How do I go about finding new trails?
One of my favorite parts about WV Explorers is that it’s given me a new focus for exploring my home state. This focus has gotten me to places I would never have gone otherwise. When it comes to off-roading, West Virginia lacks a lot of information. The resources are lacking, outside of a few well-known places, unless you’re “in the know”. Surprisingly, I’ve found a pretty easy way to look for new trails.
County Maps in WV
The WV DOT makes county maps available showing all public roads, you can find them here. Many states do this but what makes these so helpful is that they offer them as GeoTIFF files which can be uploaded into an app like Avenza. The maps are then available offline so that when you don’t have service, which in West Virginia is quite often, you can still see exactly where you are. Hopefully, more states make these available in the future.
Each road is labeled by condition from primitive to paved. Many of the roads are not quite in the condition labeled. Some primitive roads are very well maintained whereas others are labeled as gravel that look as though they haven’t been touched in years. But it’s a great starting point and the more I use these maps and explore I have gotten a feel for which roads hold the most promise.
Keeping Notes
I have an off-roading specific notebook I keep in the Jeep and I like to explore in a county by county order. I don’t necessarily finish one county before venturing out but I like to set aside days where I don’t plan on doing any real off-roading and consider these my recon days. Most of the county Maps are in multiple files so I go through one at a time, Marion County Sheet 1, for example. I’ll list all of the roads that look like they have potential.
Reconnaissance “Recon” Days
On the recon day, I’ll move through the county in one direction exploring all of the roads I marked. The things that I try to note are whether they are accessible. Some of the roads no longer exist or people have put up gates. If the road starts at a house and the way looks blocked or like there’s a possibility they might give me a hard time, I’ll make notes to check the other side. It’s much easier to talk to someone that doesn’t want you there when you’re exiting the road than when you’re entering it. If there are gates, these will eventually go on the site in a list to hopefully help get these public roads opened again. Despite the recon days being a little less exciting, they are one of my favorite parts of putting this website together. I can pretend like I’m a modern-day Lewis and Clark, mapping out places where few people have stood, or wheeled, looking to the horizon for what the next adventure holds.
