Biking the Pinellas Trail: SouthFlorida.com

The Pinellas Trail offers visitors to the Gulf Coast a great place for biking and in-line skating

When I was growing up on the Gulf Coast, the cities of Clearwater and St. Petersburg were sleepy retirement communities carved from acres of citrus groves. The area's draw was (and still is) its beaches - blinding white stretches of sugary sand peppered with family-friendly hotels and fishing piers.

Today, many of those family hotels have given way to more upscale resorts and high-rise condominiums. While tourists still flock to the beaches, amenities inland vie for visitors' time as well. One of my favorite ways of enjoying Pinellas County these days is biking on the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail. In March 2002, Southern Living magazine named it one of the best "rail trails" in the South, and for good reason: From its broad, flat expanses through woodlands and neighborhoods, to spurs that take you to pristine beach preserves, this trail offers the best of everything.

For a weekend break, Pinellas is only about a four-hour drive away. Enjoy the powdery sand and surf - and give your family an afternoon of exercise and fun biking or skating along the Pinellas Trail.

Rails to trails The Pinellas Trail is considered a greenway corridor, a protected open space connecting parks and other natural sites with populated areas. Like more than 30 other bike trails in Florida, it started as an abandoned railroad bed years ago, and became a linear park in 1990.

Ideal for biking, skating or jogging, the 34-mile trail winds through the west side of the county, near the Gulf. It begins at 34th Street and Seventh Avenue South in St. Petersburg, jogs west several miles to the town of Seminole, then shoots north, where it parallels the Intracoastal Waterway through Clearwater and Dunedin to the Greek community of Tarpon Springs. It crosses two major highways and bodies of water, using caged bridges arched high above the roadway, which afford panoramic views of where you've been - and where you're going.

Delightful Dunedin My 7-year-old son and I begin our ride a bit north of Mile 22 of the trail, which comes in at the old train depot, in downtown Dunedin. Now home to the city's historical society and a small gift shop, the depot is one of several buildings from the early 1920s that give Main Street its charm.

The transformation of downtown has been impressive, particularly when I think back to its dowdier days in the 1970s. Trail proponents like to point to this area as an example of how the trail's existence has helped to encourage and stabilize retail development.

Parking our car just steps from the trail, we strap on our inline skates and head north for adventure. As we cross Main Street, we see people window shopping, and turning into restaurants like Casa Tina, a favorite Tex-Mex cantina. The street is abuzz from restaurants, boutiques and antique stores side by side all the way to the marina at the western edge of Main. There's also an ice cream stand and the Pinellas Trail Bike rental shop, which rents and repairs bicycles.

We stop briefly to chat with Diana Aguiler, a car repossessor who bikes the trial with her 8-year-old son, Edward. A fit, angular young woman with brown curly hair, she often rides the trail when training for Ironman marathons. Edward is an accomplished rider as well, regularly logging 15 miles at a clip with his mom. Small wonder, he's been riding since he was 5.

"I like the trail because you don't have a lot of traffic. It's so much better because there are no other places to ride with kids," Aguiler says.

Discovering the back roads The trail is also largely free of congestion, an unwelcome byproduct of the county's tremendous growth. Once you enter, the hustle and bustle of traffic becomes muted by the twitter of birds and a slower, more ambling pace prevails. From retirees to neon-clad cyclists, trail users share a sense of camaraderie, many nodding or smiling as they pass us by. Even homeowners revel in its ambiance, viewing the trail as an extension of their back yards. Some celebrate with small gardens planted at its base, others set out deck chairs for front-row seating as the ever-changing parade rolls past.

Since the trail runs close to the Intracoastal Waterway, we periodically glimpse it sparkling through breaks in the foliage. "Look, there's the water," I say to my son. "Sweet," he replies. The air is sweet as well, fragrant with the scent of orange blossoms. Live oaks draped in Spanish moss arch over the trail as we breeze past back yards dotted with grapefruit, orange and lemon trees loaded with fruit, a reminder of the citrus industry that once thrived here.

About two-and-a-half miles into our journey, we come to Dunedin's Hammock Park, a nature park and reserve where my high school biology class used to come for field trips. As we walk through the park, I tell my son about our days of specimen-collecting, but he quickly tunes me out, infinitely more intrigued by a blue heron that eyes us warily from its perch on a bridge. We snap a few pictures, the great bird takes flight, and we continue our trek, finally reaching a turnaround point.

The day's shadows are growing longer, and the air is dry; it's a perfect time to be on the trail. We spy another mom skating with her two children. Palm Harbor resident Josephine Green says her family are regulars on the trail. "What do you like best about the trail?" I ask her 10-year-old son, Chaz. He pauses a minute, then his face lights up. "The llama farm in Palm Harbor," he says. I must register a look of disbelief, for Josephine smiles, adding, "That's right. The farm's not far from here, just north of Alderman Road, and they do keep a number of llamas."

Not what you'd expect to find in the middle of a busy metropolitan area, but that's the joy of riding along the Pinellas Trail. We discovered many unexpected pleasures during our trek - enough to ensure our return.

Jane Schneider is the editor of Memphis Parent magazine in Memphis, Tenn.