by Larry Lagarde

Florida is blessed with a multitude of places to go bicycling and Jeff Kunerth, a staff writer for the Orlando Sentinel, likes long distance bike rides. In fact, he and his wife Gretchen have done so much cycling in the Sunshine State that they wrote a book titled "Florida's Paved Bike Trails". According to a post Jeff published yesterday in a Sentinel blog known as "The Chain Gang", it appears that Florida may soon have a whopper of a trail running through St. Augustine and spanning 200 miles.

With fond memories of St. Augustine seared into my psyche from decades ago, I'll be looking for more info from Jeff about this new long distance trail. In the meantime, here's a list of Jeff's top 10 long distance bike paths in Florida with some brief notes.

Florida's 10 Best Long Distance Bike Paths

Withlacoochee State Trail - 46 miles: scenic, shaded, small towns, good bars

West Orange/South Lake-Lake Minneola Scenic Trail - 31.5 miles: trees, hills, waterfront, restaurants

Pinellas Trail - 35.5 miles: Dunedin and Tarpon Springs make great destinations

Flagler County Trail - 22.5 miles: hardwood hammocks and ocean views

Tallahassee-St. Marks State Trail - 20 miles: I miss Posey's Oyster Bar

Van Fleet State Trail - 29 miles: flat, straight, no traffic, no cross streets, Polk City restaurants

Sanibel Island Bike Paths - 23 miles: everything you want accessible by bike

Suwannee River Greenway - 25 miles: Suwannee River, Ichetucknee Springs State Park, OLeno State Park

Nature Coast State Trail - 32 miles: small towns, Fanning Springs State Park, bridge over Suwannee

Key Biscayne/Old Cutler Road Trail - 27 miles: nice view of Miami on the causeway bridge

Labels: Florida-bike-trails, St-Augustine-FL