Ohio Valley Trail Association

03/05/2026

Our hearts are heavy with news like this.

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12/11/2025

📢 Belmont County Residents: Your Input is Needed! 🚌

The Belmont County Coordinated Transit Plan for Human Services is a plan which aims to significantly improve transportation access for those in our community who are:

- Over the age of 65
- Have a disability
- Are low-income

If you fall into one of these groups, or if you work with people who do, please take a few minutes to complete our Community Survey or share!

Your honest feedback on topics like transportation barriers, typical travel times, and current challenges is critical. This input will directly shape how we improve transit services in Belmont County.

➡️ Take the survey here: https://arcg.is/1XCOz3

Your participation is greatly appreciated and essential for building a more accessible Belmont County!

Please share!

10/10/2025

Meet the PE teacher whose Bike Bus is going viral, transforming the school commute, building community, sparking joy and catching the attention of a few pop stars along the way.

Last week's special guest: Benson Boone. The one before that? Justin Timberlake

10/10/2025

Last week, it was released that the Belmont County Captina watershed was selected to receive one of 25 The Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) planning grant.

10/03/2025

This trail group has representation on the steering committee!

On Tuesday, in support of the Trump Administration’s Make America Beautiful Commission goals, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Denali Commission, and the Northern Border Regional Commission announced...

09/16/2025

A Chance Encounter
by David Cannon

Photos courtesy of
Zachary Groves & Andrew Saffell

My riding partner, Zach Groves, and I have been spending the summer riding and exploring the back roads of Belmont County as mapped out in the Eastern Ohio Back Road Biking brochure. Recently, we have been parking at his brother’s trucking business, SLC Trucking. The shop is on Hendrysburg-Freeport Road, just west of Hendrysburg, and sits at the intersection of two of the major northern routes on the map. They work on diesel engines, motorhomes, big rigs, and employ a fleet of dump trucks. It’s a pretty good size operation.

Usually, when Zach and I arrive, most of the trucks are out on the road. By the time we pull back in at around 6:00 or so, the trucks are back on the lot and the employees’ cars are gone. We seldom have contact with any of the employees.

A few weeks ago, 8/6/25, as we were preparing to head out, a rather large, burly gentleman climbed out of his rig and approached us like he was mad at us.

“Where’d you get that bike?” he asks me in a challenging tone.

My mistake. Apparently, he is only mad at me.

“I promise I didn’t steal it from you, big guy,” I reply, trying to put on my best friendly smile.

“That’s a Mongoose, DX 5.3, built in 1998 by the BMX bike company in Madison, Wisconsin.” The trucker, who looks like exactly what he is, a truck driver accustomed to hard work with a beer chaser, does not look like the kind of guy who knows the lineage of a bicycle probably built before he was born. He proceeds to educate me on my bike and its components, pointing out and naming each component, right down to exact specifications and ratios. I stand looking at him, dumbfounded.

“Where’d ya git the bike?” he asks again in a little softer tone.
“There used to be a bike shop in Saint Clairsville…” I start, a little sheepishly.

“The Bike Zone,” he offers up, not letting me finish.

“Yeah, I think that was the name of it,” I reply, wondering if maybe I knew this guy in another life or something.

He thrusts out a big, hard-calloused hand in friendship. I grip his hand, happy that he no longer seems mad at me.
“I’m Andrew Saffell,” he introduces himself. “That was my mom and dad’s store.”

“Really!”

“I must’ve been seven or eight when they put that Mongoose in the window. I wanted that bike bad, but I already had two BMXs and my parents said the bike was too big for me.”

For the next ten minutes, we talk about bicycles, races we’ve raced in, the bike shop, and his parents. They are both still with us and doing well. His mom keeps the books for another area business, and his dad is almost fully retired except for working on a few bikes for old customers, from time to time.

“Hey! Can I get a picture of you and your bike?” he asks excitedly. “My dad ‘ll git a real kick out’a that.”

No one has ever had to ask me twice for a picture.

We try to set up a bike ride with Andrew and his dad. Andrew was quite the BMXer in his day. But he admits, with a little sadness in his eye, “I don’t think I could make it a mile up the road.” He confides that he and his dad are both far out of cycling shape and neither of them has been on a bike in years.

Zach joins in to try to convince the truck driver to bring his dad and maybe just ride up to Hendrysburg and back. All I can think is what a great honor it would be to go for a ride with the guy who sold me my bike thirty years ago. After five minutes of coaxing and begging, we get a firm, “Well, we’ll see.”

As we pull out of the parking lot, I hear Zach gearing down for the hill in front of us as my mind starts to wander. I am wondering what the odds are that I should run into the son of the folks that sold me my bike all those years ago. The thought strikes me how small a place the Universe is for a traveler on a bike.

The End

Special thanks to SLC Trucking, Andrew Saffell for approaching me, and Mr. and Mrs. Saffell for selling me my favorite time machine.

09/02/2025

Raven Rocks, the place in southern Belmont County, has been known and publicly visited for many generations by local citizens. The rock shelter ravines continue to attract hikers and especially those who seek beautiful natural areas to explore and enjoy. In 1970 the property, including the Raven Rocks and its surroundings, were put up for sale. With the possible threat of surface mining for coal looming on the horizon a group of Olney Friends School alumni and friends organized Raven Rocks, Inc. to purchase and protect the property. Without any funding of their own they developed an all-volunteer business raising and retailing Christmas Trees.

The core group remains, having acquired a total of 1,250 acres, now including a 1,015-acre diverse forest preserve. The large earth sheltered building begun years ago, again with group labor, continues its way to completion as a conference and retreat center. New trails have been built, marked with signage as a way for visitors to enjoy the rock shelter ravines and healthy forests. It has become a growing destination attracting hikers from a wide area, even though it remains in a remote back road location. For more information: https://ravenrocksoh.com/

A Back Road Biking Trail Head is located @ the entrance to Raven Rocks (54167 Crum Road, Beallsville, OH 43716).

08/11/2025

Along the backroad biking routes in Belmont County, you may pass a one-room schoolhouse. According to this map,https://www.bcdlibrary.org/_assets/schoolmap.pdf, there were 227 schoolhouses in Belmont County around the year 1900. Today, all the backroad biking routes are primarily in either Barnesville Exempted School District or Union Local School District.

A retired teacher provided this information about one of those school districts:

The Union Local (UL) Schools consolidated several separate school systems in the western Belmont County area. During the early 1920s Belmont High School represented the area for a number of years. The same was true for Bethesda High School and Flushing High School. Each had separate buildings for the lower grades. In 1959 Belmont, Bethesda, Centerville, and Morristown schools consolidated into the current UL School system. A couple of years later Flushing along with Holloway joined UL. The former high schools housed the elementary and middle school students. A special levy was passed in the 1990's. The UL High School campus was then expanded to include the middle school students. A new elementary school building was also created on the same campus.

07/17/2025

We've seen this bike rack being used before as well as the one placed at Riesbeck's in Barnesville!

Yes…the bike rack does get used! Carolyn you may be the first!!🚲🚴🚲

07/11/2025

Railroad Street between Bethesda Street and East Main/Colonial Drive is currently closed during weekdays for the trail construction project.

07/01/2025

The Ohio Valley Trail Committee’s bike routes pass through the Dickinson Cattle Company ranch (35000 Muskat Road, Barnesville, OH, 43713). Tours of the nearly 5,000 acres ranch are available. A Head-to-Tail Store is also located on the site.