The Marco Island Nature Ride (by Bob K)
On Wednesday, 1/26/11, I was preparing for my morning bicycle ride from the Hilton on Marco Island Florida. It was cloudy as the sun was trying to break out. The roads were wet from the heavy rain the night before. I climbed on my bike at 8:00am and headed out. I was hoping the predicted rain would not dampen my ride.
I had my loop from the previous day and headed towards the Goodland Bridge. On my first ride, I met and rode with a local cyclist that lived on Goodland. He gave me a tour of Goodland which included his family’s cycling history. On our ride back I asked him about Marco Key. He explained the key’s history of being a nature preserve. He wanted to show me the key so we headed around the gate. He gave me the tour which included mangroves, wildlife, and the beautiful homes.
I had decided to do the same key loop because of its beauty, but I never expected to experience what was about to happen. I turned into the key and waved to the security guard at the gate. It was now around 8:30am. I am not exactly sure where on Whiskey Creek Drive the sighting occurred. I think it was before the bridge. I rode around a slight bend in the road and noticed something walking from the mangrove on the left side of the road. It was crossing the road about 50 yards ahead of me. I was rolling at 18 mph and I was approaching the cat quickly. My mind started racing with thoughts. What is it? It’s a cat. A very large cat. It stopped in the middle of the road and turned and faced me. Now I am about 10 yards from the cat. What should I do? Slowing down, I decided I better stop. When I applied my brakes the noise seemed to startle the cat. He turns and confidently walked back into the mangrove from where he started.
At this point I realized what I had just experienced. It was a panther! It stood about three feet tall from ground to top of back. It was long and sleek with a smaller head than I would expect. As it stared at me, I remember more of a gray coloring to the face. At this point the adrenaline was kicking in. As I rolled past the spot the panther was already out of sight. But then again he or she was probably watching me. I continued to ride up the road, finding it hard to believe what had just happened. I had just seen one the 100 panthers still remaining in Florida.
The start of this event began while we were being driven from Fort Meyers airport to Marco Island for vacation. We asked the driver about the cat crossing signs. He explained to my wife, daughter and me about the endangered species. How they are nocturnal and rarely seen. My daughter asked if they were aggressive toward people. He replied in his 10 years here, he never heard of an attack on a person. I now can confirm that he was right. I was luckily not the first reported attack. All this occurred in a matter of 30 seconds, but will have a lifetime to tell this experience.






