John Yarbrough Linear Park Bike Trip

It’s the middle of winter and we just got back from a beautiful and sunny 10 day retreat spent in Florida. It was the perfect way to getaway from this wintry tundra that is Rochester, NY. The vacation started in Largo, Florida spending time with my grandparents and then we drove down to Cape Coral for a few days before heading back to Largo to return home. Yes, a lot of traveling, but so worth it as both locations have endless things to do nearby.

With that being said, we wanted to discuss one day in particular because it was a day we were able to get away just the two of us and have fun touring a local park that was filled with wildlife and endless sun. If you are looking for a relaxing bike path in the Fort Myers area, this a great choice!

We woke up to a beautiful and typical sunny morning in Cape Coral and decided to look at a few parks we haven’t been to yet. We found out about the John Yarbrough Linear Park Trail which had great reviews about the perfect biking path. We had our bikes ready to go and were looking for exactly this. A bike trail that stretched 6 miles one way where we could see some wildlife.

We put our bikes in the back of the rental SUV (which was tricky) and set out to Fort Myers. I must admit, it was very difficult to find the trail head as we found out upon arrival. We had no idea it’d be in the middle of the city of Fort Myers. So as we are driving down the busy highway, we are literally driving next to the trail area. The GPS told us we had arrived, but there was no place to park, so we kept driving until we reached the end of the trail which low and behold, there was the trail head and ample parking.

This was something that we wish we had known when searching for the trail in the beginning. But once we found it, it was smooth sailing from there. As I had mentioned earlier, the trail runs through the middle of the busy city of Fort Myers. However, when biking on the paved trail, there are tons of trees and it runs next to a creek the whole way, so you don’t see many cars and actual wildlife starts to appear.

As riding down the trail, we stopped and looked at tons of wildlife by the creek. Great places for bird watching. We saw Great Blue Herons, Egrets, Spoonbills, and ducks. Not to mention all the fish and turtles you could see in the creek. At one point, we rode along the train tracks where they were working on trains, past airport security quarters, and the Fort Myers airport where we watched the planes take off. I even got lucky and spotted a raccoon coming out of the woods to get a drink of water from the creek!

Yes, this trail isn’t the “remote” type of place we were looking for, but it had a great biking trail and was the perfect length to get some exercise. 12 miles all around!

To reward us for this awesome bike trip, we decided to make a stop when returning to Cape Coral to the Cape Coral Ice Cream Club. We’d seen some photos of delicious looking ice cream when following them on Instagram @iccofcc that we just had to stop! And they did not disappoint.

Looking through all the various ice cream they had available was overwhelming. However, after a few tastings we narrowed it down. I had their butterscotch ice cream and Shane had cookies and cream. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We will definitely be stopping back next time for their cake or bubble waffle!

While walking around with our ice cream, there was a farmers market going on in the parking lot. So, we spent some time walking around looking at the local artisans and food. Just an added bonus to our stop.

Are you touring Fort Myers or Cape Coral? Do you have a bike trail you would like to recommend? Comment below!