The Sylvania River Trail follows the Ottawa River as it flows through the heart of town. The trail is a pathway for residents to get closer to the river and enjoy nature's scenic beauty just steps from the bustle of everyday business. The trail starts on Main Street and heads east, with one spur reaching north to Monroe Street along the north branch of Ten Mile Creek. Like the waterways, the two branches of the trail merge and continue through the wooded riparian area of Harroun Community Park. The trail then emerges onto Harroun Street where a crosswalk takes users to the second part of the trail, which travels along the north edge of the Flower Hospital campus, ducks under US-23 and terminates on Monroe Street. This makes for a total out-and-back journey of 3 miles.
There are plans to continue the trail's expansion east.
Parking (including accessible parking) is available at the west end of the trail at Harroun Community Park, behind the brick office building located at 5470 Main St, Sylvania, OH.
You can also park at the Kroger grocery store at the intersection of Monroe & Harroun north of where the trail crosses Harroun Road, and then take the sidewalk down to the trail.
This trail is a pleasure to walk. Calming scenery. The walk underneath Route 23 is rather neat.Can't wait to walk it in spring.
I parked at the Harroun Community Park and went west. The trail started on packed dirt, but that was just a short distance. The rest of it was on asphalt and concrete. On the return trip I took the loop, which was on packed dirt. At the top of the hill was the Lathrop House used by the Underground Railroad. Continuing on the loop was a descent and then back to the main trail. I also went across the bridge and along the newly built apartments toward the western endpoint on Main Street. Following the sidewalk south and around the building brought me back to my vehicle. My mileage totaled 3 miles. This is a nice trail for the area with most of it away from buildings, meandering along the Ottawa River and into the woods.
While we couldn’t ride the entire trail we were able to cover about 2 miles in a round trip. The Trail head at Burger King is a little sketchy, just have to watch out for drivers taking the turn pretty hard. Also not a huge fan of the crossing at Harroun Rd, but all in all it is a nice trail with some nice scenery.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails conservancy
(a non-profit) and we need your support!