Pinchot State Forest, PA - Elmhurst Tract

ABOUT THE PARK:
Elmhurst Tract - Pennsylvania DCNR
North Pocono Trails Association Facebook Page
Roaring Brook Trail - Tri-County Independent

DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 41.340198, -75.515302

Parking across the street from the trailhead at Old Mill Park.

TRAIL MAP:
North Pocono Trail System - Pennsylvania DCNR (shows trails of the South Trails System)
The above map covers the trails in the southern section.  I could find no map for the blazed trails in the northern section so I colored them in on my track:

The red-blazed Roaring Brook Trail continues all the way north to Elmhurst Reservoir and there are also purple and green blazed trails, purple connecting back to the orange-blazed Lower Juno Trail in the south trails system.

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HIKE DISTANCE:  12 miles

THE HIKE:

From the parking lot, a sign indicating to cross the street to find the trails.

Turn right and cross the bridge over Roaring Brook.

Just after the bridge, left on the grassy area between the guardrail and split rail fence.

While the map (as well as the online map currently) show 7 miles of trails, there are more blazed trails north of the map.

Starting off on yellow Creekside/red Roaring Brook Trails.

When the trails split, we went left on the yellow Creekside Trail and would be returning on the red Roaring Brook Trail,

Roaring Brook

When red ends on the map, it continues the other side of Kellum Creek via a doable rock hop.

Initially the other side is muddy and rutted from ATV use but we were able to work through it.

I made note of this green trail not on the map with the intention of exploring it on my way back.

Elmhurst Reservoir to the left.

A purple trail not on the map to explore on the way back.

There are a few wet/muddy rutted areas along the way but we were able to get through/around all of them.

Where red turns right on an old paved road, we turned left ...

... down to Elmhurst Reservoir.

Maybe when that sign was new there was a bridge ...

... but it's gone now.

Elmhurst Reservoir

Heading back to continue on red.

Red ends at a parking lot on the left beyond the barrier.

From the parking lot there is an unmarked woods road to the left which we took for a short distance to see where it would go.

When the woods road started to go downhill I could see there was not going to be much left so we turned back.

Coming back up on the parking lot ...

... where we turned right to retrace on red.

We turned left on the purple blazed trail....

... and were treated to some antics of a white-breasted nuthatch.

I was hoping I would run into green to be able to make a loop and indeed I did.  Purple continues to the left and green starts to the right.  I really wanted to know where purple went but decided it might take me too far out of my way and so I took green being fairly certain it would take me back to red.

Green follows along a scenic creek down in a deep gorge.

Here we are back at red where we turned left.

Back along Roaring Brook ...

... then back across Kellum Creek.

From red we turned left on blue.

Then a short distance along a white trail to the left leads back down to Kellum Creek to a scenic area called Mathew's Grove.

Retracing on white and crossing over blue, white becomes the Buzzsaw Trail.

We passed several other trails but stayed with white until this intersection where we turned left.

The orange Juno Trail was my destination so I stayed with orange as the other colors split off.  (That purple trail is the Sword Trail, not the same as the purple trail I was on in the northern section.)

Now on just the Lower Juno Trail.

This leads back to Kellum Creek with a rock hop across.

Kellum Creek

But just the other side where orange turns right, there is a purple trail not on the map to the left.  Could it be the other end of that purple trail I was on earlier?  I just had to find out so left it was.

Following along Kellum Creek for a bit ...

... then uphill on a woods road.

Black-capped Chickadee

I could tell by the track that we were coming up on a swamp but it turned out to be a very pretty swamp with lots of beaver activity.

The picture does not do it justice.

Found a log to sit on to take a break.

Because I could tell by my track that we were going to run into where I had turned off on green earlier, I decided to head back after seeing the pretty swamp.

Back down at Kellum Creek, purple runs right into ...

... where we left off on orange.

The orange Lower Juno Trail is particularly scenic as it follows along Kellum Creek.

At this rock hop back over Kellum Creek, I could smell the strong stench of decomp.  The source was a partially decomposed deer in the water just upstream to the left.  Between trying to rock up and keeping Brodie from taking a swig of water along the way, the keeping him from drinking part was pretty unsuccessful. 

The other side of the creek is the Upper Juno Trail, still blazed orange.

This goes uphill, steeply at times, all the way to the top.

At the top the footpath becomes a woods road with nice winter views along the way.

Elmhurst Reservoir down below.

The trail descends, steeply at times.

I did not know what this sign meant until I saw it later on the North Pocono Trails Association Facebook page:  "Thank you to whomever made the Pointe du Hoc sign for Upper Juno Trail.
Although found on Utah Beach at Normandy, this steepest location on the NP Trails is named in honor of the U. S. Rangers who captured it from the Germans during the D-Day Invasion."

The Upper Juno Trail continues as the Lower Juno Trail at the red Roaring Brook Trail where we turned left on red.

Now retracing where red and yellow come together.

At the end heading back to the parking lot with Brodie's pack filled with flattened beer cans from the remote sections picked up along the way.