Nitro resident Lee Waugh walks his dog Ranger on Ridenour trails in Nitro, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. They take this walk every day, typically doing a loop around the lake. Waugh said he enjoys the new trails because they’re in the woods and it’s cooler on the walks. “Typically, we’ll run across one or two other people walking their dogs,†he said.
Joel Mosteller rides with the Putnam Youth Mountain Biking Team on Ridenour trails in Nitro, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025.
LAURA BILSON | Gazette-Mail
Tracy Toler has been building trails since he was a child growing up near Kanawha State Forest.
“When I was a little kid, that was all we did around my house,†he said. “I lived in the edge of the woods, so we built trails in the woods.â€
Now, Toler’s company, Adventure Trail Systems, has just completed about 16 miles of hiking and biking trails at Ridenour Lake in Nitro, 402 Ridenour Park Lane South, bringing the total trail mileage to 21 miles on the property around the lake.
On Aug. 25, 2025, Tracy Toler sits on a wooden mountain bike ramp along a Ridenour trail he designed.
LAURA BILSON | Gazette-Mail
Toler, 51, built one of the first trails at Ridenour as a volunteer almost a decade ago after he moved to Nitro.
“I'm not a city person anyways. And so, the fact that Ridenour Lake was half a mile from my house was a huge selling point for me to move to town,†he said. “I was like, ‘I'll just spend time at the lake all the time.’â€
However, Toler soon found that he couldn’t really ride his mountain bike at the lake because there was only a half-mile trail. He asked the Nitro City Council for permission to build a new trail. Within two or three weeks, he had built another trail in the woods.
“It was like you could [do a] loop, and we immediately got way more people walking,†he said.
Expansion
Toler started building more trails with his friends and his daughter, Kaya, an accomplished mountain biker. They built 3 to 4 more miles before they “maxed out the property,†he said.
Sarah Doerner and her son, Aaron, ride with the Putnam Youth Mountain Biking Team on Ridenour trails in Nitro on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025.
LAURA BILSON | Gazette-Mail
Ridenour, at the time, covered about 60 acres. Almost half of that was taken up by the lake.
Although it didn’t look like trail building would be possible anymore, Toler kept engaging with the City Council and finding grants for other improvements at the park, such as a playground, picnic shelter and kayak launch.
Toler, who said much of his job involves staring at maps, did some research into the property adjacent to the lake. He learned that the owners, members of a local family, were interested in getting rid of it.
“If they were going to ... sell it to somebody to be timbered, it was going to ... kill the whole aesthetic of the lake,†he said. “Why would you come here if the whole entire hillside around this lake was timbered? You wouldn't. It would look [like] a disaster.â€
Toler took his idea to buy the property and expand the trails to the City Council. According to meeting minutes, it approved the purchase of 259 acres from the Haikal family in April 2021 for $400,000.
Toler, who has been a professional trail builder for about six years, bid on a trail expansion project that was funded by a grant and the city. His was the lowest bid, in part because he didn’t have to travel far. In 18 months, his crew took the system from around 5 miles of trails to 21 miles.
“Now, we're a serious trail destination. Once you have 10-plus miles, you’re a destination,†he said. “If the place has only got a couple miles, it's not really enough for a biker.â€
Kids warm up before they ride with the Putnam Youth Mountain Biking Team on Ridenour trails in Nitro, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025.
LAURA BILSON | Gazette-Mail
Toler is an avid mountain biker and former coach of the Putnam County Pedalers, a youth mountain biking team that practices at Ridenour and the Meeks Mountain Trails in Hurricane.
It’s obvious that Toler thought about the next generation of bikers when he built the Ridenour trails, as he described many of the trails in terms of what younger riders could do.
For example, a cut-through in the beginner level Green Machine loop would let a faster kid have a new challenge while staying with his peers. And a small trail hub at a feature named Indian Rock has some intermediate and expert short downhills that would be fun for kids with more technical riding ability, he said.
“It's made to just play,†he said. “You can just ride back up, try this one, ride back up, try this one, and it's just this little hub out there in the middle of nowhere just to play on bikes.â€
Other local youth mountain biking teams from Huntington and even Jackson County have come down to Ridenour to practice.
This is a contributed image of the Ridenour Preserve Trail map.
Courtesy photo
Toler said he thinks Ridenour now has more variety in trails than almost anywhere in West Virginia. There are easy, flat trails for beginners, single track trails that are “pretty rugged†for intermediate riders, wide and winding trails built by excavators and even a trail of wooden ramps, called North Shore features, for expert riders.
The machine-built trails have become popular in the past 15 years, Toler said, and are still uncommon in West Virginia. Most of West Virginia’s bike trails were originally hand-built as hiking trails.
“We built a lot of bike-specific trails here, which are your more modern flow trails, which get more people into biking really,†he said. “Because if you're a youth and ... you have no mountain biking experience, [with] the roots, rocks and skinny, tiny little trails that we have, you're just terrified.â€
Most of the trails are named with a 1980s theme, Toler said — for example, Cracker Jack, Disco Downhill, Evel Knievel, PacMan and Donkey Kong.
Ready for business
Toler wants to get as many hikers, runners and bikers on the trails as he can. He said all play a role in keeping the trails maintained.
For example, trail runners passing by smooth over ruts left by mountain bikers in wet dirt. Mountain bikers do a lot of trail development, such as cutting up fallen trees, because they can’t get around the obstacles like a hiker or runner could.Â
“We need a lot more hikers because ... they’re  really great at, like, kicking sticks out of the trail and random rocks because they're not going so fast, they're not worried about it,†he said.
Joe Stevens, executive director of the Nitro Convention and Visitors Bureau, said there’s been a “large increase†in hikers, bikers and runners visiting the park since the new trails opened. Many are from out of town.
Nitro resident Lee Waugh walks his dog Ranger on Ridenour trails in Nitro, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. They take this walk every day, typically doing a loop around the lake. Waugh said he enjoys the new trails because they’re in the woods and it’s cooler on the walks. “Typically, we’ll run across one or two other people walking their dogs,†he said.
LAURA BILSON | Gazette-Mail
Lee Waugh, who lives in Nitro, walks his dog, Ranger, every day at Ridenour, typically doing a loop around the lake.
Waugh said he enjoys the new trails because they’re in the woods and it’s cooler on the walks.
“Typically, we’ll run across one or two other people walking their dogs,†he said.
Soon, Toler wants to host trail running and mountain bike races at Ridenour. Prior to the expansion, he'd hosted a few mountain bike races at the park.
Trail maps are posted at kiosks around Ridenour. The best option for a map on your phone is Trailforks, Toler said. The Strava app also shows the trails, allowing for navigation.
“I feel fortunate to get to mess with Mother Nature,†Toler said. “I'm gonna take full advantage and make a good plan and make it sustainable for a really long time.â€
Ashley Perham is a city reporter. She can be reached at 304-348-1240 or aperham@hdmediallc.com.
