The Five Mile Trail is a paved greenway that runs from Newtown Road near Turpin High School in Turpin Hills to the Anderson Towne Center Mall in Anderson Township. The trail is named not because of its length but rather for the fact that it travels along Five Mile Road for most of the trail’s southern half. This 2.5 mile long path is paved and the northern half is quite scenic. I encountered a number of cyclists and pedestrians during my time on the trail and had I started earlier in the day and had the sky not been so cloudy I think I would have seen even more people out using the trail.

However, I would not recommend this trail to any novice cyclist or any family with young children looking for a bike outing. My reason for this warning is because there are a number of challenging climbs on this trail. The first one comes immediately if you decide to travel north to south on the trail. Beginning at the Newtown Road Trailhead in Turpin Hills you have to climb for the first .70 miles. You rise 115 feet in elevation over that span. It’s a tough way to start out without a warm up. (It was a great way to finish on the return trip, except for almost hitting a deer coming around a turn on this downhill just before arriving at the trailhead.) The second challenging climb is over a hill found between Clough Pike and State Road. It really doesn’t matter which direction you are traveling with this hill. You have to climb 60 feet of elevation over .30 of a mile heading south, and 40 feet of elevation over .20 of a mile heading north.

On the southern end of the trail you don’t so much find a trailhead as much as you find 2 venues where you can find parking. First is the Anderson Center, which is the conference, meeting, and events center. As the Center’s website points out it is a place for wedding ceremonies, wedding receptions, special occasions and meetings & conferences. The second venue is Anderson Towne Center Mall. Plenty of retail and plenty of parking.

Overall I enjoyed this trail, however, I didn’t expect it to be as hilly as it was. Again, probably not a trail for novice or young riders. Finally, in addition to the hills, there are two road crossings that require you to wait for crossing signals. Again, perhaps this makes this a trail for young cyclists to avoid. Perhaps if you are looking for a trail in which to do hill climbing training this may be one for you. Finally, I would like to suggest to the Anderson Township Trustees that they should consider trying to raise funds to connect this trail to the Little Miami Scenic Trail near Clear Creek Park. I suspect that my proposed extension would end up being as hilly as the current trail, but it would increase the utility of the trail by creating a safe cycling connection to downtown Cincinnati and to the nearby cities of Mariemont, Terrace Park, and Milford.

I had ridden part of the Scioto Greenway several times as it is a critical link in the Ohio to Erie Trail (OTET) route. This time, I chose to ride Scioto Greenway Trail to see what the other sections of this trail had to offer.

I chose to start at the center of the trail. I parked at the Boat House Restaurant & Event Center found at Confluence Park. Confluence Park is a peninsula that is formed at the intersection of the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers. The Boat House has a large parking lot which sits at the intersection of the Scioto Greenway and Olentangy Trails. This makes parking here very convenient for cyclists.

From the Boat House, I chose to ride west first. What I was most curious about in this portion of the trail was what was worth being seen beyond the Hilltop Connector Trail as I had never gone beyond that point when riding the OTET. Unfortunately, there really isn’t much to see. While a good part of the trail west of Confluence Park does follow the Scioto River you don’t see much of the water as the trees and undergrowth only give up small glimpses of the river. The eventually crosses over Dublin Road (US-33) and travels along this road until it reaches West 5th Avenue. If you were to skip a section of the Scioto Greenway, this western section should be the one you drop.

After I peddled back to Confluence Park and then headed east toward downtown Columbus. This section of the trail is absolutely beautiful. I enjoyed the trail views of the Scioto River, the downtown skyscrapers, and the many bridges that crossed the river. The section from Confluence Park to when the trail passes under Interstate 70 is one of my favorite sections of trail from throughout Ohio. It is definitely a parklike setting with well manicured lawns, improved landscaping, picnic areas, and memorial statues. You view all this with a backdrop of downtown’s tall buildings. This section of the Scioto Greenway, on both sides of the river, is definitely worth a trip to check it out.

When you pass under I-70 you enter into Scioto Audubon Metro Park. The 120-acre park provides active recreation activities to the community. Activities such as hiking, biking, jogging, inline skating, kayaking, and fishing can be enjoyed here. I found that this was the busiest area along the route on the Saturday afternoon that I rode the trail. The natural areas of this section were quite a contrast to the commercial west and the manicured downtown areas. When you reach the southeast corner of Scioto Audubon, you find yourself at the boat (kayak/canoe) launch area to Greenlawn Avenue Low Head Reservoir. At first, I thought that I had reached the end of the trail, however, the trail does continue along West Whittier St. up to the Columbus’ Brewery District, a section of German Village. Once you reach Front Street in the Brewery District the trail leads to Greenlawn Avenue and its bridge where the street and trail cross back over the river. Once you come off of the bridge you loop back underneath it, and the trail follows the Scioto again for a little over 1.5 miles while it passes by the athletic fields of Berliner Park. The trail just dead ends right before reaching OH-104. This is probably the most wooded portion of the entire trail.

