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.

Kayakers on the Big Bend Trail may feel like they stepped back into Florida's past, viewing miles of undeveloped shoreline. Key features on the trail are identified with posts and markers.

A more populated but no less intriguing Florida coastal trail is the Great Calusa Blueway, west of Fort Myers, a dramatic paddling loop around Pine Island Sound, a host of islands, archaeological sites and wildlife refuges.

It is one of the few kayak trails in the country where you can feel at one moment lost in a mangrove estuary, viewing wood storks, alligators and ancient Indian shell mounds, and an hour or two later stop off for a bottle of wine and a seafood dinner at an old inn or luxury beachside hotel.

Doug Burnham, who has kayaked many coastal trails in Florida with his wife, Virginia, gathering information for a paddling atlas, says they took a 10-day trip down Matlacha Pass and back up Pine Island Sound, camping out three nights and staying the rest of the time in lodgings ranging from luxury B&Bs to 1930s resorts on island hideaways.

A favorite Florida kayak trail for Doug Adomatis, who provides GPS data for recreational activities on his TravelbyGPS Web site, is the Wilderness Waterway trail out of Everglades City. It straddles two national parks: Everglades and Big Cypress.

Most kayakers put in off the Tamiami Trail on U.S. 41 and head toward open water, Adomatis says. They can either explore the outside barrier islands or go inland through meandering channels with mangrove canopies.

Winter is best for exploring the Everglades, Adomatis says. "In summer, you will go insane without a toxic slathering of insect repellant."

In California, Channel Islands National Park, accessed by kayakers from the coastal communities of Ventura, Santa Barbara and Oxnard, comes with tours of sea caves and close-up views of sea lions, harbor seals and elephant seals.

For expert paddlers traveling in groups and equipped with hand-held GPS units, there is the 12-mile open-ocean trek to Anacapa Island. Besides pinpointing the landing area on the island, GPS receivers are handy in identifying and avoiding boat and freighter channels.

For the less ambitious but no less adventurous kayaker, there is a shuttle trip by boat to the Scorpion Ranch campground on the eastern shore of Santa Cruz Island, a jumping-off point for day trips and three- or four-mile tours of scenic shorelines and sea caves.

What to take on a kayak trip

Touring by kayak is attracting many new participants. The National Park Service recommends the following equipment on extended wilderness trips: