Find the top rated birding trails in Niles, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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The Shenango Hiking Trail has recently been taken over by a new organization and they have lots of work ahead of them. As the other reviews say, the bridges need lots of work, and there are parts of the trail (especially between New Hamburg and Kidds Mill) that are impassible. It will take a few years, lots of money, and lots of hard work to get this trail up and running. If you are interested in doing trail maintenance or volunteering please email info@shenangoriverwatchers.org
If you would like to hike this trail you should definitely try the section between Big Bend and New Hamburg. The hanging bridge needs repaired, but can be bypassed if you are adventurous.
This trail is meant to be followed in a single file line, and was not intended for bikes, but some mountain bikers do still run it. The trail is also used by local equestrian clubs.
This trail tends to be very wet year round. Many locals suggest avoiding the trail during the summer months due to poison ivy! Unfortunately in Western PA there is little we can do to control the poison ivy especially in a natural setting. With our winters becoming more and more mild, poison ivy and tick populations are becoming even harder to control. Please be smart when hiking and always wear proper attire.
While this trail is described as 34 miles, it is a 43 mile ride if you do the entire thing. It is a combination of rail trail, power line right of way, suburban streets and park trails. The street sections were unexpected but ok since there was pretty much zero traffic. You have to keep an eye out for tiny green bike trail signs along the way so as to not miss a turn. I managed to get off route a couple times and needed to use google maps and the PDF map of the trail to figure out where to go. That didn’t bother me since it was a good opportunity to get out of the saddle and drink water. More annoying were the frequent road crossings. Some were extremely busy and required use of a crosswalk button.
All this added up to a nice sense of adventure. I parked at the northern end on Alexandra road and did the lollipop counter clockwise. This worked nicely and I would recommend this trail to friends. Just be aware that this is not a typical rail trail. It requires a bit of navigational skill.
Ashtabula to the north side of Warren was great. I rode this trail twice last year. However, once you get into Warren, the trail winds through an urban setting on streets and sidewalks that aren't maintained. I rode the trail to the end and the bike path was littered with broken bottles and glass. I punctured a tire in Warren, but was able to change it and make it back to Ashtabula.
Rode this trail from Cincinnati to Cleveland and back in three weeks. The best touring I’ve ever done. This trail is very well kept. To me, Columbus to Massillon was the most scenic. But it’s hard to find any part of this ride that wasn’t great. I went in late September and had only one rainy day followed by a half day of light drizzle. Xenia, Millersville, and Mt. Vernon were my favorite stops. Can’t wait to do it again!
Pros: spectacular scenery, paved surface, history, tunnels! Never seems to get packed like sections of the Great Allegheny Passage do on summer weekends or holidays.
Cons: Here’s why i don’t think that the ART will rival the GAP in terms of ridership volume in the near future: first, as others have said, for long stretches there are no restrooms, water or amenities such as benches, picnic tables, etc. that make a trail truly user friendly. This is hard on some people, especially kids, and there’s really no place to find a ‘green restroom’ if you know what i mean given all the no trespassing/private property/keep out signs along the way. Second, the stubborn property owner and the ROW issue really need a solution so that the trail is seamless end to end. The GAP and the parent company of Sandcastle finally finally worked out a right of way solution, as they did with a warehouse at the Waterfront. It can be done.
One of the nicest days weather wise we've had in about 6 weeks! Took advantage of the 60 degree temp and hit the trail. Always a great ride, the trail offers flat open areas and some hills.
Some restrooms are open along the trail.
It's been cold for quite a while now but one Sunday the temps got up into the 40's and a lot of people took advantage of the trail that day. Cyclists, walkers, and runners. It was good to see that many people out. Most of the restrooms are closed for the Winter but there are still a few open. The marina is empty as all the boats were removed. Saw 2 different bald eagles.
