The Hatfield/McCoy is made up entirely of privately held lands, most of which are still owned by huge oil, timber and mining companies. The Appalachian terrain is extremely hilly with a hard rock base on most of the trails.

Even though it was mid-March, springtime was just beginning to creep out along the trails. The Hatfield-McCoy Trail System is a statutory corporation created by West Virginia legislation for the purpose of economic development through tourism in nine southern West Virginia counties. As of March 2007, the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System totaled over 500 miles of off-road trails in five of its nine project counties. Each of its six trail systems are open to ATV's, off-highway motorcycles, select utility vehicles (UTVs), mountain bikes, horses, and hikers.

 

With the solid base on most of the trails, puddles from an earlier rain would stick around for days and make for great photographs by the visiting riders. Incredibly, over 80% of the 25,000 riding permits bought last year were purchased by riders from out of state and it wasn't unusual for some to come from as far away as Europe and Japan!

Though the riding conditions were a bit on the muddy side, some riders figured out some quick and easy methods to get cleaned up at the end of the day so they could do it all over again the next morning. By the way, the Hatfield/McCoy trailhead facilities were first-class and even featured heated changing/restrooms.

A group of NAOPM/NOHVCC riders take a break during their day-long run from the town of Man to Gilbert by way of the Browning Fork area in the Hatfield/McCoy. Although many of the trails were built on already existing logging/mining roads, there are quite a few challenging single-track trails for motorcycles only that were built by the Hatfield/McCoy staff.

There were still a few signs of winter during the first part of the week along the trails but things quickly warmed for the latter half of the Conferences.

The overall goal of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails project is to develop a world class trail system with an emphasis on safety in each of its nine project counties throughout southern West Virginia. Project estimates have concluded that once the trails are developed and linked through each of the project counties, there may be as much as 2000 miles of total trails. Long term plans for the Hatfield-McCoy Trails also include a 4x4 park in Kanawha County and designated trail areas for equestrian and other non-motorized users.

Nothing like a rousing trail ride to get everyone revved up for the business at hand when the Conferences would commence a few days later.

 A favorite playground at the Dingess Rum area is a small mountain of shale that was leftover from an old mining operation. Much of the land within the Hatfield/McCoy is still utilized by the timber, oil and mining companies. "We have to be flexible with their operations and occasionally have to shut down certain trails," explains Hatfield/McCoy Marketing Director Mike Pinkerton. "That's the tradeoff we have by using private lands, but there is so much area to ride that the temporary trail closures rarely cause a problem."

Many of the trail systems also offer community connecting trails that allow visitors to access “OHV friendly towns” to experience the charm of southern West Virginia. It certainly makes  refueling and getting lunch a lot easier, too!

West Virginia NOHVCC Representative Mike Pinkerton showed us a few abandoned mines along the trails. There's even an area where smoke from a decades-long underground coal fire still seeps to the surface

A lucky handful of NOHVCC folks were able to sneak away on Thursday to enjoy an incredible rafting adventure down the New River. That water swamping the paddlers in this photograph is basically snowmelt, but the crew reported that they were quite comfortable in the wetsuits. Thanks go out to Rivers Whitewater Rafting Resort for offering the guided trips to the NAOPM and NOHVCC participants at a discounted rate. Not only were the rapids at a peak (several were rated Class V), but the history and scenery on the trip were quite spectacular.