A trail town provides a destination around which you can plan your outdoor recreation. Head here for a weekend or more and set up your base camp at a local campground, or enjoy creature comforts at one of the local motels or bed and breakfasts. There are hometown restaurants, shops, and other in-town amenities to complement your outdoor forays on the Trail and other outdoor activities along creeks and rivers in your kayak or out on a bike trail on your bike.

Get to know small-town Ohio's backroads, byways, and genuine friendliness as you base your next outdoor expedition from an Ohio Trail Town.

Featured Trail Towns

St. Marys

Indians found the St. Marys River to be an essential travel route. By portages of only six miles at high water and 26 at low water, they could travel from Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico. Before the construction of Grand Lake St. Marys, which drained about half of the river's watershed area, the river could handle the largest flat-bottom boats.

Defiance

Defiance is the heart of the historic Maumee River Valley and is where the Maumee and Auglaize Rivers meet. From its earliest days, Defiance has been a hub for the shipping and receiving goods. Whether it was early supplies passing through Fort Winchester or goods being transferred on the Miami-Wabash and Erie canals that ran through the community, transportation has played a major role in our development. In later years, the addition of several railways that traveled through Defiance helped to facilitate the industrial growth that continues to support the city today.

Featured Trail Towns

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