Hold Onto Your Helmets

Fact: kids love playing in the mud. The bigger the kid, the bigger the mud puddle required, as the creators of West Virginia’s Hatfield-McCoy Trails have discovered to their delight.

There’s irresistible allure for a lot of folks in roaring through the woods and across the rolling fields of southern West Virginia while strapped into powerful all-terrain vehicles, seeking out the next slippery, sloppy, gooey, gloppy, splashy patch of earth, and emerging exhausted, exhilarated and covered in mud. Adventure seekers from all 50 states and a dozen countries have discovered the Hatfield-McCoy Trails and are coming back for more, bringing their families and friends to share a “bucket list” fresh air experience.

Spread across a quarter-million acres of leased private land in seven economically distressed counties, the Hatfield-McCoy Trails currently offer some 900 miles of ATV trails on 10 distinct, carefully mapped and maintained trail systems—the largest such complex in the Eastern United States—with plans to expand to a total of 1,500 miles with three additional counties by 2024. That’s according to Jeffrey T. Lusk, executive director of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails Regional Recreation Authority, the public corporation that oversees the development, maintenance, and safety of the trails. Eventually the trail system may include multi-state agreements with Kentucky and Virginia, both of which also have a lot of unused land left over from the mining days.

The Hatfield-McCoy name refers to a decades-long family feud that raged in the region more than a century ago. Those days are long past, and today it’s a love-fest of cooperation to create prosperity anew.

What began as a desperate but highly focused attempt to reverse the severe economic decline that followed coal mining’s collapse in West Virginia has taken hold and only picked up momentum since Covid-19 disrupted typical travel patterns.

“Basically, the ATV is the new coal,” said Henry Shinn, a New Jersey native and long-time ATV enthusiast who migrated south in 2019 to open Hidden Hollow ATV Ranch in Rock, West Virginia. “I’ve been doing this since I was a kid and I spent the last 20 years down here riding the area, starting in Matewan, and worked through all the systems before deciding to settle in these southern trails,” he said.

“The biggest draw is the open, healthy air. It smells good, the people are fine. It’s just plain old down-home people who enjoy the fact that you’re down here. There are some people who don’t like the ATVers and the dust, but the coal industry here is dying.”

Shinn and others who are moving to the area to open ATV-related businesses say the trails in southern West Virginia are the most user-friendly in the state for beginners, with plenty of wide, well-groomed trails. The toughest—color-coded with black diamonds or double-diamonds, indicating a kind of motorized rock climbing—are sprinkled throughout. Many of the trail systems link up through a tracery of the public roads connecting the old coal towns themselves. Getting around is easy.

“The thing I find the most thrilling is go see the waterfalls and drive through the tunnels,” Shinn said. “It’s just a cool feeling, the beautiful waterfalls. You have to hunt to find them, but there’s tons of local guides. I stand in awe sometimes, just standing on top of my mountain. I’m humbled by it.”

For people who haven’t tried ATV riding, Shinn explains it as “the freedom to be out in the open and see things they’ve never seen before.” There’s “beautiful scenery, wildlife, deer, turkey, black bears, snakes. There’s a lot of freedom, a lot of adventurism.” And he points out that the cost is about half that of a high-end theme park.

“Our goal, as lodge owners, is to make this area the new Disney, and if things go the way we think they will … in the next five to 10 years this will be the next big thing.”

The growth trajectory bears out Shinn’s prediction: From 2020 to 2021, sales of annual trail permits—required for every rider—rose 46 percent, to nearly 94,000. Out-of-state residents bought more than 80 percent of those permits.

This is not a handout

The leadership of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails has been unified since its creation, in 1996, by the state legislature: the purpose of a trail system was not just for recreation. It was meant to stimulate economic growth by the private sector. That theme runs through almost every utterance that Lusk, the authority’s executive director and head cheerleader, as he calls himself—makes as he visits chambers of commerce, banks, real estate firms, and other funding entities.

