he Allegheny Trail is 311 miles of West Virginia, running from the Mason-Dixon line through five Mon Forest Towns, six counties, six state parks, and two state forests before reaching the Appalachian Trail junction at Peters Mountain. It passes through Davis and Thomas, through Cass and Marlinton and Watoga — the state’s largest state park — and through Durbin, the small town Nicole Flood-Sawczyszyn calls home. The trail is 52 years old. It is entirely volunteer maintained.
In 2024, those volunteers logged over 7,000 hours of trail work. They cleared 32 miles of ice storm damage, added bridges, shelters, and kiosks, and built out the FarOut app with 129 new amenities for hikers navigating long stretches with no cell service. What Nicole is working to change is the awareness gap — the people who drive past the Route 220 trailhead every week without stopping, who don’t know that one of the state’s most significant long-distance trails is right there and open. The Allegheny Trail isn’t waiting to be discovered. It’s already there.
Learn more about: WVSTA / Monongahela National Forest
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