I rode from Parsons to Elkins and back on 06-08-09. The trail out of Parsons is paved for about 2-3 miles. You then ride on the road (1% grade) for about 2 miles or so. The trail then turns into gravel as you take a left turn and climb the hill (3-4% grade). This hill is rather long, but an easy steady climb. It is beautiful, but there are no safety rails and a fall would be bad. Once you are on the top, there is a short downhill until the trail evens out and almost disappears (9 miles or so at this point). After crossing your first road, you can now take the gravel trail that had weeds up to me knees along the sides and center until you reach the paved portion outside Elkins. This ride was about 22 miles for me. The return ride is much easier and was faster. Total was 44.1 miles.

I give the trail 6 out of 10. I rode a hybrid bike with high compression tires and it was great. The gravel was only thick in a couple places, but not for very long.

Geocachers throughout West Virginia and many neighboring states are enthusiastically spreading the word about the system of 25 geocaches that have been placed along the Allegheny Highlands Trail from the Highland Park trail station in Elkins to the last stop in Hendricks. The AHT is the only rail-trail in West Virginia that is host to an organized system of geocaches. The system was originally installed in 2008 with 19 caches and expanded to 25 in 2009. The response from the geocaching community has been very positive. A sampling of comments from geocachers, identified by their caching "handles" reveals these feelings:

"That's a real nice series you put out. I had a good time out there today." from 89SC

"All these AHT caches will certainly bring a lot more attention to this excellent trail. I had not been along that grade since I got to ride the Western Maryland to Cumberland and back a couple of times in the 70's." from jsmarti.

"Thanks for fun, uncomplicated caches along our favorite walking trail !! Appreciate it...!" from Fluff&Boss.

The geocaches are arranged as either "traditional" caches where the coordinates are published on www.geocaching.com, or "puzzle" caches where the coordinates have to be calculated by answering a series of questions with numeric solutions. A hypothetical question: "What is the four digit number derived by multiplying the year that Columbus sailed the ocean blue by the 2 digit number in the phrase "Sweet __ " and subtracting that number from the zip code displayed on the Post Office accross the street from the Montrose trail station?" The answer is 2411 and would be used in some manner to compute the north or west coordinates

While the majority of the caches are traditional, which makes the sport more accessible, the puzzle caches offer some cerebral exercise along with the physical work-out that riding the trail presents.

More details on the geocached aspects of the trail are available at www.geocaching.com, search for Allegheny Highlands Trail - or the zip code 26241.

Gordon Blackley, 5/12/09

"We rode this trail from parsons to elkins .very good trail , had a great time !!!!"