Re: Heavenly Trails

[flemmerl@rcbhsc.wvu.edu (Flemmer, Linda)]

Linda B. Merims wrote:

> One thing people might include are the economic potentials of the areas
> in which they ride.  I'm a high-tech'y and would dearly love to find
> a place whose geography and state-of-development supports distance
> trail riding *AND* whose economy supports an *income* for a computer
> professional that makes it possible to do this distance riding.

We just moved outside of Morgantown WV.  I was skeptical at first, but
the state is actively recruiting (and obtaining) high tech industry. 
Morgantown is home to the Univ of WV with associated culture and
technology.  Fairmont (just 20 min S of us) has the FBI Fingerprint
Center (developing computer-aided bio-identification technology) and a
NASA station that does software development.  My husband works as a
firmware electronics engineer at NIOSH in Morgantown (Nat'l Institute
for Occupational Safety & Health)  Just down the street is a center that
is developing electronic communication for education, healthcare, etc.
for the remote, rural areas of the state.  All in all, I was pleasantly
surprised.  (They don't even have an "accent" here.  sounds like
Pittsburgh, PA (a mere 45 min N of us).

We live 25 minutes away from work, all interstate.  We built a
house/barn in a very rural, farming community, on 16 acres.  Most of the
county is open for us to ride on.  Most roads are tar & chip 1 lane
(major traffic is two cars in 30 minutes), or dirt roads that are seldom
if ever used.  We've yet had a farmer to turn us away from riding on his
land.

Most riding is on private land.  There are a number of state & nat'l
forests and parks, but we haven't traveled to ride them yet.  The
network for equestrian trails is weak in the state.  If you call the
parks, they tell you they have no rental horses.  When you tell them you
have horses, they say come on down!, but they have no idea what trail
heads would be best for you to park.  We definitely have some exploring
to do.  PA has a lot of state forest, gameland, and parks within a 1-2
hr drive for riding as well.  We have 2 in-state rides (less that 2-3
hrs), and a large number of CTR and AERC rides in PA (within 1-4 hrs).

This is a BIG improvement of Norfolk, VA where we used to live.  We
commuted 1 hr to work, our farm was crowded by development, and nobody
wanted riders on their property because of liability issues.  Worst, all
our rides were 6-8 hrs away from there.  Yuck!

Linda Flemmer