MO: Bucktail Path (34 mi)

Have you ever hiked the Bucktail Path? Of course you haven't, nobody has! This is one of the least used (and most rugged) of the Pennsylvania State Forest hiking trails, but it looks short enough for some strong DCULers to do in a regular weekend, so why don't we give it a shot?

Trip Plan
This hike requires a car shuttle, so we'll need at least three vehicles. We'll meet up at Grosvenor-Strathmore Kiss&Ride at 3pm on Friday, and drive up to the southern trailhead at Sinnemahoning. We'll find a place there to drop one car, then pile into the other two and drive an additional 30 minutes to the northern end to start the hike. We've got roughly 2 miles and one steep climb to knock out on Friday night before we find somewhere to camp along Crooked Run.

Saturday will be a 23-mile day, with plenty of elevation. Apparently this is a pretty rough trail so it may be a challenging day. We'll follow the orange blazes southward across remote sections of Elk State Forest until we reach Square Timber Wild Area, where we'll camp for the night. The second half of the day sticks mostly to ridges, so we'll have to be cognizant of where our last water is; camp will most likely be dry.

Sunday morning leaves just 7 miles of gradual downhill to the southern terminus, where we'll reverse the shuttle and begin the journey home.

Resources

• Pennsylvania DCNR Trail Guide & Map
• CalTopo Map
• Driving Directions to Sinnemahoning Trailhead
• Weather

Disclaimers

• By RSVPing to this trip or any other DC UL trip, you agree to these guidelines and to DC UL's waiver liability terms (https://www.meetup.com/DC-UL-Backpacking/pages/Liability_Waiver/)
• COVID-19 policy: https://dculbackpacking.com/about/covid-19-guidelines/
• Dues: Members and above, don't forget to pay your annual dues. You can check if you need to pay dues by seeing if the current year is listed next to your name in your DC UL profile. Applicants do not need to pay dues for their first trip. To pay your dues via PayPal, use this link: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/DCULKaran/15 ($10 annual dues plus a $5 suggested donation to City Kids Wilderness Project.)
• Carpool: As per our carpool policy, riders should pay drivers $0.10/mile.