On a Crisp Day, It's Easy to Appreciate Warrior Trail

Washington PA  Observer Reporter
13 November 2011

When my brother-in-law visited us here for the first time, he fell for the beauty of Greene County just as we had. But he quickly became wistful. As a veteran hiker, he has covered trails all over the world and even spent a few life-threatening hours in a frozen crevasse in the Alps. He loves the way trails thread all over Europe, through countryside and private land. So when he found our county covered with signs warning: "Do Not Trespass! Private Property!" he bemoaned the fact that he would never hike these wooded hills. I should have directed him to the Warrior Trail.

The Warrior Trail, according to Trails.com, "resembles the countryside paths found in Europe" and covers 67 miles along ridges from the Monongahela to the Ohio River. Five thousand years ago, Native Americans walked the route among goldenrod and ironweed, through dense woods ringing with birdsong, to trade for flint.

Despite the many changes that five millennia bring, you can hike the trail today. Llew Williams, president of the Warrior Trail Association, which has dedicated itself to maintaining and preserving the trail since 1965, sites one way the trail is surviving change now: "When Europeans first came into this area, the trail could be recognized by a deep groove (declivity) worn across the hilltops from thousands of years of use. In recent years there are only a couple of places left where it can be found. One was over in the West Virginia panhandle. A couple of years ago a new gas well was drilled near the trail and they put in a gathering line.

Guess where they put it. Yep, right down the middle of the trail. No more 5,000 year old path."

For the last 13 years, Williams has guided groups on the trail. He's covered the entire 67 miles twice and regularly finds respite up on the ridges, whether he's leading a Scout troop or maintaining the paths with other Warrior Trail members or Waynesburg University student volunteers: "I've done it when it was 10 degrees (My wife said I was a nutcase) when the sun was brilliant, the sky deep dark blue, the snow blindingly white and the woods were glistening with a thousand diamonds. I've done it when it was 95 degrees and the woods were lush and green and the hollows were full of haze."

"Backpacking Pennsylvania" by Jeff Mitchell notes that the trail was put on an Endangered Trails List in 2003 because of permission losses from private land owners, which redirected some sections of trail to country roads. But many land owners welcome hikers. Williams says that he has spoken with landowners on many occasions and is "always impressed with how supportive and proud the older families are of having the trail on their land."

On a crisp fall day, looking over yet another sun-drenched valley, it's easy to see why the trail must be preserved. Williams reflects: "The gas boom has definitely had an effect on the trail. We have been crossed in several places with more to come. Some contractors have just gone ahead and done it and others have been very responsible about contacting us and supplying us with information about where and when they would cross.

Mostly they have been very nice and have offered to make sure that hikers can get through if needed.

"There was talk about razing the Moninger shelter - one of three shelters on the trail - for a drilling pad a couple of years back, but that seems to be on hold. When you look at it from a 5,000-year perspective, though, this is just temporary. The grass will grow back. The trees, too. We will keep it marked as long as we can."