Parking is available at the ball fields on Clay Street and Water Street. There is a 1-acre marsh just south of Robin Industries where you can see Yellow Warblers, Indigo Buntings, and Catbirds. The majority of the bird activity is in the woods north of the water treatment plant. There are many large trees, thickets, and small streams running through the area, making it an ideal woodland bird habitat. One can see warblers and vireos through migration as well as Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Wood Thrush, and both oriole species.

A scope is not necessary but a good pair of binoculars will help!

Most of the Holmes County Trail is in Holmes County. The northern terminus of the trail is in Fredericksburg in Wayne County. Please start a new eBird checklist when you cross the county line.

Labeled as the first Trail in the nation to accommodate Amish buggies, the unique and scenic Holmes County Trail now has 15 miles of its 29-mile trail open from Fredericksburg to Killbuck.

One lane of the trail is paved with asphalt for biking, roller-blading, walking, running, and wheelchairs, while the adjoining buggy and equestrian trail is paved with “chip and seal” for horse-drawn vehicles and horseback riding. Upon completion of the 29-mile trail, Holmes and Knox County will consist of over 50 miles of uninterrupted trail giving trail users a unique recreational facility in the Ohio to Erie Trail System through Ohio’s heartland.

The Trail is a great place to connect and reconnect and become reoriented with nature. We need wild places of solitude at times. Not every county in this nation has a natural corridor of beauty 29 miles long cleaving its heartland and owned in common by all its residents. “Let those who championed the Holmes County Trail project be remembered for their courage, sacrifice, vision, generosity, and impact on the lives of the generations that will follow us.”