We drove to Emlenton where we picked up the trailhead and headed north. The scenery was beautiful riding along the river. Being October, the trail was heavily covered in fallen leaves, which made it difficult to see the hooved up asphalt on the trail. We were surprised that the trail was so bumpy, and it made for careful riding. There was one spot just north of the first tunnel that was very bad where water bottles bounced out of my basket onto the trail. Some kind of marking would definitely be helpful in that spot. The tunnels were exciting and scary at the same time, especially meeting riders coming from the opposite direction. The reflectors are positioned so the trail is split into two lanes through the tunnel, but we found it difficult to stay in one lane without running over the middle reflectors. Next time I will get a headlamp and not hold a flashlight. We weren't sure what to expect from the detour after reading others' reviews. I have to say it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. The detour took us onto a wide uphill rocky path - great for mountain bikes but not road bikes. We pushed our bikes on the inclines and rode on the downhill grades. I have to caution other riders on the last long, downhill grade. Even with braking to a slow ride, I still skidded out and wrecked into a ditch. First wipe out for me. My husband said we were 100 feet from reconnecting to the asphalt trail. Overall the trail is level, but we did notice a very slight incline riding north to south, which probably explains why the first 17+ miles were so easy! It is constant peddling either direction. It was definitely a ride to remember and well worth the 90-minute drive from NE Ohio. As others have stated, you need to carry adequate fluids and be prepared if nature calls. We only saw the one porta potty at the trail head in Emlenton. Because we thoroughly researched the reviews, we were prepared. We rode from Emlenton to Brandon, covering 35.5 miles roundtrip. Next time we will go to Oil City and ride south and cover that section of trail. I would give the trail a 4-4.5 only because of the lack of facilities and the maintenance needed on the trail.
Adding to what smk wrote in the preceding review: The trail is indeed closed a short distance south of Kirk Rd. because of construction on a new I-76 underpass. Going south, the detour around this closure is: West on Kirk Rd, south on Turner Rd., east on Herbert Rd. While the extra distance due to this detour is not much, I gave up on it because Turner road is narrow, shoulderless, and hilly. There is no visibility over hilltops, and a car speeding over one is too likely to knock down a cyclist on the other side. Unsafe, in my opinion. So the remedy was to ride back to the northern trail end, put the bike on the car, drive to the southern trail end, and ride north to the closure point. This interruption spoiled an otherwise nice ride. Based on the work crew I saw (just two guys), this construction job could take a long time.
This is an excellent trail. All paved, mostly flat with only minor inclines, good facilities. Please disregard reviews prior to 2016 because construction was completed in 2015. The only problem is that the description in TrailLink lacks adequate detail, so I would like to provide the following info. Please refer to the TrailLink map to make sense of this info:
This trail is made up of three separate segments in Ohio's Portage County. Two of these segments are sort of connected, and the third is actually the extension of another trail altogether. All three segments run roughly in the east-west direction.
1) The southernmost segment runs along the Cuyahoga River in its western half and through the center of the Kent State University campus in its eastern half. It is about 4 miles long, one way. Expect heavy pedestrian traffic on the campus section on class days.
2) The middle segment runs from a point north-east of Ravenna to downtown Kent. It is about 9 miles long, one way. It is mostly a nature trail.
3) The northernmost segment, also known as the Franklin Connector, is just a 1.6 mile extension of the "Hike & Bike Trail", which TrailLink describes and maps separately under that name. (No "Portage" in the latter name.)
Segments 1 and 2 are connected by a rideable north-south foot path along the Cuyahoga River in Kent's Franklin Mills River Edge Park. At one point, you have to choose between leaving the path and going briefly on River St, which is parallel to the path, OR carrying your bike up or down some stairs. Important : I recommend using the foot path as much as possible when traveling between the segments 1 and 2. You could ride on Kent city streets, but they are complicated and the views along the foot path are much nicer.
Nice trail, but note that it is closed at mile 5 (from the north). Work being done on highway overpasse
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