SEA TURTLE NESTS
Though I’m not covering specific wildlife in this checklist, sea turtles are worth mentioning because of their famous reproductive habits. Come summertime, the hefty females of several species crawl up on sandy barrier island beaches, dig holes and drop their eggs into them. So depending on when you’re visiting, you might well be sharing the beach with sea turtles, turtle eggs, or even those adorable little hatchlings that emerge from the sand and head (hopefully) for the water. Beach houses in many areas need to block all their lights that face the beach, so the little turtles don’t get confused and crawl in the wrong direction. As sea turtles are threatened or endangered, volunteers and rangers often search for nests, marking them with little flags and even fences so people don’t inadvertently tread on the eggs below.

BRIDGES
Bridges come in all shapes and sizes in the barrier islands. Since the water is shallow everywhere, they aren’t especially difficult to build, though they may need to allow sailboats and other tall shipping to get by. Drawbridges are common along the intracoastal waterway, and it’s quite fun to watch them in action from kayak level. In some of the small canals you’ll find bridges so low you’ll have to limbo under them, and if you’re paddling any of the barrier islands near the mouth of Tampa Bay, you’ll see the impressive Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which carries a busy interstate’s worth of traffic up high enough to allow cruise ships to pass below.

SEAWALLS
Ah, the seawall. On rocky coasts, seawalls tend to be few and far between, so you may not be used to them. In Florida, they can line entire channels and even completely surround surprisingly large islands. You generally won’t see them on the Gulf side of the barrier islands, where the shifting sands of the beaches rule. On the inside though, in built-up areas that have removed their mangroves, seawalls can be alarmingly common. Landing or launching off them can be quite tricky, and they can bounce boat wake or wind chop back at you in unsettling ways.

GIGANTIC CONDOS
In case you were unaware, Florida does not have mountains. Southwest Florida doesn’t even have hills. On the Southwest coast, it’s even more dramatic—a metre above sea level is considered high ground in many places. Seriously. However, if you like looking up at scenery, there are places you won’t be disappointed. Rising high above the water are condominiums and hotels full of retirees and vacationers. They tower above channels, spring up from beaches, and sparkle brightly in the night sky. One might argue that such cement skylines are no substitute for the Coast Range, massive volcanoes and steep fjords that dazzle Northwest paddlers. A cynic might even argue they represent the opposite of naturally beautiful scenery. In vertically challenged coastal Florida, they’ll have to do.

THE INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY
Boaters can follow this series of protected bays, lagoons and dredged channels all the way around south Florida. Marked with official aids to navigation, the ICW is often the “inside” boundary of a barrier island, and on lower tides, when the water can get too shallow for even a kayak, you may find yourself following parts of it. On busy weekends it can seem like crossing a highway, though narrow turns, manatee speed zones and “no wake” sections often keep boats from being too fast and dangerous.