“Entrepreneurship is the key driver behind growth of the trail system,” Lusk said. “The purpose of the authority is to manage the trail system and create an environment for ATV riders to enjoy the trails while supporting entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals to invest. The Hatfield-McCoy Trails are the catalyst for new private sector economic development.”

At the peak of West Virginia’s coal economy, early in the 20th century, employment in the coalfields reached about 100,000 people; today that figure is closer to 10,000, and the industry is highly mechanized, highly paid, and reliant on rigorously trained personnel.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a web of booming coal towns in southern West Virginia produced the clean-burning anthracite coal—metallurgical coal—that helped build modern industry and helped win World War II. Even today, West Virginia coal remains a multi-billion dollar industry with worldwide reach, and it powers most of the state’s electrical grid.

But as cleaner fuels began to gain market share in the United States and overseas, West Virginia’s coal industry faltered. Populations fell and poverty took hold. The Hatfield-McCoy Trails has been built on the availability of vast stretches of coal and timber lands that remain under private ownership but are utilized far less than before. The trail organizers got a boost with the cooperation of those large landowners, many of whom agreed to lease their unused real estate at no-cost or low-cost terms, while the authority indemnifies their risk. (The Authority does own the Ivy Trail system land.)

Lusk said that the region’s way forward lay not with government handouts but with government support for building a framework that could lead to private initiative. “The companies work with the authority to ensure that properties with current or future coal, timber and natural gas extraction are avoided and not placed under agreement. The land resource being provided for trail systems is valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

In encouraging “a new tourist economy that did not exist,” Lusk said the authority has played honest broker between individuals, families, and existing small business owners, and the sources of capital that propel opportunity to reality. At the same time, the organization works with West Virginia law enforcement and its own maintenance staff to provide safe trails. “Hatfield-McCoy and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources set the standard in safety and law enforcement on the trails. Natural resource police officers, who are graduate of the West Virginia State Police Academy, patrol each trail system and enforce all safety and game laws.”

Another unusual feature of the trails is that towns and counties all along the way can set their own regulations for where and when ATVs may use their streets. The Town of Bramwell, for instance, allows ATVs, but not on Main Street. Some towns don’t allow the machines on residential streets. The advantage of allowing ATV use on at least some public roads is that businesses that cater to the recreational crowd will see growing demand. In other words, mud and noise can be modulated if it suits the locals.

This entrepreneurial approach is working, Lusk said, but it has been a “slow grind; baby steps.” The fast-growing popularity of Hatfield-McCoy has not been matched by the availability of lodging, and internet connectivity is an ongoing issue. But therein lies opportunity. Local folks are renovating houses they’ve inherited and are turning them into ATV lodgings. Existing cabin and lodge owners are adding rooms, tree houses, even yurts. Newcomers are starting to plan bigger projects. Restaurants are coming in, and there’s room for amusements like zip lines and coasters. Chris Zeto, marketing director for the Hatfield-McCoy Trails, knows of one man who pulled the engine out of his Corvette, bolted it to a boat, and created an airboat ride on the Tug River.

“It does snowball,” Lusk said. “It’s packed here on the weekends. Now there’s a run on the bank for capital. It really has changed the dynamic but it’s taken 20 years.”

The more the merrier

A few years back, a lot of the ATV visitors were guys who would drive in for a weekend of trail riding. Nowadays the family attraction is growing, and they’re staying longer. That’s good news for everyone concerned with pumping up the local economy. An ATV with a single rider doesn’t pack as much punch—in terms of dollars—as a group of friends or relatives on the bigger UTVs.

Research has shown that 75 percent of visitors stay for three or four days, rather than one or two. West Virginia resident trail riders pay $26.50 plus tax for a yearly permit—a sticker that must be worn on the required safety helmet—while out-of-state visitors pay $50 plus tax.

ATV-related businesses are starting to ramp up. Riders who have had to drive 10 or more hours from home to reach the trails may come to prefer renting vehicles on site rather than towing them; after all, gas costs are rising. Vehicle rentals are widely available, if pricey, at $400 to $500 per day. Similarly, frequent riders may find it easier to garage their own ATVs near the trails to eliminate the towing. Thus, there’s potential for storage units to be built in the region. Visitors from Canada and the Midwest could also be attracted to come vacation and explore the trails.

