Mon Forest Gravel Launches

The Mon Forest Towns Partnership, which is a nonprofit organization supporting twelve gateway communities across eight counties, including Pocahontas County, in the Monongahela National Forest region of West Virginia has just announced the launch of Mon Forest Gravel. That is a new gravel and bikepacking network with more than 60 curated gravel trails and roads which spans eight counties for experiences ranging from family friendly gravel bike rides to intense multi-day gravel bikepacking trips.

According to the press release, Mon Forest Gravel is one of the largest networks on the East Coast. These routes activate thousands of miles of gravel roads across the Mon Forest for visitors and local communities alike, supporting the organization’s core mission of deepening the connection between gateway towns and their public lands. Routes are organized by both length and town, allowing riders to explore the Mon from any of the twelve Mon Forest Towns — Elkins, Parsons, Thomas, Davis, Durbin, Marlinton, Richwood, Cowen, Petersburg, Franklin, Seneca Rocks, or White Sulphur Springs. The most ambitious route in the collection, the Mon Circuit 600, links all twelve towns in a single continuous journey with more than 50,000 feet of climbing.

The Pocahontas County section stretches across the heart of the Mon Forest and offers the broadest and most diverse riding in the entire network, with Durbin anchoring the northern end and Marlinton serving as the hub of the southern Greenbrier River corridor. From Durbin, routes range from a beginner-friendly loop combining Forest Road 44 with the West Fork Rail Trail to ambitious back-country ridge loops reaching Laurel Fork Wilderness, the trail town of Glady, Smoke Camp Knob, and the remote high country around the Laurel Divide.

The most demanding Durbin route — Gaudineer’s Watch — crosses both sides of the upper Greenbrier River valley through red spruce stands on Back Allegheny Mountain, passing Gaudineer Knob’s moss-draped forest preserve and the historic turnpike toward Camp Allegheny.

From Marlinton, the Greenbrier River Trail anchors the southern corridor with routes ranging from a family-friendly out-and-back to Sharp’s Tunnel to a full 78-mile bikepacking traverse between Caldwell and Cass Scenic Railroad State Park. More challenging loops climb toward the Highland Scenic Highway, the Falls of Hills Creek, and Droop Mountain Battlefield, while the Green Bank Observatory loop ventures into the National Radio Quiet Zone before ascending to Snowshoe Mountain’s high plateau and Bald Knob beneath some of the darkest skies in the Mid-Atlantic. Connector routes link Pocahontas County north to Elkins via the GRUSK route, south to Charlottesville’s Amtrak station via Sweetwater Farm Trail Center, and east to Harrisonburg through the George Washington National Forest.

The project was made possible through the ARC POWER Grant, with support from Village-to-Village Trails, Bikepacking Roots, and MountainRides LLC,  organizations whose local expertise and national reach helped shape a route network designed to serve both everyday riders and dedicated bikepackers. Bikepacking is an increasingly popular outdoor activity similar to backpacking, except done on mountain bikes.

Riders looking to experience the network firsthand can join the Bikepacking Roots Annual East Coast Summit, hosted in Marlinton from May 29 through June 1, 2026. The gathering brings together bikepacking enthusiasts from across the region for guided rides, community events, and exploration of the southern Mon Forest’s most scenic terrain.

The full route network is available at monforesttowns.org/gravel, with routes also published on Ride with GPS and featured on Bikepacking Roots.

The Mon Forest Towns Partnership works to strengthen recreation-based economic development, connect communities to the forest, and support authentic, place-rooted storytelling across the region.