JULIAN — The recent sale of a tract of land along the Boone-Lincoln county line that contains two loops of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails system has left trail users looking for other places to ride, business owners thinking about closing and trail system officials scrambling to come up with a Plan B to keep trails open in the area if they can’t reach a licensing agreement with the new owner of the property.
The Hatfield-McCoy’s Little Coal River trail system near Julian in Boone County and the nearby Ivy Branch trail system in Lincoln County, each offering about 55 miles of trails to all-terrain vehicle and off-road motorcycle enthusiasts, will close to riders on Monday as the former owners of the land transfer the property to a new buyer, who remains unidentified until the sale agreement is finalized sometime next week.
“When we got the certified letter notifying us of the sale, I was just floored,” said Jeffrey Lusk, executive director the Hatfield-McCoy Trails. “It really caught us off guard. I didn’t know the land was on the market. But one way or another, we will work through this.”
The Little Coal River Trail, which opened 12 years ago, and the Ivy Branch Trail, just three years old, are the closest trails to Charleston in the Hatfield-McCoy system. None of the other six trail loops in the Hatfield-McCoy system, totaling about 600 miles in seven counties, was affected by the sale.
“It’s a shame,” Robert Macri of Akron, Ohio, said of the pending closure, as he and four friends and family members prepared to spend Friday riding the Little Coal River system on motorcycles. “I’d hate to see that happen.
“We rode ATVs here in April and had a great time,” Macri said. “Since it’s already a four-hour drive to get here, we may take a look at other options in Ohio and Michigan before deciding to drive another hour or more” to get to the open sections of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails.
“I hope something can be worked out,” said Macri’s friend, Mitch Hostetler. “We were planning to meet friends from North Carolina here in November to do some more riding.”
Ike and Shawna Walker of Tornado said they like the convenience of having hundreds of miles of trails to ride in their side-by-side ATV so close to home. “Today, we got here in 23 minutes,” said Ike Walker, as he prepared to roll his vehicle off its trailer in the Little Coal River Trail parking lot. “I would miss not having these trails open.
“But what’s more important is that these trails bring in out-of-state people who come here from all over the country to do what we’re doing, and it really helps out the local economy,” he said. “Every day on Corridor G, you see people hauling trailers full of ATVs up and down the highway.”
“We would like to come back and ride when the leaves are a little more at their peak,” said Shawna Walker. “But this might be our last opportunity.”
If the two trails don’t reopen under an agreement with the land’s new owner, “it will be financially devastating to my family as well as to the community,” said Hannah Ball, who operates Big Earl’s Campground, which offers four cabins, 10 RV hookups, unlimited primitive camping and direct access to the Little Coal River Trail. The campground, founded by her father, opened before the Little Coal River and Ivy Branch trails were created, and grew as the trails gained popularity with riders.
“I’ve seen two generations of visitors staying with us while they ride the trails,” said Ball. “It’s become a family tradition. It’s a great way for families to bond and get close to nature. That’s really important in a time when kids are raised as latchkeys and don’t spend enough time unplugged.”
Ball said she learned that the trails would close less than a week ago.
“I hoped it was false, but I made some calls and found out they got it right,” she said. “Then I got on the phone and started refunding the deposits people had made going into November — it was the only moral thing to do. Only two people ended up keeping their reservations.”
Loss of the trails would hurt nearby towns in addition to her business and the other businesses directly catering to trail riders, Ball said.
“These people spend a minimum of $100 a day each on things like gas, food, restaurants and parts and repairs,” she said. With mines closing and the local tourism industry taking a hit, “this area could end up looking like a ghost town.”
Ball said she plans to hold on to her businesses as long as she can keep it afloat.
“It’s the only means of support for me and my two kids,” she said. “My dad started this place when I was six. He put everything he had into it, and he died working here. If I lose it, it will be like burying Dad twice. … I sincerely hope the new owner of the land will consider allowing Hatfield-McCoy Trails to continue using it.”
Lusk said the trail system had a good relationship with the former landowner, and hopes to negotiate a new lease with the new owner.
“This is new to us,” he said. “We’ve never had a license agreement canceled before. We’ve got 96 licensing agreements covering more than 1 million acres. But when one gets canceled, we’ve got to be gracious and act in a professional, efficient manner to prove to the landowners that we’re not going to be tying their hands for the next 100 years.”
Starting Monday, Lusk said, the Little Coal River and Ivy Branch trails will be closed and signs will begin to be removed. “But we will be taking the trails offline in such a way that if the new owner agrees, they could be ready for reopening again in a couple of weeks.”
Should the new owner balk at becoming a Hatfield-McCoy Trails partner, “we’ll start making contact with landowners adjacent to the two trails and near Danville and Madison to see what options might be available to us,” he said.
Lusk said the Little Coal River Trail has experienced double digit annual ridership growth each of the past 12 years. The Ivy Creek Trail is the only trail in the Hatfield-McCoy system that accommodates full-size off-road vehicles.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, call 304-348-5169, or follow @Rsteelhammer on Twitter.
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