By Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — As spring weather approaches, the Hatfield-McCoy Trail system was off to a strong start Wednesday while a manufacturer of ATVs debuted its new off-road models on southern West Virginia’s trails.
Jeffrey Lusk, executive director of the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, said the new ATV tourist season is looking good. Lusk checked the authority’s records for trail pass sales last season. The figures included the number of out-of-state visitors coming to West Virginia to ride the trails which includes the Pocahontas Trail in Mercer County.
“I can give you the exact number. We got all of our reconciliations done now,” he said. “Last year we sold 92,531 passes and 77,897 of them were to non-West Virginia residents, so we are very excited about that. We’re having a great start this year.”
Some recent snow did not reduce ridership, and the numbers of people arriving on the trails is up by about 10 percent so far, Lusk said.
Gov. Jim Justice spoke Wednesday about the Hatfield-McCoy Trails during an administrative briefing and announced that Kawasaki, a manufacturer of ATVs, motorcycles and other vehicles, was unveiling its new off-road models this week in southern West Virginia.