West Virginia is known for its great outdoors adventures.

This month, the state has added to its attractions with its first geocaching trail.

The National Coal Heritage Area unveiled the Coal Heritage GeoTrail at the Maxwell Hill Community Center on May 1.

“It’s a pretty big deal,” said Ronn Raszetnik, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer who worked with the Coal Heritage Highway Authority on creating the trail. “We’ve had a lot of enthusiastic geocachers that are very excited about it. So far, it’s done very well in such a short time.”

Geocaching is a treasure hunt game that most times requires hiking. In the Coal Heritage GeoTrail, participants use GPS units to find hidden caches. In each cache, participants find clues that will help them complete a puzzle found in the official Coal Heritage GeoTrail brochure. Geocachers then bring their completed brochures to a redemption site to receive a commemorative Coal Heritage GeoTrail patch.

Geocaching has grown in popularity over the last few years, thanks to the availability of GPS systems.

“We had an excellent turn-out of enthusiastic geocachers at our opening event,” Ras-zetnik said. “Last week, a couple became the first to complete all 16 caches, just a few days after unveiling the GeoTrail. They completed 10 of the caches on the first day and later came back and completed the final six.”

That couple, Johnny and Susan Evans of Barboursville, has been geocaching for about three years.

“We got into it because we were looking for a sport that we could do with our grandchildren,” Johnny Evans, 62, said. “There was a lot of driving and there were some tough hides. Several people haven’t been able to find some of them. The people that set it up did a fabulous job. All of the geocachers I’ve talked to are very appreciative. It’s a great idea to draw attention to the trail.

“We put in two good days,” Evans added. “We got home at about 11:30 p.m. the first day. We had about 720 miles of driving, but that includes two trips to Barboursville and back. We enjoyed it.”

The thrill of the find is not the only attraction, Evans said.

“One of my friends summed it up pretty well. He said, ‘You start out in geocaching going into the woods and looking for a plastic box. What you really find are a lot of neat friends.’ We’ve met a lot of nice people at these geocaching events.”

The GeoTrail is expected to attract new visitors to southern West Virginia.

“That’s the goal,” Raszetnik said. “It was a driving force behind this. We had people e-mail us from New Mexico telling us they’ve been here already. Geocachers are used to going far and wide. It’s definitely another incentive to visit this area.”

There are 16 caches located on the Coal Heritage Geo-Trail from Mercer to Kana-wha County. Geocachers will travel along three scenic byways: the Coal Heritage Trail, the Paint Creek Scen-ic Trail and the Midland Trail.

“The southernmost cache is in Bramwell and the northernmost is in Gauley Bridge,” Raszetnik said. “It’s pretty far. But people are willing to drive those distances and they’re having a good time doing it. They’re posting photos and comments online.

“It required a lot of work to create a cohesive trail. It took over four months of planning, visiting sites and scouting locations.”

There are varying levels of difficulty, both in managing the trail and in finding the caches.

“There is some hiking required and some of the terrain is challenging,” Raszet-nik said. “A few of the caches are small — we call them nano-caches — which are sometimes as small as a dime. They’re magnetic. One of those was hid under a metal bench. One of the larger caches is a military ammo can. That’s easier to find.”

GPS reception at the bottom of the New River Gorge is spotty, which provides yet another challenge.

“That just adds to the adventure,” Raszetnik said.

For more information, visit www.coalheritage.org or www.paintcreekscenictrail.com/geo.html.

— E-mail: jworkman@register-herald.com