Hatfield-McCoy Trail System

The Hatfield-McCoy trail system in southern West Virginia is named for the notorious feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families. According to Mike Pinkerton, Marketing Director for Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, there have been about 22,000 tickets sold this year for the trails and over 400,000 “user days” of riding since they opened four years ago. Much of this is a result of the over 1.5 million visitors that come to their website each month, www.trailsheaven.com.

Currently the trail system is made up of both private and public land, but a majority of the land comes from agreements with private land owners. This is a win-win situation for the landowners. Most of the trails are already open and being used by the public are now covered by the rules and regulations of the park. They are also covered by the large liability policy paid for by the Trail Authority.

Trail Fest Events and Riding

The 2004 Hatfield McCoy Trail Fest marked the anniversary of the Park's opening (October 9, 2000), but the Directors brought to our attention that the park had been in the development stage for almost ten years prior to opening day! This year they have estimated between 1,000 and 1,250 folks and their ATVs showed up for the five-day event, stretching from Thursday, October 7th to Monday, October 11th.

The folks of Gilbert were gracious hosts to the Trail Fest and extended the ATV road usage hours to 10 pm inside town limits for the event. ATVs were everywhere, and you can tell the local business community is responding to the ATV tourism. Several small homes and motels have opened for business and are all a short ride from the Browning Fork trails.

The Trail Fest had constant events organized for the 5 days, including bonfires, catered suppers, DJs and a live band, a Poker Run, Chili cook-off, and a ride with the Hatfield McCoy Directors on Sunday. In the camping area, the event planners dug out a mud trench about 50 feet long for the die-hard mudders to get stuck in. There was also a small track built for the 100 cc and under crowd.

As the headline sponsor of the event, Suzuki had a large tent set up with their current line-up on display and several other vendors lined the streets near the community center. You could find everything from T-shirts to helmets and riding gear.

Riding around on Saturday evening, I was impressed at how many folks had turned out for the event and how quick everyone was to jump in and lend a hand to a fellow ATV'er. As I was attempting to load the Bruin back into the pickup by myself, another gentleman stopped his truck, and jumped out to give me a hand loading it - many, many thanks!

The weather for the Director's Ride on Sunday was a nice 70 degrees or so at noon, and we lined up about 25-30 participants outside the registration area at the Community Center. Our trail leader for this ride was Pinkerton, and we also had Terry Harless, Director of Finance and John Fekete, Director of Field Operations, riding with us. The Mayor of Gilbert, Johnny Adams and his dog Rusty were also able to participate in the Director's ride. In fact, Adams had built and traveled quite a few of the mining roads that criss-cross the hills in the Browning Fork system.

After reaching the top of the hill climb from Gilbert we pulled off the trail for introductions to the Directors. Matt and the others gave us an overview to the Trail System and pointed out the hill climb in the back ground as a great example of how the land owners were able to solve a problem by allowing the H/M group to regulate the trail systems.

The hill climb was a problematic area that was a large concern to the owners, since the potential liability was so high and the sheer amount of trail bypasses being blazed. Today the dangerous hill climb is closed off, trails are clearly marked and those bypasses are starting to grow over once again.

As we continued down Trail 10, we came to a section that is shared with heavy equipment, used in various operations by the land owners. The trail is fairly wide at this point and pretty dusty too unless you have had a recent rainstorm. Many of the mountains in this area were “bore hole” mined for coal 30-plus years ago and there is quite a bit of natural gas that is currently being collected. Landowners sign an agreement with the Trail System authority that allows them to revoke usage by simply giving a 30 day notice, and there is always a possibility that some of the trails will be closed in the future for a mining operation.

The newest section of the Hatfield McCoy Trail System is the Pinnacle Creek area, which opened on May 26, 2004 , bringing the total amount of trails in the system to over 500 miles. The Directors continue to pursue new trails for the system with an overall goal of over 2,000 miles altogether.

They are currently considering opening an area that will cater directly to the side by side ATV vehicles that are becoming so popular and possibly opening up a system for Jeeps and other 4x4s.

We had a few riders along with us on Sunday that were literally on their ATV for the second time ever, obviously enjoying the GREEN/Easy trails, and we were able to watch some of the harder-core folks head up the narrowest and steepest BLACK/difficult trails as well. It is no wonder where they came up with the website name “Trails Heaven!”

By the time we pulled back into the community center parking lot, most of the campground was empty and only the truly hardcore were staying for the riding on Monday.

Local Facilities & Access

The Larry Joe Harless Community Center, located in Gilbert , WV was the headquarters for the event. The Harless center has four movie theatres, an indoor Olympic-size pool, basketball court, locker rooms, meeting space and exercise equipment. The registration area was located in one of the meeting rooms.

The Larry Joe Harless Community Center has tickets for sale for the H/M trails system, along with several other local vendors. The community center has a large amount of parking available as well. You can unload your ATVs in the field just beyond the center and then ride your ATVs to the trail head.

The official Fest trailhead is located a few miles from Gilbert in Man, WV, but there is an Easy-rated trail that leads directly between the two small towns. One caution about the trail from Gilbert into the Browning Fork system is that it is rather steep in places. However, once you reach the top of the hill it levels out nicely and the rest of the easy rated trails were fairly level and smooth. I did not have any trouble climbing the trail on a 2wd Yamaha Bruin, but if the trails were a bit wetter, this could have been a difficult climb without 4wd.

If you choose to stay in the Twin Hollow Campground - 304-664-8864 - it is located at the TOP of that hill climb and you can avoid it altogether. I noticed several motor homes in the campground so the road leading to it must be fairly easy to navigate and the view from on top of the mountain is fantastic!

Getting There

If you are coming from the Charleston , WV area you will be pleasantly surprised to see the new Trail markers on the highway, indicating exits for the various trailheads. If you are coming from the south, up the I-77 highway, there will eventually be interstate leading all the way to the trail system and beyond, and an exit is planned for Gilbert , WV according to the mayor.

Currently you will need to print out and following the directions from the website carefully and pay CLOSE attention to the speed limit signs. If you are pulling a trailer, you will want to be VERY VERY careful on the turns where a lower speed limit is advised - some of the turns are tight enough you may see your own taillights!

So, What Did We Think?

The Trail Fest event is an extremely well-organized event and if you are considering even a personal trip to the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System, I can assure you there are trails for every class of rider. Put it on your "Must Do" list!

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