LYBURN, W.Va. — The Hatfield-McCoy Trails are now in all nine of the counties which were part of the original enabling legislation to create the off road riding system. Now, 26-years later, the plan is to shift gears from building trail systems to hooking them all together.
During the most recent quarterly meeting of the Hatfield McCoy Trail board, a new ten-year plan was approved and called for getting more coalfield communities hooked up with a trail access point.
“Throughout the years we have made connections into some communities, but there are still some communities we still want to make connections to. These riders are coming here and they are looking for places to ride to,” said Executive Director John Fekete.
They’d also like to connect as many of the actual trail systems as possible. Some are spread widely across the coalfields with more than a thousand miles of trails. Finding a way to make the connections requires a lot of negotiation and finesse. Fekete said over the years the negotiations have become somewhat easier since landowners now understand what the trail is and how it can benefit their property with no liability. But finding the right fit to create a connector trail requires the right people.
“That’s always the challenge when going from Point A to Point B. You may have one landowner or you may have ten. We depend on the mayors and county commissioners to help us make contact with those landowners,” he explained.
Once the landowners sign a contract with the Hatfield McCoy System they are immune from most lawsuits over the trail use. Fekete said they are always looking for the next town connector.
The success of the Hatfield McCoy Trails over the past 26 years has spurred more growth. Both Virginia and Kentucky have trail systems now and in West Virginia a lot of private trails are popping up throughout the region and state. The trail draws visitors to full blown ATV resorts which are multi-Million dollar investments. Fekete said that’s not a problem.
“We welcome other trail systems to come in. I know that sounds opposite of what we should do, but these other systems that pop up are actually creating more riders,” he explained.
Ridership continues to be about 80 percent out of state and 20 percent from West Virginia. According to an economic impact study by Marshall University, those out of state riders are coming back over and over again.
“We’re getting a lot of repeats. Most hit us up in the spring because they’ve got cabin fever, then they come back in the fall to see these beautiful leaves change,” he explained.
The study determined the system averages about 93,000 riders annually. Ohio remains the top state from which the HMT draws riders. North Carolina is second and Pennsylvania is third. The study estimated 284,000 user days each year for ridership on the trail.