Legacy Trail — Attraction in Siesta Key

The Legacy trail is a paved multi use path that currently extends from the old Venice train station almost to the north intersection of Macintosh and Palmer. What a delight to ride safely ( except for road intersections which require caution!) for 11 miles. If this isn’t enough for you, the south end connects with the Venice Waterway trail. Work is underway to extend the Legacy trail north all the way to Payne park in downtown Sarasota. From there it is a short ride to Bayfront park which has nice access to the Ringling bridge! The prediction I heard is that by next spring ( 2022) the flat part of the path will be completed, along with cross walks, but overpasses for the busiest roads will take longer. I love riding the small bridge overlooking Dona Bay and Roberts. The subtropical scenery is delightful and I also enjoy seeing all the kinds of bikes that traverse the trail. We have a local hero on the trail who has ridden over 100,000 miles just on the Legacy and is now working on his second hundred thousand - the unofficial Mayor of the Legacy! I often ride from my home, but there are easy places to park and ride: Culverhouse Nature park has a parking lot next to the trail. There is a nice parking lot at Bay street east of Honore - my favorite views along the trail are south of this lot. There are many parks along the trail, great for taking a break, finding a restroom or refilling water.

On Saturdays before it gets too hot, the Friends of the Legacy Trail have a booth at Bay road along the trail from 9AM to noon. They have great information about work on the trail, the trail system connections and how they are supporting progress on the trail. Great shirts for sale - nice and light for riding in the heat!

The trail cuts through Oscar Scherer State park. This is a great way to enter the park which is only $2.00. This park is a must see for nature lovers. One of the staff there told us about the gopher tortoise-they dig such extensive tunnels that over 300 other species find shelter in them during extreme weather conditions. They are called a keystone species.

I enjoy the highway overpasses for a tiny experience of hills on my bike! There is something for everyone on the path. We all watch out for each other to...

The trail is nice. Won't deny it. Very nice of Sarasota county to add a bike path that's on the scenic side versus just an urban highway.. but I think it's also up to us as bicyclists to look both ways rather than every single time we cross the road to push the button and stop traffic simply to have us go by when there's one of us that could easily wait till after the traffic has passed. I think it's very unfair for us as bikes. Lookalists to stop traffic to allow one bicycleist or two pass when all we literally have to do is wait for the traffic to clear before we pass. I think it's very selfish of us. I've been on both sides of the bicycle crosswalk issue and as a car driving down the road, seeing one bicycle has stopped me when he easily could have waited until I passed to go through the intersection without stopping traffic is quite annoying. And then on a bicycle another bicyclist comes up and pushes the button to stop traffic when all I had to do was wait for two cars to pass. Please take in consideration that everybody does have some place to go. We used to not have crosswalks. We used to not have traffic lights. We always had...

Females: if you choose to use this trail make sure to carry pepper spray or something defensive to be safe. You are likely safer if you bike the trail versus run/walk. I’m a large male and I encountered a number of sketchy individuals while walking on this trail which can be frightening if you’re all alone and this trail is obviously very expansive so there can be stretches where there’s nobody else for a few miles! I had 3 gentlemen pass by me who were less than savory individuals, one had been sleeping on the bench I walked past earlier in the day and then biked past me twice (in both directions) in a matter of 10 minutes..turning around in front of me…in my view, there’s a high probability he would’ve attempted to rob me if I wasn’t a larger male. Be conscious of your surroundings. I would suggest Nathan Benderson Park near the mall rather than this, while not as long, it’s much more...