The Pinchot Trail

By Linda Tancs

Gifford Pinchot was a founding father of forest conservation, a childhood interest that netted him an appointment by President Theodore Roosevelt as the first chief of the then-U.S. Division of Forestry. Pennsylvania’s Pinchot State Forest is named in his honor, a vast forest land of over 45,000 acres across Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna and Wayne counties. The Pinchot Trail is the only developed hiking trail on the Thornhurst Tract, the largest tract in the system located on the Pocono Plateau. The 26-mile trail features red and black spruce, tamaracks and bogs.