Explore the best rated trails in Fremont, OH, whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the University/Parks Trail and Wabash Cannonball Trail Connector . With more than 20 trails covering 221 miles you're bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
Fremont to Bellevue section. Trail is flat and paved in good condition. Biked to Bellevue to lunch and back for a 25 mile round trip. Not much shade, goes through mostly farmlands. In the 12 miles from Fremont to Bellevue, 21 road crossings! Most of them there wasn't much traffic but you still had to stop, once you got going. In the past biked from Elmore to Fremont, found it to be more scenic.
The trail is mostly really nice with great scenery along the entire thing. West of Norwalk, you will run into few issues, with the dip just to the West of the trailhead having some ruts due to runoff. Going East from Norwalk has some beautiful farmland, but you would be wise to keep an eye down at the trail itself. From ruts and potholes formed to attempts to fill these with sand, along with smelly evidence of horses, there are plenty of things that could quickly wreck your day if you aren't paying close attention. I've tried submitting a review previously, but maybe negative reviews are not authorized? Makes me wonder if any reviews are worth their salt on here honestly.
What a relaxing ride! This was my first “big” ride on my Recumbent bike. It was easy to navigate, smooth and well marked. There’s several distance options you can choose from to ride, walk or jog. I would recommend the Slippery Elm for families or just soloists.
Overall I enjoyed riding the NCIT when I found what to me is the true start of a rail trail.
I feel both TrailLink and the Lorian County parks are misleading on the overall length and nature of the trail. Not all of the advertised 19.3 miles are continuous asphalt for pedestrians and cyclists. There are gaps that would require you to either use a dedicated bike lane (not too big of an issue) or sharing a sidewalk or road shoulder with no shade (a much larger issue to me).
To me the true rail trail experience starts at The Gateway Trailhead in Elyria (6302 Gateway Blvd, Elyria). From there it is a short on road section to a little over 15 miles of paved, mostly flat trail. The trail is in very good condition, has mile markers every half mile and although it has a fair amount of road crossings there was only one in the 15 miles that was busy.
Scenery is mostly farmland, with a small bit of woods and wetlands. Oberlin is a good stop off with many options for food only a short ride off the trail. If I had known to start at the Gateway Trailhead this would have been an easy 5 star trail for me.
It's short but sweet...a real nature bike trail...rails to trails. Always worth the ride out on River Road.
Scenery is beautiful but the asphalt is in terrible condition—big bumps, cracks, tree root damage, etc. I ride lots of trails, but I won’t ride this one again unless/until it has a major overhaul. Pls pls fix the trail!!
The bridge that is shown going over the West Branch of the Black River in Cascde Park is closed. Lorain Metro Parks suggest a different route going through Elywood Park. See link to Cascade Park for recommended route. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59ef5b028c56a84a63338fb7/t/6165c8462503246a8bc3c064/1634060358894/Cascade-Park-website.pdf
John
I started on the north fork just east of Montpelier riding east and after awhile realized this trail was just not passable by bicycle (rough aggregate / overgrown / down trees). After West Unity I moved to neighboring highways (mainly roads G and F) until I got east of Wauseon. When rejoining east of Wauseon the quality of the trail was still very poor. But once I reached the Delta trailhead on Hwy 109 the trail transformed into a very nice quality paved trail all the way into Fallen Timbers. I was just passing through on longer ride so did not spend anytime on the south fork.
I would probably characterize some of the sections west of Wauseon as some of the poorest trail situations for bicycling I have ever seen. Then on the flip side the section east of Hwy 109 were great. Assuming this Jekyll and Hyde scenario is due to different groups maintaining the trail with Toledo Metroparks section to the east of north fork being very nice. Northwestern Ohio Rail to Trails Association maybe lacking resources to conduct proper maintenance in western portions of north fork (or maybe bicycling is not considered a primary use for the trail in the western portions of the north fork).
This is a great trail with great surface.
There could be some improvement to the signage for the route when coming into the Bellevue from the west. I now suspect that you should take Riddle Rd south to Gardner Rd east into town but I must have missed the sign. I was planning to take Portland Rd north when I got to it but there was a train blocking the crossing and several crossings after (long train). So I actually just kept riding the rough road along the tracks for a couple miles east before I could get around it (train sat there for very long time).
This is a good trail and it is great that the corridor is intact to continue the North Coast Inland across Northern Ohio.
When comparing to other portions of the North Coast Inland Trail it is apparent this section of the North Coast Inland Trail is not a nice as the counties to the west or east. This section may be operated by a volunteer organization called Firelands and maybe they do not have quite the resources their neighboring counties have for trail maintenance or to gain access to all the rail right of way. So the surfaces are not quite as nice as neighboring counties and there is a road section to zig zag connect around missing rail right of way. Nice there is a path along highway 20 in other non-rail right of way area.
I may have been looking in the wrong spots but was trying to find a drinking water source at the Firelands building in Monroeville but could not find one. So that would be a welcome addition.
Rode the full North Coast Inland Trail and in this county the trail is well maintained.
I was riding south to north toward Elyria and hit West 3rd St and there is a sign about bike lanes but does not really point you in the right direction. So seems it could be improved.
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