Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the grandaddy of all West Virginia hiking paths: the Allegheny Trail.
The Allegheny Trail, or ALT—to distinguish it from the decades-older Appalachian Trail, or AT—is the longtime project of the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association. “It’s the best-known West Virginia trail that people haven’t heard of,” laughs WVSTA Outreach Coordinator Nicolle Sawczyszyn (“sawsician,” like “musician”).
Organizational lore dates the trail’s first inkling back to a 1958 Explorer Scout excursion on the AT in the Great Smoky Mountains. 15-year-old Nick Lozano returned home to West Virginia with a question that motivated him for the rest of his life: “Why can’t we have a trail like the Appalachian Trail running through the mountains of the Mountain State?” In 1971, Lozano met Bob Tabor, a fellow trail enthusiast and former leader of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club. That meeting sparked discussions with like-minded people and agencies, and a vision coalesced of a trail connecting with the AT at Peters Mountain in Monroe County and extending north to Blackwater Falls State Park in Tucker County and, possibly, beyond.
The nonprofit WVSTA was formed in 1974, with the ALT as its primary project.
Planners sought a route encompassing scenic, wild, and recreational features as well as places to replenish food and water supplies and camp. A serendipitously timed federal push for outdoor recreation helped. Agreements were forged in 1975 and ’76 with forerunners of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, and State Parks and with the U.S. Forest Service. Along with local landowners, Sawczyszyn says, all became important partners.
What followed was a multi-generational volunteer press: Blazing a path through the wilderness, felling trees, managing drainage, building bridges, setting signs. Also, fundraising, map-making, landowner communications, and, of course, seasonal maintenance of the ever-growing length of it—which indeed extended beyond Tucker County to the state’s Mason–Dixon northern border, near Bruceton Mills.
That hard labor of love has gifted us with the state’s longest hiking trail. The ALT is 311 miles of central Appalachian scenery and topography in its full West Virginia glory: river valleys, rugged outcrops, pristine woodlands, bucolic pastures, soothing ridgetop overlooks.
Much of the ALT is single-track trail, which wilderness lovers love best. “Double-track hiking means it might be an old Forest Service road that’s been put to sleep,” Sawczyszyn explains. “Single-track is more like a game trail—no car has ever been there.” Other parts follow country roads through rural charm. “Down in Monroe County, they’ve got a buffalo farm—you walk right next to them,” she says. “In other places you can find trail nibbles, raspberries and blackberries that come on seasonally because of old homesteads—and there are peaches up at Hanging Rock, on the top of Peters Mountain, that raptors have brought up there.”
PLANNING A HIKE
An easy way to get your boots on the trail is to join a WVSTA-organized hike or trail work day.
But just like for the AT, a little planning opens the entire length of the ALT to you. The WVSTA divides the trail into four sections, numbered north to south, and the website locates amenities in each section—trailheads plus food, internet, camping, and more. Many trailheads are shops or campgrounds that offer services, and, except for one 30-mile stretch in Section 2, they’re nearly all less than 20 miles apart, many 10 or less. Section 1, for example, lists 13 sites along its 95 miles. Volunteer section coordinators listed on the website can answer questions.
Interested in a thru-hike? The full distance, Mason–Dixon to Peters Mountain, takes an experienced, fit hiker a couple weeks under good conditions, Sawczyszyn says, and a casual hiker more like four weeks. Whether it’s accomplished in sections over years or all in one go, it earns a certificate of completion.
For any distance, the WVSTA’s Hiking Guide to the Allegheny Trail and the FarOut app are indispensable, and hikers are invited to email wvscenictrails@gmail.com for help planning.
One further way to get familiar with the ALT is to attend the 50th celebration this September in Green Bank, where the WVSTA will offer introductions to day, section, and thru-hiking as well as workshops on campfire cooking, dog etiquette, and more—visit the WVSTA website hikethealleghenytrail.org.
For day-to-day photos and trail notes of a January–February 2024 thru-hike on the ALT, visit WVSTA Vice President Justin Mullins on Facebook @justin.mullins.5458
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