For the first time since 2005, the sprawling Hatfield-McCoy off-road trails system will be without the executive director. And, indeed, it was the man who shepherded it from a modest regional project into one of the most celebrated off-road trail destinations in the United States.
Jeffrey Lusk, who has been involved with the Hatfield-McCoy project since its early groundwork in the 1990s and formally became executive director in 2005, has announced his retirement after two decades steering the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority. Under his leadership, the system expanded from just a few hundred miles of trail to more than 1,000 miles of interconnected off-road riding across nine southern West Virginia counties.
Trail pass sales—once a few thousand per year—are now expected to reach around 95,000 riders in 2025, an astonishing statistic for a region that once struggled to attract consistent tourism. Most of those riders come from out of state, reinforcing just how far the trail system’s reputation has traveled.
I’ll admit, I didn’t grow up riding in West Virginia’s backwoods. But I did get my first taste of the Hatfield-McCoy system in February 2024, when Kawasaki invited me out to test the then-new Ridge closed-cab UTV. The trails were exactly what you’d hope for in the Appalachian mountains: narrow, twisty corridors carved into rock and forest, just wide enough for the machine beneath me. It was wet, cold, slick, and absolutely perfect. The town we temporarily invaded for the junket was small, warm, and full of locals who greeted us with a drawl thick enough to remind me I was very much a visitor here. I left the ride with a deep respect for these mountains, modest in height but mighty in personality.
So yes, it’s bittersweet to watch the man who helped preserve and elevate this network step away. But I’m just as eager to see what the next chapter brings.
That next chapter is a meaningful one. A successor will inherit a massive, beloved trail system that continues to grow in both mileage and visitor interest. They’ll have to manage expansion while maintaining trail quality, protecting the land, and keeping rural communities engaged and supported. That includes finding new ways to draw riders to lesser-traveled loops, strengthening partnerships with trail-friendly towns, and improving mapping and navigation tools for newcomers.
They’ll also take on a uniquely Appalachian responsibility: preserving the cultural identity threaded through every ridge and hollow. The Hatfield-McCoy Trails are more than just dirt and elevation changes. They’re living history…A mesh of coal country resilience, small-town warmth, and rugged landscapes that feel different from any other off-road destination. Growth works best when it keeps that identity intact.
Lusk’s legacy is proof that “build it and they will come” wasn’t just an optimistic slogan. Visitors came, and then they came back, and then they told their friends. But the next era requires something more nuanced: build it smarter, maintain it fiercely, and innovate in ways that respect both the land and the people who depend on it. If the momentum of recent years is any indication, the trail system is poised for its most exciting chapter yet. The future still needs careful hands.
But the groundwork, thanks to Lusk, is solid enough for the next generation to make something extraordinary.
