Find the top rated birding trails in Salem, 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 current description of the trail here at TrailLink does says that the wood chip surface is good only for hiking/walking and mountain biking. I would limit activity to hiking and walking. There is lots of sticks and roots on the towpath on the northern end of the trail and some very deep car tire ruts in the mid-section of the trail. At best you could ride it, but with such a short length why waste your time and risk puncturing a tire. I am not trying to belittle the Zeisberger Trail and Parks group (ZTAP) trying to develop this trail, and connect it to nearby communities, but there is much work to be done before I would recommend riding your bike on this trail.
I rode the Panhandle Passage Trail in Dennison and Uhrichsville, Ohio. This isn't so much of a trail as it is an on-street loop through the parks and recreational areas of these twin towns. The most interesting or unusual part of the ride was a twisted loop through Uhrichsville’s cemetery. The only "trail" here was within Dennison's McCluskey Park around the baseball fields and playground. The route is great for the locals but it is not something I would tell people to go out of their way to ride.
There are actually two trails here, though, eventually they will probably fall under the name of Brecksville Reservation All Purpose Trail. First there is the Valley Parkway Connector Trail.
The Valley Parkway Connector Trail runs from the eastern edge of Mill Stream Run Reservation to the western edge of Brecksville Reservation. The Valley Parkway Connector Trail was the final and key link in connecting the Westside and Eastside Cleveland Metroparks. It truly connected the "Emerald Necklace" around Cleveland, OH and created about 70 miles of continuous off road trail (which includes approximately a 5 mile connection using the Towpath Trail in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.) This trail parallels the Ohio Turnpike for much of its route. You will pass under the turnpike and over Interstate 77 along the way. For a March Wednesday afternoon ride, the trail was not crowded, but it was moderately trafficked with cyclists and pedestrians. I can imagine that there will be a lot of people using this trail on the weekends particularly as the weather continues to warm up.
The other trail is the Brecksville All Purpose Trail. It is a beautiful tree shaded trail (or at least they will be once the leaves on the trees come out). Traveling east along either the Valley Parkway or Chippewa Creek Drive is easy as you descend into the depths of the Cuyahoga Valley. Heading west along either road presents some challenges with some steep climbs. Such climbs are not unusual in the Cleveland Metroparks but the two routes within the Brecksville Reservation may be among the longest and steepest on All Purpose Trails within the Cleveland Metropark Reservations.
Once you are in the valley if you head east on the trail along Chippewa Creek Drive you can connect to the Station Road Depot and Train Station for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. The Cuyahoga River flows not 50 yards from the station and the tracks. Should you choose to cross the Station Road Bridge you can walk or cycle the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. On the Towpath you can travel north into downtown Cleveland or south to Akron and beyond. The Towpath Trail is part of the Ohio to Erie Trail cross-state route. Again, this is a popular destination and it attracts lots of visitors on the weekends. You might find fewer people on these trails late in the afternoon and evenings during the summer.
Been using TrailLink for a couple yeasr, and always had good experiences. The comments/reviews give the real situation, and for this trail, it is not that great. I feel compelled to give a review.
Got on at Coraoplis trailhead, and went approx 16.5 miles out. The first 11 miles are slightly uphill, enough to make it suck. The crushed limestsone was wet in places where the sun doesnt hit, and it was cratered and bumpy throughout 80%, so my hands went numb early. It didnt help that the ambient temp was 55 and overcast.
The trail is well marked with milestones, so even without GPS on phone, one would know there progress.
The vistas sucked, lots of driving through semi industrial and then small towns, not a lot to see that was exceptional. dont know why this is rated 5 stars, no where near that, 3 stars at best.
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!
We parked near the fire department in Midway, PA. The parking lot is situated nearly on the trail with easy access. We took the trail left and rode about 3.5 miles to Sturgeon where the nice asphalt path became crushed rock near the Allegheny Co line. We turned around there preferring the asphalt and rode to Burgettstown, PA. At Burgettstown we turned around and rode back to our car only because we are older folks who bike only about 20 miles round trip. It was a nice cool fall feeling day. We saw many squirrels, birds, and beautiful golden rod fields dotted with purple iron-weed flowers throughout. A Giant Eagle grocery store is very near the McDonald, PA entrance to the trail which is a plus if you wanted to get drinks or snacks for the journey. Overall impression – Washington Co. is the winner when it comes to the Panhandle Trail. They have done an excellent job in making the bike trail smooth with asphalt, conveniently located porta-johns and nicely mowed areas and benches along 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.
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