Anyone hike the Chuck Keiper Trail in PA .?

“I'm thinking about hiking this trail in the next few months. I did some reading on it and discovered that a tornado and a forest fire ravaged portions of the trail in the last 10 years. I was wondering if anyone has hiked out there in the last few years and could tell me if the area recovered enough to be a quality backpacking experience.”

“yeah I hiked 1/2 of it about at least 1.5 years ago. It was very difficult for me to actually locate the trail head. it was late and I had been driving for about 5 hrs from work, I located it just before dark. I hiked one of the 2 loops. I took the one that goes accross the Columbia pipe line and through the cranberry bog. If I remember correctly I hiked about 15 miles that first day. There is an awesome canyon in there. I camped just after that canyon, following the creek up looking for it's source. I was finally so tired that I camped almost right in the path. The trail itself was difficult to follow in areas because it hadn't been used that much. in many areas I had to seek out the next marker so I knew where to go. I recall getting bewildered at one point for a few minutes. All in all it was pretty cool trail. Very desolate, you probable wont run into any people, I didn't. The other loop was pretty lame because it goes through the burned out section. in fact part of the loop that I was on crossed a burned out section. the other loop does this more so. When you come up the road towards the trail head the majority of the burned out section is on the left. Good luck”

“Sirpete, Thanks for your info about the Chuck Keiper Trail. I received my map of the trail this week and also the map of the Quehanna Trail. Now I can't decide which one to hike. I'll probably wind up hiking both and it's just a matter of which one will come first. Thanks again.”

“Lemme know when ya plan on doin' the trail(s), Mr.B. I'd like (to try) to join ya!”

“Sounds good Buddur, I'd like to do them in the coming months so maybe we can come up with a time which will work for both of us. I'll talk to you over the weekend if your still planning on going on the BFT hike.”

“I've hiked the CKT four or five times and done trail work on it at least that many times. It is a strenuous hike, but shouldn't be that hard to find your way. It was totally reblazed this summer and had a week-long trail care this summer (instead of the usual one weekend a year). It is remote, so you'll likely have it to yourself, especially in autumn. It is beautiful country. You can break the trail up into two 25 mile loops or a 22 and a 30 mile loop, depending on whether you do the cut-off or use Penrose road as a divider. There are several trailheads - we usually start and end at the overlook, but there are a couple of other places where the trail crosses 144 as well, or you can park on Penrose and pick up the trail there. The Quehanna Trail is a lot longer, and it is a bit harder to break into good weekend sized loops, but it is doable. The trail is generally better maintained, as it has an adopting organization, while Chuck Keiper has to make do with one work trip a year by KTA (which isn't much for a 50 mile trail). The Allegheny Front trail (out of Black Moshannan State Park) is nearby and also can be broken up into two weekend loops. We've backpacked half of it and done trail work on it a couple of times.”

“Hi Ginny, I was hoping that you would post to this thread. Thanks for the info., I'm printing it for future reference.”