After backtracking back to the downtown section of the trail, I crossed from the East Bank to the West Bank of the Scioto River. I crossed using the Main Street Bridge which has a raised bike and pedestrian deck separated from the bridge’s traffic deck. On the West Bank of the Scioto River you will pass by and have access to COSI, the Ohio Center of Science and Industry, and the National Veterans Memorial and Museum. After passing the Veteran’s Memorial Grove, you will pass under two railroad bridges and OH-315 before you reach North Souder Avenue Bridge where the bike lane will take you back over the Scioto River one more time into Confluence Park and the Boat House Restaurant and Event Center parking lot.

I really enjoyed this trail. There is a lot to see and a wide variety of sights along the way. I would highly recommend checking it out. I’m somewhat curious to find out how well lit the downtown section of the trail is at night because I think that if it is well lit it would be a great place for an evening ride.

Great little ride, 7 miles down and 7 miles back. Interesting spots along the way - Eastwood Park, Dayton Firefighters Training Center, National Museum of USAF, Riverscape Park, Downtown Dayton. Nice ramps going from trail up to store level of Downtown. We rode one block from Riverscape Park over to Canal St. Arcade & Deli for lunch. Great place with great sandwiches. Tons of arcade games. Nice outdoor seating. Really enjoyed this short trail. Clean & well maintained.

The Hellbranch Trail is a greenway that I would describe as a commuter path. It runs predominantly in a North-South direction through the western portion of Hilliard, Ohio. It connects the Hilliard neighborhoods of Hoffman Farms, Colonial Lanes, Heritage Lakes, Lakewood, Westbriar, and Brookfield Village to local parks such as Homestead Metro Park, Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park, the Hilliard Family Aquatic Center, Franks Park, Clover Groff Natural Area, Spindler Dog Park, and Spindler Sports Complex.

The trail is extremely flat with very little change in elevation. The trail has a combination of trail surfaces: asphalt, widened cement sidewalks and crushed stone. My biggest complaint about this so-called trail is a lack of signage. For a named trail or route there was absolutely no signs to indicate where this route went. In a bicycle friendly city such as Hilliard that can be a problem. There are a lot of separated bike paths that parallel the roads of the city. Due to a lack of trail signs, if you are trying to follow a specific route, when you come to a road intersection many times you're not sure whether you should cross the street to continue in the same direction or make a turn. If I had not used the TrailLink app on my phone I would probably have made a number of wrong turns on my outward leg of my out-and-back ride of this trail.

If you live outside of Hilliard, I would suggest following TrailLink's recommendation to park at the Spindler Sports Complex and ride north. I think that if you ride in this direction the trail's path will be a little more clear (since there are no trail signs) than if you choose to ride from the north. Since this trail travels through quite a few residential neighborhoods there are not a lot of trailheads along the way, but Spindler Sports Complex in the south, Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park in the center, and Homestead Metro Park off of the connected Heritage Rail-Trail in the north are areas with plenty of parking.

I enjoyed this trail. It was a very pleasant ride. It has a lot of utility to connect the citizens Hilliard to their city's parks, but I don't think it is a must ride/walk Ohio trail for people outside of Hilliard. I do think that it is a significant enough route for the city's residents that it would be worthwhile for the city to mark the trail route with signs and distances to the different city facilities along the way.

My wife and I read the reviews before starting out in Bellefontaine and were pleasantly surprised at how smooth the chip & seal trail was. The first few miles the scenery is nothing exceptional but once you get away from town and closer to West Liberty it opens up to beautiful rolling farm fields and woods which is spectacular in the fall. I would recommend starting out in West Liberty (there is a parking lot for access to the trail off SR 245) and riding the 10 miles to Urbana. The Depot Coffee shop is right off the trail as you enter Urbana and a welcome stop before continuing south or the return trip to West Liberty. We're looking forward to completing the ride from Urbana to Springfield on our next trip! My wife and I are in our 60's and healthy but not avid cyclists. The trail is flat and rides easily. It's a hidden gem and a wonderful way to spend a beautiful fall afternoon.

I’m glad I tried this trail. I was looking for a short ride so I went down and back on this trail for about 7.5 miles. Lots of turns, beautiful scenery, and several parking areas with access to the trail. It would be ideal for children because of the distance and since there is a nice playground at one of the parking area.

This place has alot of hill that are very steep. Tried different parts of the park and they were all no fit for any rollerblading. If you attempt to blade here be prepared to crash or go to the hospital.

Beautiful and varied scenery, start to finish.The northern end is poorly marked!We completely lossed the trail at Piqua and had to double back...just added to the adventure. ¿¿

The trail from Verona to Trotwood is nice, some tree lined, mostly riding through corn and bean fields. DO NOT try to take the connector to the southern section. Route is not marked, no bike lane and once we found the trail back, it was covered with weeds and glass.