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PARKERSBURG – The Mountwood ATV Adventure Park, which offers 21 miles of trails, is applying for grants to make improvements to the popular destination.
The group with the assistance of county grant coordinator Toni Tiano is applying for a West Virginia Recreational Trails Program Grant through the West Virginia Department of Transportation. The grants are federal funds which are awarded through the state.
The application for about $170,000 will include requested funding for two shelters, six primitive cabins, two storage buildings and a miniature coin-operated pressurized vehicle washer.
The ATV park, which opened in mid-October and has seen more than 500 visitors, covers 600 acres near the park campground across U.S. 50 from the main park facility and lake.
Two years in planning and development, the ATV park is the result of joint efforts and partnerships among private businesses, individuals and volunteers in the community.
“We wanted to get this open without using taxpayers dollars and we were able to do that,” said John Reed, with the Mountwood ATV Adventure Park committee.
The private nonprofit committee is leasing the property from the park.
“The new ATV trail has been a homerun and it’s generating additional campground participation; the campground is being used a lot more now and the primitive cabins are booked solid,” said Wood County Commissioner Blair Couch, commission liaison to the committee and president of the Wood County Parks and Recreation Committee, which oversees operations at Mountwood Park.
“We have three different degrees of difficulty for the trails – easy, moderate and difficult. The majority of the trails are moderate, the blue ones,” Reed said.
A yearly permit is $50 and a daily pass is $12. Helmets are required.
“The trail is open 365 days a year. We’ve had over 500 members so far. We had hoped to hit 500 by next spring, and we’ve already done that,” Reed said.
Reed said Mountwood Park’s ATV trails are the only regional system in the state. The only other two ATV parks are Hatfield-McCoy Trails in Logan County, W.Va., and Burning Rock in Raleigh County, W.Va.
“We are considered the only regional trail system, a system that has about 40 miles of trails, which we will have by next summer. We are the first and only regional trail system in West Virginia,” he said.
Reed said the local trails are drawing from all over this region. Through the park’s Facebook Page and other publicity, they have drawn out of town riders from Cleveland, Ohio who camped here several days; a group from Wheeling, W.Va. who stayed for two days and a couple from Calhoun County who came for the day.
“We kept the campground open this year, normally it would have closed on November 1 but this year the parks director Jeremy Cross decided to keep it open because of the calls we were getting from ATVers who wanted to stay,” Reed said.
Reed said economic development is anticipated in the Deerwalk Road area as a result of the trail users.
The shelters will provide a place to get in out of the weather.
“We have a really nice overlook and you can see for miles in all directions and it’s becoming a congregational point, to talk, so it will be nice to have a shelter there. We are also going to put a helicopter landing pad to have in case of emergencies,” Reed said, noting they are also working with the Deerwalk Volunteer Fire Department so they will have a vehicle to get onto the trail in the event of accidents or injuries.
“It’s gone better than we expected. There were a lot of requests for places to ride. People were riding on country roads or on private property, so this gives them a nice sanctioned place to ride. I’m really enthused about it. We have a great committee, it just blended together, everyone had a job to do, and did it,” Reed said.
The ATV Adventure Park committee consists of Rod Barrett on finances, Eric Barrett on marketing and advertising, Paul Lemon who designed the trails and oversaw trail construction, Tim Graham who did the trail construction and Reed oversees the overall project.
Reed, who has been an ATV enthusiast for years, said Couch knew he often visited the Hatfield and McCoy trails and in February 2012 he asked Reed to form an exploratory committee to look at the possibility of creating an ATV park at Mountwood Park.
“This absolutely would not have been possible without the community coming together like this. The businesses supported the effort 100 percent and they are the ones that made it happen. This shows that when business works with government, things can get done without relying on government funding. I am truly proud of the example this park set for our area,” Reed said.