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The Ernst Trail runs about 12 miles across Crawford County from the Kerrtown section of Meadville to the Conneaut Cellars Winery at Conneaut Lake, on the grade of the old Meadville and Linesville Railroad. It is rail-grade flat the whole way, with only a few feet of change end to end. The eastern miles out of Meadville are paved and follow the wooded bottomland of French Creek past Beans, Mercer Pike, and Krider Road trailheads. Beyond that the surface turns to gravel and the corridor opens out along Conneaut Marsh, with farm fields and wildflower meadows on either side. Trailheads with parking every few miles let you pick a distance, and a covered bridge and benches mark the volunteer-built sections.
Ernst Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Ernst Trail has about 108 to 143 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, biking, birding, running, and walking, with May, September, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Ernst Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Ernst Trail peaks October 18 to 29, typically around October 23. The trail has 38% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, black cherry, northern red oak, and sugar maple.
A group of Meadville entrepreneurs built the Meadville and Linesville Railroad between 1880 and 1892 to reach the Pennsylvania Railroad at Linesville. The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad leased the line soon after. For a time its best business was passengers, not freight: the trains carried summer crowds from Meadville out to Exposition Park on Conneaut Lake, the resort later renamed Conneaut Lake Park. Automobiles took that trade away, and the passenger runs to the park ended in the 1930s. The grade sat unused for decades. Calvin Ernst, a Meadville seed farmer, came to own the right-of-way, and in 1996 he donated it to French Creek Recreational Trails, a volunteer nonprofit. The Ernst Bike Trail was born that year. Volunteers cleared brush, paved the first miles south of Meadville along French Creek, and built a covered bridge. By 2003 the paved section was complete enough to be certified as a National Recreation Trail. The group then worked west along Conneaut Marsh a piece at a time, and in September 2023 the last gap closed, giving a continuous 12 mile route from Shippen Street in Kerrtown to the Conneaut Cellars Winery at Conneaut Lake. A one mile Meadville Connector from Beans Trailhead toward Kerrtown has since been paved, and the group is raising money to pave the gravel miles from the Conneaut Lake end.
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