Allegheny Highlands Trail of WV:
West Virginia
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Description:
The Allegheny Highlands Trail follows the original route of the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway built by Henry Gassaway Davis in 1884. For 24.5 miles, this exceptionally scenic trail provides panoramic views of the West Virginia countryside as it passes through a mountainous region with small towns and rural farmland.
From the southern Highland Park trailhead in Elkins, the trail gradually ascends for approximately 15 miles as it passes around the Pheasant and Polecat Knob mountains. The rural vistas and mountainous backgrounds provide numerous opportunities for photos. As you pass around the mountains, the trail starts to descend more steeply as it approaches the small town of Parsons.
A short, easy-to-follow, on-road section of the trail in Parsons offers the chance to grab a bite to eat at any of the several small-town restaurants. The trail continues by following US Hwy. 219 north for less than a mile, crossing the Shavers Fork and Black Fork rivers to reach the next trailhead, located just over the Black Fork River on the southern side of Hwy. 219.
The remaining 3-mile section of the trail is paved and follows the beautiful Black Fork River to the small town of Hendricks. Plans are in effect to extend the Allegheny Highlands Trail north to Mt. Storm Lake, making it approximately 44 miles in length. A path, though not the actual trail, continues along the beautifully scenic Blackwater River to the town of Thomas; however, this section is quite steep.
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Parking & Trail Access:
From downtown Elkins, take US Hwy. 219 north to access the southernmost trailhead, Highland Park, located across from the Division of Highways District 8 Headquarters (just a mile from downtown Elkins.
The Gilman, Kerens, Montrose, and Porterwood trailheads are located mid-trail, and each include parking facilities.
Continue following US Hwy. 219 north to the northern trailhead located at the intersection of Main and 3rd streets in Hendricks.
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Parsons To Elkins
By jfuto on June 14, 2009
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.


Allegheny Highlands Trail now GEOCACHED!
By gordonblackley on May 11, 2009
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
Great ride
By Bill on June 12, 2005
"We rode this trail from parsons to elkins .very good trail , had a great time !!!!"