This Land is Your Land, a new Highlands Conservancy program, will be spending a day or more each month in 2013 to explore, and learn more about our public lands. The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy has a long and rich history of advocating for the protection and wise management of our public lands. That history is equally as rich in giving back to these lands through...
Learn MoreLingering late-season snow is keeping work crews from making repairs to a number of Superstorm Sandy-damaged Monongahela National Forest campgrounds, trails and recreation areas popular with hikers and spring trout anglers. “This is the time of year many people start to think about fishing,” said Eric Sandeno of the Monongahela National Forest headquarters...
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Snow clung to the hilltops lining the Tug Fork Valley surrounding them, but at river level, it was a rare snow-free day on the trail for Joanna Swanson and Bart Houck as they walked across the bridge separating McCarr, Ky., from the Mingo County town of Matewan. Their walk into West Virginia marked the fifth state that Swanson and Houck have entered since beginning what...
Learn MoreWest Virginia is known as the Mountain State, but what do people know about the trees covering those mountains? There are seven state forests and one national forest in West Virginia. The state forests are Seneca State Forest, Kumbrabow State Forest, Greenbrier State Forest, Coopers Rock State Forest, Camp Creek State Forest, Calvin Price State Forest and Cabwaylingo...
Learn MoreDuring the next several weeks, thousands of people will leave from Springer Mountain in Georgia and begin the 2,184-mile trek to Maine along the Appalachian Trail. For some, the trip is a lifelong dream. They have meticulously planned what to bring, where to stop, how many miles they want walk each day. They have queued up their own resupply boxes, packed with fresh...
Learn MoreGrants totaling more than $9 million for a variety of recreational trail, streetscape and sidewalk projects across the state were announced Monday by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. The 22 projects receiving a total of $1.2 million in Recreational Trails Program grants ranged from a $22,500 handicap-accessible upgrade of half-mile Whispering Spruce Trail at the summit of Spruce...
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Hiking enthusiasts are hoping to connect a new trail system that would span from Alabama to New York. The Great Eastern Trail is set to blaze through more than 110 miles in Southern West Virginia. The concept behind the Great Eastern Trail is based on the iconic Appalachian National Trail which runs more than 2,100 miles from Maine to Georgia. While hundreds of AT miles...
Learn MoreAllen de Hart is hiking the new trails and re-hiking some of the old trails for the 9th Edition of the Monongahela National Forest Hiking Guide. If readers know of any changes, or re-routing, or corrections needed for the 9th Edition, please contact him at, Telephone: 919-496-4771 or Email: adh4771@aol.com, or postal mail to 3585 US-40l South, Louisburg, NC 27549 no...
Learn MoreAmong the oldest, most majestic trees in our forests are the hemlocks. Isolated stands of them date back 500 years or more. For decades, hemlocks in eastern states, most notably in the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, have been under assault by an invasive species, the hemlock wooly adelgid. The tiny insect has devastated some hemlock forests, and it has made its way...
Learn MoreVast national forest areas and scattered pockets of undeveloped lands in West Virginia and Virginia are among the regions that would be resilient to drought, rising temperatures and other threats associated with climate change, according to a study released by The Nature Conservancy. The study identifies “strongholds” that could provide habitat to a variety...
Learn MoreOn Saturday, May 5th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) will host an event to celebrate the arrival of the spring hiking season at the ATC’s Visitor Center in Harpers Ferry, WV. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend. The beginning of May marks the arrival of northbound thru-hikers in HarpersFerry, the psychological half-way point of...
Learn MoreThis spring, thousands of students will get the chance to visit national parks around the country as part of the National Park Foundation’s new Ticket to Ride program. Kids will learn about the benefits of healthy living by studying the lifestyles of the historic Timucuan Indians at Timucuan Ecological and Historic National Preserve, realize the achievements of...
Learn MoreMany of West Virginia’s state parks are open daily year-round and afford visitors a plethora of winter hiking trails to choose from. Plus, admission at the majority of the parks is gratis. If the snow flies, most of the winter hiking trails double as cross country and snowshoeing trails. Here’s a list: Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park Blackwater Falls...
Learn MoreSimilar to the famed Appalachian Trail, the Great Eastern Trail is being constructed by linking existing trails from Alabama to New York, and is more than 70 percent complete and open to hikers. When completed, the new, long-distance, nonmotorized trail, primarily used for hiking, will be approximately 1,800 miles long. In southern West Virginia, the Great Eastern Trail...
Learn MoreFor this week’s Gazette-Mail column, John McCoy went to Judy Rodd, the principal source for the push to create a national park and preserve in West Virginia’s northeastern highlands. Judy was able to answer some of the existing questions, but not all. Last week, when news broke that much of West Virginia’s northern Allegheny Highlands might be considered for national...
Learn MoreThe National Park Service will begin conducting a survey to determine if some areas within the Monongahela National Forest should be made into a national park – something West Virginia doesn’t currently have. The proposed High Allegheny National Park could be formed from lands in the northern area of the Monongahela National Forest, which is already federal...
Learn MoreAmid the hectic hassles of daily life – job pressures, commuter traffic, 24-hour news channels, endless politics, etc. – there’s a quiet escape: the pure simplicity of walking in the woods. It’s free. It’s serene. It restoreth the soul. Especially in West Virginia, the opportunity is all around us in jumbled hills, shady ravines, winding...
Learn MoreThere has been a lot of work on hiking and biking trails adjacent to the 10,600-acre Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia this year. The Summit will be home to the national Scout jamboree starting in 2013 and the 2019 World Scout Jamboree. It also will become the Boy Scouts’ fourth high-adventure base — and, likely, its most-visited, given its...
Learn MoreThe work of thousands of Boy Scouts will soon be open to the public as they approach completion of more than 16 miles of biking and hiking trails. The Order of the Arrow, the Scouts’ national honor society, is also rehabilitating about 12 miles of illegal ATV trails and removal of 4 acres of multiflora rose, an invasive species in West Virginia. The trails are located...
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. My regular hiking companions have designated me the lead hiker, so I suppose that makes me the slowest Meanderthal. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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