I did a quick overnight with my two brothers-in-laws to the Pinchot Trail near Wilkes-Barre, PA. We had done the longer, southern section last year, so only did the northern loop this year. It was ~12 miles total, and fairly flat so it was one of the easiest trips I'd done. There is a nice map and write up at this link http://www.midatlantichikes.com/pinchottr.htm
Here is a trail map that I borrowed from the link above. We started in the middle of the (roughly) figure-8 and headed north. We camped at the top of the loop, along Painter Creek.
We drove up through ~3" of snow flurries, so we had a nice untrodden path most of the way. We planned on using bevies, so were glad when the snow stopped partway into our hike.
The Pinchot trail is blazed orange with side trails in yellows. Although there are LOTS of blazes and very nice trail markers at junctions, we were surprised to find that some service/jeep roads were not marked on the map I had gotten from the site above. That combined with the snowmobile also blazed in orange could cause some unnecessary confusion at times.
The Pinchot trail was named after Gifford Pinchot, the father of modern forestry. It's situated in northeastern PA, and is mostly high plateau terrain and flora. There are a few creeks, small lakes, and lots of bogs with blueberry plants and small shrubs, along with some hemlock and mixed forest stands.
We made camp at the northern most point of the trail, in a very nice hemlock stand, next to a creek.
My brothers-in-law always need a fire, and considerable time discussing how to best arrange it, dry out some wood, and wonder why anyone would would ever camp without a fire…even in the summertime.
They are both both believers in the Sling-Light camp chair, which is cleverly(?) advertised as being the same weight as a can of beer! :) http://slinglight.com/sl/
The bivies worked great since we could find nice, flat little spots among the hemlock roots and PA rocks. We had passed someone taking a late nap that afternoon, and he caught up to us at camp. We never got his name, but he strung up his hammock about 40 yards away and seemed content with his under-quilt because he was still there when we left the next morning.
My second-hand MLD eVent Gaiters also worked great with the fresh snow.
We broke camp and headed out.
One of the unusual aspects of this hike was a 2-story tall platform that is situated on a highpoint, providing a 360 degree view.
After the wind blew us off the platform, we headed out the car. You can see Loc's Sling-Light chair attached to his pack in this shot.
It was a nice, short trip with the benefit of newly fallen snow, without any of it falling on us. The only downside was that Joe Geib, a fellow BPL'er, wasn't able to make this trip after a midway date change since his little girl's birthday was the next day…can't fault you on preferring to be with your cute 2-year old, rather than us old guys. Joe, we'll get out together again one of these days.
