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Best bike trails
Towpath Trail from Rockside to Peninsula
Where the Towpath leaves behind the commercial district of the Valley and its hard paved path for the softer, crushed limestone path hugging the Ohio and Erie Canal to the left and the winding expanse of the Cuyahoga River, forests and fields of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to your right. You can walk and bike in this gorgeous natural setting for miles.
With paved trails totaling about 70 miles, the Emerald Necklace Trail of the Cleveland Metroparks is still one of the longer trail networks in the state. For much of its length, it follows the scenic valleys of the Rocky and Chagrin rivers.
Starting at Day's Dam in Lorain and ending at the High Meadows picnic area in Elyria, this 4-1/2 mile trail passes through meadows and forest groves, under bridges and over the treetops on a 1,000-foot bridge that crosses the river in two places.
The Harrison-Dillard Bikeway runs parallel to MLK Drive and Doan Brook for 3.74 miles through Cleveland's Rockefeller Park. The backdrop of the park and its Cultural Gardens makes this a very scenic urban trail. The trail connects University Circle with Gordon Lakefront Park.
The Maple Highlands Trail is a 12.4-mile long linear park that utilizes sections of the abandoned Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad corridor in Geauga County. The trail currently extends from Colburn Road at the Lake-Geauga border to Headwaters Park in Claridon & Huntsburg townships.
This ride starts at the West Side Market, head toward downtown on the bike path of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, right at Orange Avenue, take the vacated bridge at the old E. 9th Street before the Main Post Office to South Broadway in the industrial Flats. Get up close with the steel mills to Newburgh Heights. It's a glimpse of Cleveland's industrial might past and present.
The city of Beachwood added park features and 2.6 miles of paved bike trails in the median between Shaker Boulevards east and west, from Green to Richmond roads. The trail continues west to Warrensville Road in Shaker Heights.
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