Peninsula - Cuyahoga Valley Adventure Loop

This route combines parts of the Towpath Trail, Summit Metro Parks Bike & Hike Trail, abandoned roads, and connector trails to create a challenging, hilly ride that connects some of the most popular destinations in the Cuyahoga Valley. These include the Beaver Marsh, Hale Farm & Village, the Boston Mill Visitor Center/Boston Store, and Brandywine Falls.

We've included this route in our Road Cycling section because there are some brief parts of public roads on the route, but ideally, you'll want to use a mountain bike or a cyclocross/adventure road bike with wide tires to handle the trails, gravel, and broken pavement. There are some steep climbs and descents on extremely rough terrain. This ride is popular with mountain bikers to get some semi-off-road miles and climbing done when the mountain bike trails are closed. If you're on a mountain bike, you can take a detour on some singletrack, as the route also goes right by the East Rim Mountain Bike Trails.

The ride finishes with a harrowing descent down the abandoned Akron-Peninsula Road, a.k.a. "Suicide Hill." Make sure your brakes are in good working order and watch out for uphill bike and hiker traffic.

Since parking space at our Peninsula store can be limited, the starting and ending point for the route is at the Lock 29 Trailhead, located on at 1648 Mill St W, Peninsula, OH 44264. Restrooms and drinking water are available at the start/finish as well as at a few spots along the route (Hunt Farm Visitor Center, Station Road Trailhead, and Brandywine Falls).

You can make the ride about one-third shorter by skipping the southern section of the Towpath Trail and turn right onto the Towpath from start at the Lock 29 Trailhead.