Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
For the Green Bank Trails division of the Northern Pocahontas Community Wellness group, 2025 was a big planning year. As the old year closes, it seems 2026 will be a big action year for the group.
NPCW grant writer and fundraising coordinator Amy Morgan said the group has been meeting with stakeholders and putting together a plan to not only connect the trails at Green Bank Observatory to other trails in the county but also create a new 30-mile system of trails.
“We got a grant from the Benedum Foundation to create a new master trail plan,” she said. “SHARC [Snowshoe Highland Area Recreation Collaborative] was chosen to create that. The whole last eight months, we’ve been meeting with all the stakeholders for Green Bank Trails – the Forest Service, Allegheny Trails, Green Bank Observatory, horse riding folks and all the different folks who use the trails.”
Those meetings helped the group collect all the information needed for the master trail plan.
At this time, there are nearly 30 miles of trails that Green Bank Trails is the steward of – all of which are on GBO property.
“Some of it is going to link up with the Allegheny Trail,” Morgan said. “Some of it is going to link up with Hosterman. There’s going to be a lot of connectivity between Durbin, Cass and Green Bank area.
“It’s super exciting.”
Since the creation of the Snowshoe Highland Area Ride Center, which is now a Silver IMBA [International Mountain Biking Association] ride center, there has been an increase in trail use over the entire county.
“The increase in traffic on the trails has been insane,” Morgan said.
The trails are not only attracting mountain bikers, however. There are hikers, walkers, nature lovers and horseback riders, as well.
To accommodate all the users and their interests, the master trail plan will have the trails in zones.
“SHARC – Charles Evans, Zen Clemmons and C.J. Peterson – have all been working on marking out the prospective trails and they have created zones for each trail user group,” Morgan said. “We’re trying to create enough space for everyone to use them and share them.
“Some of the trails are going to be more optimal for beginner level mountain bikers,” she continued. “Then some are going to be more for horses and can handle the weight of horses.”
There are also plans to open the trails to more seasonal activities, such as cross country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter.
“There’s been more interest in cross country skiing and snowshoeing, so we’ve been talking to Snowshoe and the adaptive ski sports program to see what trails are more accessible for alter-ables, but also for people who just want to have a nice loop for cross country skiing and snowshoeing,” Morgan said. “There’s a lot of possibilities.”
The initial master trail plan was shared at a meeting held at the GBO in early December and work was begun on connecting the trails.
“Some of them we can work on ourselves, so in terms of connecting existing trails, SHARC has already been working on that,” Morgan said.
The group is in the process of seeking funding for the new set of trails, but it is projected construction will happen in 2026-2027.
“Right now, we don’t have funding to build the new trails,” Morgan said. “We want to build a new swamp trail, and we want to build a trail in memory of Mike Stennes. So, we’re going to have to write grants for each of those.”
