Jun 13, 2008 By Tara Kinsell 6 min read

WAYNESBURG – When Llew and Jeanne Williams of New Freeport decided to follow the yellow dots that they saw while hiking in Greene County, little did they know where that would lead them. The couple’s love for nature would eventually take them to a path – or, to be more precise, a trail – that they have thoroughly enjoyed for quite some time now.

“We moved to Greene County in 1993 but Jeanne’s family had been here for a long time,” Llew Williams said. “We both liked to hike and when we investigated what the yellow dots were about we found out that they were part of the Warrior Trail.”

From there the Williams’ learned that a trail map could be obtained from the local Chamber of Commerce.

“We would venture a little further [on the trail] Sunday after Sunday. Eventually, we attended a Warrior Trail meeting,” he said.

Williams and his wife were surprised to find that the majority of those who attended the monthly Warrior Trail Association meetings were elderly and not really able to do the maintenance and markings necessary to keep the trail up.

“They offered me a seat on the board and pretty soon asked me if I would like to be president of it,” Williams said. “I said, ‘yes’ and am now going on nine years with the association as the president.”

For the uninitiated, the Warrior Trail is an over-5,000-year-old American Indian trail that spans from Greensboro on the Monongahela River in the east to the Ohio River in West Virginia, ending in the town of Flint Ridge in eastern Ohio.

The trail crosses State Gamelands, private properties, public roads and other pieces of land. For the most part, Williams said, the individual landowners are aware of the trail and are gracious to hikers but there are some who have encountered an occasional landowner who has considered their presence to be trespassing.

A lack of education about the trail and an influx of residents from places other than Greene County may attribute to this fact.

Typically, Williams said, the people hikers come into contact with have been accommodating.

“People who have lived here for years will offer hikers water, and some have even offered to share dinner with them,” Williams said. “I hear all the time how amazed the hikers are at how well the people here have treated them and how nice they are.”

The Warrior Trail Association is always looking for ways to get the word out about the trail, the association itself, work hikes that are held to maintain the trail, and more.

A Web site, maintained by Williams, gives information about the trail history, photos, contact information and how to obtain a topographic trail map.

“The best place to start if you want to hike the trail is to go to the Pennsylvania Welcome Center at Kirby and pick up one of the free Greene County maps,” Williams said. “The trail is clearly marked on there. Whether you go out and spend a day looking for the various places you can enter the trail or go and hike for ten miles, it is something worth experiencing.”

Unfortunately, the work hikes that take place monthly are not well-attended. Williams is usually out there with just two or three others, and that has made it difficult with a trail that stretches across the county.

“We could use all the help we can get,” Williams said. “We are mainly trying to keep it marked right now and we could use some active volunteers.”

The trail association dates its roots back to 1965 when some local amateur archeologists – among them James “Fuzzy” Randolph; the late Paul Rich “Prexie” Stewart, President of Waynesburg College; and the late W. Bertram Waychoff, who was a district attorney for Greene County – took an interest in exploring the trail and seeking artifacts of the native Americans that crossed it.

Several of the items that they found in their research and exploration are on display at the Greene County Historical Society’s Museum, according to Williams.

Williams said he would like to see more of a financial partnership in maintaining the trail and getting the information out there about it from local government in the future.

“We were fortunate to receive a $13,000 economic development grant from [state] Rep. Bill DeWeese that helped us to update the electrical systems and roof on our headquarters building,” Williams said. “The building was eligible to receive the funding since it was one of the last one-room schoolhouses in operation in the state. The building was erected in 1885. We were very grateful to him for assisting us in securing that money. It was a real help.”

Monthly meetings for the Warrior Trail Association are held the third Thursday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the headquarters building, located on Fordyce Road.

The meetings feature pot luck dinners as well as guest speakers. Williams estimated that the attendance is usually between 25 to 35 people each month.

In addition to the trail work that he does, Williams distributes a monthly newsletter and speaks to Scout groups and at schools. His full-time job is as a software developer for a company that deals primarily with the government and specifically with NASA.

He and his wife, who is the secretary of the association and also a schoolteacher, own and operate a goat farm in New Freeport.

Although time is limited between work and the family farm, the Williamses consider their work with the Warrior Trail Association and preserving that sense of history to be a labor of love.

“It is a good fit,” said Williams, who for the last 30 years has taken a three-day solo backpacking trek in the spring in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. “I love the outdoors, and the Warrior Trail gives me an excuse to get outside once a month.”

For more information on joining the Warrior Trail Association or on the trail itself, visit www.westgreenepa.net/community/WarriorTrail/ or phone Williams at 724-447-2951.