Glen Run Nature Preserve, PA

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Glen Run Nature Preserve - Pocono Heritage Land Trust

DIRECTIONS: 

GPS Coordinates 40.96962, -75.19154

TRAIL MAP: 

Glen Run Nature Preserve Brochure and Map - Pocono Heritage Land Trust

HIKE DISTANCE: 4.2 miles

THE HIKE: 

Starting to the right on white and returning from the left on red.

A bit of a view at the end of the trail sign before returning to continue on the red trail.

The Delaware Water Gap with Mount Tammany on the left and Mount Minsi on the right.

Heading right in the power cut ...

... to a view.

Heading back to the trail from the power cut, white continues as a woods road but we turned left on yellow to completely loop around yellow before returning to this point to take the white trail.

Little bits of the lake down below can be seen.

Balloon #4 of the year.  I hardly finding any balloons now where I used to find around 100 per year.  Party City going out of business must be really good for the environment.

At the end of the loop back at the power cut ...

... now taking white.

Right on blue leads to ruins of the historic Churleigh Inn.

This is all I saw but based on Googling there is much more like a huge staircase and the swimming pool.

The only other person we encountered.

The trail did not go to the lake but we were so close I bushwhacked over for a look.

Glen Lake

Taking red all the way back.

Pinchot State Forest, PA - Pinchot Trail Between North and South

ABOUT THE PARK: 

Pinchot State Forest Thornhurst Tract - Pennsylvania DCNR

DIRECTIONS:  

GPS Coordinates 41.21545, -75.64246

TRAIL MAP: 

Pinchot Trail System - Pennsylvania DCNR

HIKE DISTANCE:  6 miles

THE HIKE: 

I hiked the Pinchot Trail South in October 2018 and the Pinchot Trail North in May 2025.  I was missing the part of the Pinchot Trail that connects the two so that was this hike.  The original plan was 11 miles adding in some other trails but the hike was cut short due to swarms of invasive flies.  More on that later.

Picking up a section of the orange-blazed Pinchot Trail that I had not yet hiked to the left of the kiosk.

About three miles in these flies were landing on my neck and crawling up into my hair.  I had never experienced anything like this before.  All I was doing was pulling them out of my hair, one after the other after the other, almost nonstop.  I did not think they were biting but they must have been because I woke up twice that night with intense itching all along the back of my head where they had been in my hair.  When I returned home the back seat of the car was full of dead ones that had fallen off of Brodie.  His flea and tick treatment must have killed them.  On me neither picaradin nor DEET had any affect whatsoever.

iNaturalist identification

I really could not stand those flies any longer so where I met up with where I had hiked the Pinchot Trail before, instead of hiking some other trails I had planned on, I turned right on this snow mobile trail and bailed back to my car.

Back at the car I was trying to find another hike to do on my phone while still pulling those flies out of my hair.  It was a total nightmare!  Finally found another hike so off to Glen Run Nature Preserve while STILL pulling those flies out of my hair while driving.