Elk River Rail Explorers is a family-friendly, pedal-powered adventure along Clay County, West Virginia’s historic rails.
written and photographed by NIKKI BOWMAN MILLS
I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited to share a new outdoor recreational activity with you, so go ahead and put the Elk River Rail Explorers on your 2025 bucket list. These railbikes, or rail explorers, on the old Buffalo Creek and Gauley Railroad (BC&G) in Clay have been so widely received that, in its first partial season when they were only open three days a week, 16,000 people rode the rails, from 50 different states and 25 countries.
Rail Explorers founded the railbike industry in America. According to Mary Joy Lu, co-founder and CEO of the company, the inspiration for Rail Explorers came from a scene in a Korean soap opera. In 2012, she was watching one of her favorite Korean dramas and became intrigued when she saw a strange contraption being pedaled along the railroad tracks. She wasted no time in booking a trip to South Korea to meet with the manufacturer, and Rail Explorers was born, with its first fleet beginning operations in the Adirondacks in 2015. Now, the company has seven locations around the country.
But what exactly is it? Rail Explorers has created a collection of pedal-powered, open-air platforms on wheels that are assisted by electric motors. They call them Explorers. They aren’t the old railroad hand cars that were propelled by vigorous pumping of the arms. Instead, they resemble a cross between an open car chassis and a recumbent bicycle that has been outfitted with a REX Propulsion System.
When Lu first visited Clay at the behest of Cindy Butler, the commissioner of the West Virginia Department of Transportation’s Division of Multimodal Transportation Facilities, she was a bit hesitant. “My first thought was, who the heck is going to come here? It was just so remote. But then we got out on the track and immediately saw how beautiful and rare it was. It was just absolutely stunning. It is very special.”
The BC&G holds a special place in my family’s heart, too. I grew up in Clay County, as did my parents, my grandparents, and my great-grandparents. My mother, Sharon Acree Holcomb, lived in the tiny train community of Dundon, where the BC&G brought coal and timber from Widen and Swandale to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. My grandfather was a master mechanic and worked on BC&G No. 4—the last operating freight and passenger steam locomotive in the state. I grew up hearing stories about Dundon and the trains: How my mom and her siblings would hop on the motorcar and ride it to Widen to watch my grandmother play basketball in a women’s league. How she couldn’t go to sleep at night until the train came in. So when Rail Explorers opened, I knew that I wanted to take her back and experience it with her.
When you arrive, you’ll check in at the depot, and you’ll see a fleet of railbikes on the tracks. I imagined that I’d be pedaling like a hamster hyped on a double espresso, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. There are explorers for two people and groups of four, and they are all outfitted with electric motors and hydraulic disc brakes. Everyone pedals, but it isn’t strenuous. There’s one seat designated as the “stop and go” seat, and as long as the person sitting in it pedals, the motor stays engaged and you scoot along at an impressive clip—never going faster than 15 miles per hour. It really is easy, and I promise you won’t break a sweat.
“One thing we take pride in is the accessibility—anyone can ride,” says Rail Explorers’ Elk River Division Manager Trey Corwell. They have a 5-point child harness available for younger children, and adults with disabilities are able to utilize adult harnesses to ride safely, too. In fact, Corwell says his favorite tour in 2024 involved a woman with multiple sclerosis who was wheelchair-bound. “She was able to get onto the bike and experience the outdoors in a way that she hadn’t been able to do on her own. We take pride in making sure that anyone can ride, no matter size, age, or ability.”
Tours can handle up to 60 people, and the company is hoping to add additional daily time slots this year, seven days a week. The entire experience will take about two hours. Once you are buckled in, the lead explorer leads you on a 12-mile round trip along the Buffalo Creek that carves a path through a dense and lush forest that feels untouched by time. You’ll see the Devil’s Sawmill Waterfall, remnants of a train wreck, and interesting honeycomb cliffs. But I found it hard to take my eyes off the creek. I couldn’t get over how crystal clear and pristine it was. Most of the tour occurs under a tree canopy so thick that, in the summer, the sunlight barely filters through the leaves. It’s like you’re underneath an ever-changing mosaic of light and shadow. From the tracks I could see rainbow trout swimming in deep pools, making me wish I’d brought my fly rod. At about the six-mile mark, you reach the trestle, where you disembark, stretch your legs, skip rocks across the creek, and enjoy a quick picnic—so make sure you pack some snacks and water—while the crew turn the railbikes around using a turntable for the return trip.
On the trip back, your perspective is different, so you’ll see things you didn’t catch on the first leg of the journey. My mother launched into tour guide mode, pointing out all of her favorite childhood haunts. I learned that she stood on the trestle as a kid, watching her father trap a huge turtle that later became soup, and that her favorite spot on Buffalo Creek is “her swimming hole.” So before you leave, make sure you grab a selfie at the Almost Heaven Swing, which conveniently overlooks “Sharon’s swimming hole.” I bet if you bring your bathing suit, you, too, can enjoy this special spot.
My mother absolutely loved the tour. She says, “Seeing it now all these years later through an adult’s eyes was magical. So many memories came flooding back. When we rode the trains as kids, we didn’t pay attention or appreciate the scenery at the time, and we never thought that the trains would ever stop running. It’s awesome to know that some of my favorite places from childhood are still there, giving others new memories to take with them. It truly was a unique experience—just so beautiful. I tell everyone to go. But I still say that it is my swimming hole!”
So, consider yourself told.
874 Buffalo Creek Road, Clay, railexplorers.net/tours/elkriver, @railexplorersusa on FB
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