Where trains once wound through the mountains, hikers, bikers and others now trek on rail-trails maintained by various local organizations.
Mon River Trails Conservancy, Friends of the Cheat and Preston County Parks and Recreation Commission Rail-Trail Committee, maintain, improve and expand rail-trail systems for local community use and to attract tourism.
MRTC maintains a 48-mile rail-trail network in Monongalia, Preston and Marion counties. This year, MRTC hopes to finish limestone resurfacing of 13 miles on Deckers Creek Trail, improving the more than 20- year-old surface, reports Ella Belling executive director of MRTC.
Two sections of the trail will be re-surfaced: one from Masontown to the end of the Deckers Creek trail at Morgan Mine Road and the other from Rock Forge Lane, just outside Morgantown, to one of the Greer limestone quarries. “Both sections are about six to seven miles long,” Belling said.
Belling said resurfacing will renew these sections, on which weeds have encroached. “Our hope is that it’ll be completed this year or early next year,” she said.
Another project slated for completion in May will connect trail users directly to Reedsville.
“It’s going to have a slight spur that’ll take you off of the Deckers Creek trail onto West Street, and then the route will be marked to take you to the Reedsville town park, and also into the downtown at the four-way stop,” Belling said.
The spur will give trail users access to Reedsville park amenities, including playground, picnic and sheltered areas, as well as to Reedsville businesses, without merging with busy traffic at the trail crossing with W.Va. 92.
The spur will also allow the Reedsville community to access the trail without having to drive to a trail head and park.
“It’s not a big connection, but it might have a big impact,” Belling said.
Additionally in May, MRTC hopes to see the reopening of the Hazel Ruby McQuain Park at the hub of the Mon River and Deckers Creek Trails in Morgantown, and plans surface repairs and drainage upgrades near the Pennsylvania state line on the Mon River Trail.
This organization has in the works several other Trail to Town or Trail to Neighborhood Connectors, including the Collins Ferry Trail Connector and the Foundry Street Link into downtown Morgantown.
Belling said MRTC is part of the Parkersburg to Pittsburgh (P2P) Corridor of the Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition, working to connect the Mon River Trail to the Sheepskin Trail at the state line.
“We hope to see continued funding, engineering and construction of this trail as it gets closer to the Cheat Lake Trail and with the ultimate goal of connecting to Great Allegheny Passage just beyond Dunbar, Pa. It also will help link our rail-trails together through Fairmont, Shinnston and Clarksburg,” Belling said.
Many groups work with MRTC: Morgantown North Rotary to provide more benches, Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts to place mile-markers and weather shelters, and other groups to raise funds for four new bike fix-it stations.
After MRTC funded rehabilitation of the 1907 Elkins Coal and Coke Building in Masontown, another partner, PCPaRC, now maintains the Masontown Trailhead Facility and mini-park.
By Aldona Bird
TWEET @DominionPostWV
