Like biking trails for cyclists and hiking paths for backpackers, a handful of coastal kayak trails is offering ways for novice and expert paddlers alike to explore new territory, fish or just get lost on purpose.

The trails, offered now in a few states, include trail markers and maps keyed to Global Positioning Systems waypoints.

"The area opens up a whole new world with every stroke of the paddle," says Chet Couvillon, an angler from Spring Branch, Texas, who gave up his larger boat to fish Texas' Lighthouse Lakes Trails from a kayak. "You get to see things that you wouldn't have the opportunity to see from a power boat."

The Lighthouse Lakes Trails, on the Texas Coastal Bend, are accessed off county roads near the town of Aransas Pass. Markers indicating the major trailheads lie a short paddle across the Aransas Shrimpboat Channel.

Before the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department created the trails in 2000, much of this wild, scenic estuary was ignored by boaters, who traveled past it to reach more accessible destinations.

On the way into Lighthouse Lakes, there are twists and turns. One mangrove shoreline starts to look like another. One channel opens up into three others. Some, barely wider than a kayak, lead to secluded tidal lakes where roseate spoonbills show off their pink plumage and blue herons wade among white ibis and reddish egrets.

Kayakers using hand-held GPS units can always find their exact location, the distance they have traveled and how far it is back to the starting point.

"There is an opportunity for everybody on the trails," says Dean Thomas, owner of Slowride Kayak Rentals in Aransas Pass. "Grandmas and little kids do this every day, plus the most hardcore fly-fishing guy is out there doing his thing."

Some of the trails are as short as two miles and can be paddled in a couple of hours. Others can take the entire day.

The South Bay Loop Trail, for instance, starts on the north side of the Aransas Channel and goes 6.7 miles across open, shallow flats covered in submerged sea grass beds. Paddlers encounter small spoil islands and duck-hunting blinds. Waterfowl fill the sky in fall and winter, and in summer, anglers hunt for redfish and spotted seatrout.

Florida's West Coast also offers a variety of marked and mapped kayak trails, from the Big Bend area near Tallahassee to the Everglades National Park at Chokoloskee.

The Big Bend Saltwater Paddling Trial starts at the Aucilla River on the St. Marks National Wildlife Reserve and runs 105 miles down the coast to Suwannee. A good launch point for sampling the trail with campgrounds is Ecofina State Park, between Tallahassee and Perry. It offers bathrooms and a general store.