Empty storefronts in many ailing coal towns are starting to fill up again with cafes and gift shops. In Bramwell, Chad Rush, a former South Carolina law enforcement officer, has arrived and created overnight rental units from four old apartments at a 1920s-era storefront; downstairs his family runs the new Honeycomb Cafe. He says 85 percent of his guests come for the ATV trails.

Kerry Bush is an accidental ATV entrepreneur. She followed her boyfriend from their home in Ohio for his engineering job in nearby Tazewell, Virginia. Now she has turned her photography skills into a business called ATV Shots. She photographs riders as they set off on the trails. “It’s crazy,” she says. “We didn’t know it was as big as it was until we got here. It’s really cool. I really like it as a resident. ATVs are very noisy, but they add vibrancy to the area.”

She has ridden a few times herself and calls the thrill “like a roller coaster…Disney in the woods.”

In the end, the intangible attractions may be more important than the hardware, the grease and gears. Henry Shinn of Hidden Hollow ATV Ranch says he supplies most of what his visitors need: coffee, firewood, ice makers, laundry facilities, and tablet devices to take out on the trail for navigation. What he doesn’t supply are the memories.

“You’ve got to make those yourself,” he said.

Getting acquainted with the Hatfield-McCoy Trails

The go-to website for using the Hatfield-McCoy Trails is trailsheaven, produced by the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority. Find:

• Downloadable maps for all trails, trail apps for GPS navigation, and QR codes for trail assistance
• How and where to buy the required trail permits, plus safety regulations
• Lodging and dining options
• Machine rentals and add-on liability insurance
• Gift certificates
• Registration information for the annual National Trailfest, this year October 6-10 in Gilbert, West Virginia
• Information about the Devil’s Den motorcycle route
• Locations of staffed trail welcome centers
• A sampling of photos and video from the trails

Safety helmets are required on all trails and alcohol is prohibited. Children under age 6 are not permitted to ride on the trails.

Learning the lingo

­

There’s a bewildering assortment of vehicles that are often referred to simply as ATVs, or All-Terrain Vehicles. These include:

• ATVs, four-wheeled vehicles sometimes called quads or four-wheelers, all for single riders
• UTVs, which stands for Utility Terrain Vehicles. These are larger and sturdier than standard ATVs and can hold two to four riders. Also called side-by-sides or SXS machines
• Dual-sport or off-road motorcycles, called dirt bikes able to withstand tough trail conditions
• ORVs, are full-size Jeeps, trucks, or crawlers with suspension systems able to function independently
• Legislation for protective roll bars or roll-over cages continues to evolve.

Check trailsheaven.com to learn which kinds of vehicles are allowed on each trail.

Pinnacle Rock State Park

Not everyone wants to tear through the woods on the back of a revved-up ATV. Some folks just want to hike. That’s where Pinnacle Rock State Park comes in.

Located on U.S. 52 only two miles from the historic town of Bramwell, West Virginia, this day-use park features a towering snake-like rock ridge jutting up from the forest like a castle keep. The view from the top is spectacular, with billowing waves of treetops far below. Spring, summer, fall, and winter, the observation deck atop Pinnacle Rock lets visitors see the complex topography of West Virginia; a stone stairway leads to the top.

Created in 1938 as a recreation area for local residents, the park today encompasses nearly 400 acres of land, encompassing the 15-acre-Jimmy Lewis Lake—open for trout fishing—and seven miles of walking trails. The lake is most easily accessible from the town of Nemours, West Virginia.

All the trails lead downhill from the parking area to the lake, so the hike back is seriously uphill. A late 1700s two-story log cabin still stands along the Homestead Trail, although in some disrepair.

ATVs are not allowed on park trails, nor is overnight camping. There is a sturdy stone picnic structure built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the New Deal era, open-air picnic tables nearby, a playground, and rudimentary toilet facilities.

Park admission and parking are free.