A new home for Hatfield-McCoy!

Hey riders!

Big Jim here. I spoke with Hatfield-McCoy's executive director
himself yesterday and Jeff Lusk gave me some very big news that will
affect many of you who come to Southern West Virginia to visit us.
It's a common sight to see riders stop by the Hatfield-McCoy Trails
office in Lyburn to get maps and directions, meet the friendly staff
or pick up merchandise in different sizes than what is available in
our trailheads.
A few months ago a new section of road was build that bypassed the old
road past the Trails headquarters. If you are from here, it's not that
big of a deal. But for visitors it could be confusing.
But fear not, good people. Jeff had some good news for you.
Hatfield-McCoy will be moving very soon!
Not far from the new intersection there is an old strip mall facility
in Lyburn known as the Ritta Mall and a steel structure there is being
completely rebuilt and customized to suit Hatfield-McCoy's needs!
Jeff said that the new Hatfield-McCoy Headquarters should be ready in
about 75 days when he spoke with me on February 16.
That's right. In addition to the new Pocahontas Trail which is
being worked on, new sections of single track for dirtbike riders in
our Mingo trails and plans to start connecting trails in Logan and
Mingo County with each other, Hatfield-McCoy is getting a new home.
The new Trails headquarters will be plenty big enough for the world
famous Hatfield-McCoy Trails operation and it will have room for
storage as well. But it will be much more energy efficient than the
old facility, which at one time had been the headquarters of a coal
company.
First time I ever went into the HQ a decade or so ago, I had thought
it was an old school building. And that building was expensive to heat
and cool, Jeff told me. The new HQ will save the Hatfield-McCoy
Regional Recreation Authority a lot of money which can in turn be used
to help pay for even more improvements to the trails.
For example, Bear Wallow's trailhead, where you can sometimes find
me, has been given a very nice makeover.
Everybody will benefit from this move from the people who work at the
HQ daily to the communities it serves to you, our riders.
The new Headquarters will be shaped like an oblong square with a 30
by 61 foot storage facility next to it. The center of the structure
will be a conference room surrounded by offices and there will be a
retail sales section as well.
"We will be losing about ten thousand square feet, but the move will
save us a lot of money on utility bills as in our old facility we were
having to heat the entire structure in the winter and cool it in the
summer," Lusk said explaining that the new headquarters will still
have plenty of space for storage.
Jeff has been a very good leader for the trails and he has overseen
them through good times economically and bad times, such as the year
when about half the expected budget did not come through from the
state. This new move fits in with those concerns.
"We focus a lot on our costs and try to minimize them as much as we
can. We were only using about 5,000 square feet in the building we are
currently in," Lusk said.

"I am very excited about moving into this new structure which has
been designed and sized for our company," Jeff told me.