Weekend Warrior: Adventures in West Virginia's Hatfield McCoy

My friends and I took a trip to Hatfield McCoy's on December 30th and 31st. I ride a 2002 WR426, Darren rides a 2005 WR250, and Jeff is on a 2004 CRF230. We saw there was going to a break in the weather, so we planned our first trip over to West Virginia from Columbus, Ohio. We headed down on the December 29 so we could get an early start the next morning.

We started out on the trail by 10 a.m. and headed south towards Matewan. The trails were somewhat slick with most of the puddles still frozen over. The green trails were nice and fast since there were no other riders out there—we had no worries about running into someone heading the other way. The blue trails were just right, plenty of climbs and descents. We made it down to Matewan around 1 p.m., rode into town and filled up with gas, grabbed a snack and headed back out by about 2 p.m.

Working our way back up towards Delbarton, we hit a couple of single-track trails (orange). The single track was a little technical, mostly just narrow, weaving in and out of trees. This ended up being a great day of riding; I put 52 miles on the WR.

That night we loaded up the bikes and drove up to Logan to get a room so we could ride the Rockhouse trails the next day. Rockhouse is appropriately named—this place was loaded with rocks, which made the ride much more challenging. Even some of the green trails had more rocks than any beginner rider would want to tackle. We decided that we wanted to make it into Gilbert by lunchtime so we headed south, staying mostly on the blue and green trails while heading down, with the plan of hitting the black and orange trails on the way back up. The connector trail leading into Gilbert was mostly mud, but it was doable, just a little slippery.

We got a quick sandwich at the local filing station, and since we wanted to be on the road home by 3 p.m., we decided to eat and run. We headed back out decided to take the green trails (No. 10) up most of the way until we got to trail 199 (orange). We were making good time, so I figured we could take a detour up this single track and connect with the black trail (No. 93).

No. 199 is approximately 2.5 miles long riding up and along the ridge of what appeared to be the highest mountain in the area. We started up this trail and got to the first real climb, which was what looked to be straight up. The trail was layered with some kind of brick pavers since there was no way anyone would ever make it up this trail without them. The trail did not go straight up the hill either, we had to go around a couple trees and boulders, and then it turned to the left and went along the edge of the mountain. Just a slight slip would send us sliding down the side until a tree stopped us.

We made a sharp left turn and up again to where we thought that it couldn't possibly go any higher. After weaving through the trees a bit more, we came out in a clearing where all we could see was more trail heading up the ridge even higher, through areas that mountain goats would have a hard time climbing. Every time we'd make it through a section, we'd think it couldn't possibly get any worse, and we would end up coming across another climb that was even more unbelievable.

PIcture 1
My friend Darren standing on top of a rock on trail 199. That was where we had to climb the rock and make a hard left, or end up falling down the right side of the mountain. He was in position so that when I rode his bike up the rock, he could prevent me from riding his bike off the mountain!

Picture 2
Looking down just to show what the trail was like afterwards. It took us almost 2 hours to traverse this 2.5-mile trail. We could have walked it faster than that. I must say that I was the only in my group who enjoyed it! After riding that trail, it seemed we would have been better off to ride it in the opposite direction—descending the rocks rather than climbing them.

Once we got through this area, it flattened out for the most part and brought us out to trail No. 93 (black). This trail would have been interesting coming up, but coming down it wasn't too bad (especially after what we had just been through). It was covered in slate rock that would move around underneath our tires while we were descending. We linked back up with trail No. 10 and headed back to the trailhead to load up and head home. I ended up with 49 more miles on the WR, which gave us a total of 91 miles for the two-day trip. Some would say that is not a lot, but in these conditions, we did a ton of riding!

I would recommend Hatfield McCoy's to anyone that wants to have a great day of riding. I am planning on taking my family there this summer to see what it is like when it is dry and warm.