Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
It takes a lot of volunteers to keep up the 311 miles of the Allegheny Trail, West Virginia’s longest hiking trail.
One of those volunteers was the late Jud Worth, who helped take care of a portion of the trail in Beaver Creek, near Watoga State Park and Cal Price State Forest.
“After he retired, he got interested in helping,” West Virginia Scenic Trails Association member Doug Wood said. “Once he started helping, you couldn’t stop him. He maintained so many miles of trail in Section 3. I think he even helped in Section 4.”
After Worth passed away in 2021, members of WVSTA discussed doing something on the trail to honor his memory.
“That’s when the idea of the bridge hatched,” Wood said.
Wood applied for and received a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Lands Access Program. The grant was for $65,000. The WVSTA was awarded four times that amount.
The Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation partnered with the WVSTA to receive the grant, and work on the project got underway. The work included a new bridge at the Beaver Creek Campground and kiosks at Watoga State Park and Seneca State Forest.
“The components of that project were the trail reroute at Durbin, this bridge and then there’s some kiosks to be built,” Amy Trusdale of the GVEDC said. “There will be more coming, but at this time, I’m not at liberty to say what that would be.”
Prior to receiving the grant, the Worth family started raising funds to help with a project in memory of Jud, but since the grant did not require a local match, those funds were not needed at this time.
“I think it’s amazing they generated the money, but the GVEDC decided upon our suggestion to put the Jud Worth bridge project in that project package and so now there’s money available for other expenditures,” Wood said. “Of course, there are always expenditures when you’re maintaining 311 miles of trail.”
Work on the bridge took place in late October and all the manpower was volunteer based.
“The Worth family is not lazy,” Wood said, laughing. “We had about as many Worth family members helping us on the bridge project as we had West Virginia Scenic Trails Association volunteers. There were volunteers from Watoga State Park Foundation and retired forest service employees there, as well.
“It was just a great collaborative project all around.”
With the bridge now complete, it can serve as a way to keep hikers safe on the trail, but also as a reminder of the compassion and care Worth put into everything he touched.
“He was very helpful in keeping that section of trail in good shape for hikers, making sure that when there were trees that came down, he would alert folks to let them know or even go take care of that work himself,” Trusdale said.
“He had a big reach, for sure,” Wood said.
“He was so nice to be around and work with. You can’t beat volunteers like that. That’s why we wanted to honor him. His attitude, his effort, just his friendliness – he made other people feel comfortable.”
The next phase of the project is to build and install the kiosks. The information will include historical facts about the area, maps of the trail and an explanation about the project and why the bridge was named in honor of Worth.
