Upshur County Recreation Park

Dogs Leashed

E-Bikes Allowed

This loop combines the refurbished and improved trails at the Upshur County Recreation Park.

Main tip: Follow the blue diamond blazes and you can't go wrong.

Park near Buckhannon-Upshur High School, at the Upshur County Recreation Park pavilion parking lot. From your parking spot, ride back on the pavement the way that you drove in, and take a right onto the trail through the wooden arch. Go on the singletrack a few hundred yards, turn right into a field, and ride along the edge of the field a few hundred yards more. Taker a sharp right onto singletrack into the evergreens. This is The Pines section.

Following the blazes through The Pines, you'll come back toward where you parked, and then you'll take a sharp left up the hill along a split rail fence. Continue to follow the blue diamonds uphill through a grassy area with large trees (and the pavilion to the right), dip back into the woods as you continue to climb. This is the Roundabout section. Roundabout loops back and forth on itself, and eventually spits you down a steep drop (near a large boulder perched on a steep drop) and across a grassy area immediately below where you parked.

As you ride through the grassy area, look ahead for blazes leading you to the Holly Shed Trail section. It's straightforward through Holly Shed (named for the thick holly trees and blasted-apart old metal shed along the way). You'll eventually cross two small streams running close to one another (Holly Shed here is perpendicular to the trail the locals call Band Hill for its proximity to the high school marching band's domain) and ascend a short-ish climb. After some up-down-and-around, you'll have a choice of sending a sweet rock drop to the left or taking the easier route to the right. Either way, at the bottom, take a sharp left uphill, and then dropped through a section marked with a sign as "Little Moab."

At the bottom of Little Moab, dip back into the woods on Crossings Trail. Take Crossings all the way back to Band Hill, crossing one of the small streams you crossed before on the way out. Take a hard right down Band Hill, catch a little air off the big rock if you're inclined. Near the bottom of Band Hill, take a hard left and continue on Crossings, up to a little ascent. Follow Crossings all the way back to a sharp descent into a steep hollow, cross the stream at the bottom of the hollow, bust a gut on the climb out the other side.

As the climb levels out, Crossings ends. You can climb up to the Whale Tail section of trail, or you can shorten the loop by avoiding Whale Tail and going straight to descend on the Witches Fingers section.

Either way, as you descend on Witches Fingers, you can peel off to explore Pumps Bumps & Rollers and/or Standing Feather ... or you can keep descending to the bottom.

At the bottom of the descent, cross the stream via a wooden bridge and pop up on a service road. This service road eventually takes you to a little segment of singletrack, near the entrance to the high school.

Bear right on the paved road, climb about halfway up to the parking lot, and bear left across to the grassy area. Keep riding in the grassy area a few dozen yards, look for a cut-through to the left to the edge of the athletic field. Take the cut-through, bear right, stay along the edge of the athletic field. To the right, you'll see the wooden arch where you started.