New River Gorge, WV
West Virginia’s New River Gorge is home to world-class white water and climbing activities. The National Parks Service recently acquired some lands along the New River and contracted IMBA’s Trail Solutions to develop a conceptual trail plan for world-class destination mountain biking location. Applied Trails Research provided field and office support to IMBA’s Trail Solutions on this project: assessing existing extraction routes (mining, logging and agricultural) for potential use as portions of the trail system. Existing routes were digitized from historic aerial imagery, and evaluated for sustainability/suitability in the GIS setting using LiDAR terrain models; additional site visualization, field verification via GPS, and digital mapping methods were used to streamline the planning process.
The map below shows a portion of the Garden Grounds area of NPS lands included in the trail plan. Existing extraction routes are shown as lines, which have been classed by trail grade. Green segments are potentially viable for inclusion in the trail plan, and could expedite trail construction by the use of road-to-trail construction techniques.
The visualization figure of the Garden Grounds tract highlights the challenging and steep terrain typical in the New River Gorge. Applied Trails Research created this model for visualization of the site, and to aid in field scouting and planning efforts. Existing extraction routes are shown, and are color coded by suitability for inclusion in trail planning.
