We discovered the Big Hickory Island near Bonita Springs, FL by accident. We had spent a morning kayaking near Fort Myers, Florida at Manatee Park. There are lots of manatees at this Park. However, it is not a spring and the brown water makes it more difficult to see the manatees. We prefer to kayak Silver Springs and other areas near Ocala.
The day we went to Manatee Park, the water was actually down a little and the current was strong, so we finished our kayaking earlier than we expected. As we sometimes do, we looked up on our phone to check out new places to kayak. Big Hickory Island came up as a cool place to kayak and we decided to wing it and head that way.
When we arrived at the kayak launch, there was a kayak tour van from Paddle Naples in the parking lot. So, us being us, Windell walked over to talk to the owner of the kayaking tour company. He was super sweet and even let Windell take a picture of his map. Then he told us about kayaking to an island. Boy, are we glad we did! As soon as we arrived at the island, porpoises not even 50 feet from the bank were making their way to the bridge we had just kayaked under. We sat and watched them until they were out of our sight. Then we explored more of the island, gathering beautiful shells into a pile.
It was a fabulous day for flying by the seat of our pants. If you want to check out our video https://youtu.be/-tIhcD3jL2o A copy of the map is posted on our Facebook page
