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Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau (ENLARGE)

Many southwestern Florida water trails follow a course charted by the Calusa Indians.

Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel (ENLARGE)

A kayaker plies the Great Calusa Blueway, a nature trail that runs nearly 100 miles. You can rent a kayak for $30 for a half-day.

Fort Myers, Fla. — A natural world of mangroves lies for miles around the noisy, crowded beaches of Fort Myers and the backup of cars at the toll bridge for the island enclaves of Sanibel and Captiva.

From a distance, the mangroves seem impenetrable. But all along the Gulf Coast of southwest Florida are inlets into the acres of these tough tidal plants with exposed roots digging into the water.

Once inside the mangrove world, exploration by boat reveals a maze of hidden waterways.

Mangroves, which trap the sands holding some coastal islands together, also form a barrier to the hum of frenetic activity in the lives of beach-seeking vacationers who fill Florida highways each winter and spring.

On a March morning last spring, as the beach traffic was building on busy Summerlin Road, I drove to quiet Bunche Beach, slid a rented kayak into Matanzas Pass, paddled in the shallows at the edge of Estero Bay, then slipped into a skinny trail of water in the mangroves, out of sight and earshot of all the human hubbub.

Bunche Beach, between Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island, is one of many convenient launching places for paddling on a portion of the grand, new Great Calusa Blueway. This is a nature trail of water that runs nearly 100 miles along the coast and among the mangroves. The trail meanders through Estero Bay from Bonita Springs north to Fort Myers, through Matlacha Pass between Cape Coral and Pine Island, and around Pine Island Sound to the barrier islands of Sanibel, Captiva, North Captiva and Cayo Costa.

The Blueway is one of Florida's best gifts to vacationers. Free maps detail location markers, tidal flats for bird-watchers, opportunities to get close to Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, historic sites and nature centers. A Web site, www

.greatcalusablueway.com, offers ideas, outfitters, a tidal chart and trail conditions.

The trail, still under development in some areas, is an opportunity for travelers to relax in a natural environment on the water, using as much physical exertion as they want, and to learn about the history of this state, long before the Spaniards discovered what the Calusa Indians already owned.

Another beauty of the Blueway is that you can go as far as you want, spending an hour or a week. Even if you don't want to learn anything, kayaking on the shores and in the mangroves of southwest Florida makes a great vacation day for families, groups or a single traveler with an experienced guide.

With a kayak delivered to Bunche Beach by a nearby rental company, I joined naturalist Trudi Edelman, who brought her own kayak. We slid our kayaks across the sand into shallow waters. As the tide rolled in, the sea provided a slight but steady chop. The light kayaks handled well against the tide, and we paddled around offshore for a few minutes before heading into the tangle of twisted mangroves at an inlet called Rock River (where I saw no rocks).

Edelman said she has been exploring the beaches and mangroves near Fort Myers for 20 years, while learning the history of the local Calusa Indians. The Calusa lost their coastal home to invading Spaniards in the 1600s. Before they died in their struggle, the Calusa managed the mangroves well, hollowing out water trails by hacking through the plants in the same manner as northern Indians establishing land trails through thick forests.

Many of today's water trails in southwest Florida follow a course charted more than 1,000 years ago by the Calusa, who used mounds of seashells to make artificial islands in the mangroves.

"I feel the spirits of the Calusa when I explore deep into the mangroves," Edelman said. "You are so alone that you can feel that you are somewhere that no one has ever been. That's not true of course, but it feels that way."

The Great Calusa Blueway was designed to honor those early Florida inhabitants and to give visitors a posted guide for safe paddling and where to get closer to nature on trails that are offshoots of the main water map.

On our guided paddle, Edelman and I found a few passages so tight we bent roots — left, right and above us — to squeeze deeper into the mangroves. We were so close that I could see little crabs scamper along the roots as we pushed through.

On that March morning, we were less than a mile from the macadam of tourists; yet the only sounds were wind, birds, insects and slaps of water against the kayaks' hulls.

David Molyneaux is travel editor for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland.

IF YOU GO

Great Calusa Blueway

The water trail is in southwestern Florida, among the coastal islands and mangroves, between the Imperial River of Bonita Springs in the south to the top of Pine and Cayo Costa islands near Charlotte Harbor in the north. The Blueway is user-friendly, from the Web site at www.greatcalusablueway.com to the trail maps that explain where you may start and stop, what you can see and do.

For people who want to go it alone, boat rentals are numerous. You can ask to get picked up at your resort by an outfitter and returned at the end of the day.

Outfitters also offer guided trips to view sunrises and sunsets, bird rookeries, manatees and dolphins, shelling, archaeology and history. One to consider is Gaea Guides at www.gaeaguides.com or call 1-866-256-6388. For a longer trip, consider Royal Palm Tours, www.royalpalmtours.com or 1-800-296-0249.

Roy Massey of Ace Performer delivered my Cobra Navigator kayak, which rents for $30 for a half-day, $50 a day or $200 a week (or you could buy it fully equipped for about $1,000). Call Massey at 239-489-3513 or visit www.aceperformer.com.

Kayaks come with either a seat that places you about a foot higher than the water or, in a recreational kayak, at the bottom. For beginners, guide Trudi Edelman recommends a recreational kayak. The smaller the kayak, the easier for getting into tighter places.

Some people rent canoes. Edelman said she chooses kayaks because "when you're in a canoe, you're sitting high. I want to be close to the water."

Be aware of the tides, the great flows of seawater that raise and lower the depths twice a day. Consult a tidal chart before you plan an outing on the gulf. At high tide, water at inlets to the mangroves is deeper.

At low tide, the inlets may be dry or only a few inches deep. Paddling against a tide requires more energy than paddling with one. Tides are highly predictable, though they are affected by the weather.

Information

Fort Myers, Sanibel: www.fortmyerssanibel.com, 1-800-237-6444.