PA section of North Country Trail

[eegallatin]

I was planning on hiking the PA section of the North Country Trail this summer. The north trailhead just over the NY order is Willow Bay Trail Head. According to 2009 (out dated) information that trail goes approximately 200 miles SW to a town just on the other side of the OH border called Negley. Is this trail complete and continuous? Is the trail longer tat 200 miles? I am thinking I am gonna set out the second week in July and do the entire PA trail in 12 - 14 days. Anyone have any experience with this? I hear it is absolutely beautiful in certain areas. Anyway if you have any info on this I would love to hear from you. Any thoughts?

[kf1wv]

The NCT has its own WB forum. You might consider posting your query over there.

[handlebar]

Howdy neighbor. I hiked e section from Willow Bay thru Allegheny National Forest a few years ago over 5 days. It's about a hundred miles. Check out Lakeland Nidhatak's journal for most of the PA section. He ended his hike a bit beyond the OH line and traversed most of the NCT south of ANF: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=16090. Some of the trail is road walks through Lawrence and Beaver counties where I help build and maintain the NCT. More and more is being relocated off roads, and even the road walks are blazed and signed and are on roads without heavy traffic.

[mankind117]

I did 70 miles of the NCT this last May over 5 days so can at least comment on the section we did. We went from US 6 to Cooks Forest State Park. Overall the trail was not that difficult compared to other PA trails. It had some really pretty parts, especially the part from the Maple Creek Shelter to Cooks forest and from Henry's Mills to the junction with the Tanbark trail near Hearts Content. I would probably not do it again however as there was a lot of impact from oil and gas (not the Marcellus variety) drilling. You would see lots of oil rigs, pipes, etc . . . I'm glad I did it once. Just don't expect it to feel "wild", if you want that go further east to the susquehannock, donut hole, or quehanna. Get the trails illustrated maps but they have done some reroutes and half the roads you cross will not be on any map, making it somewhat confusing. Also the restaurant in Kelletsville that the trail passes by, Cougar Bobs is closed on mondays as we found out the hard way. The were a couple of nice shelter, the one at Maple Creek and another shelter at hunters station about 5 miles west of henry's mills. On a separate occasion I did some hiking near the NCT near NY border along the Kinzua reservoir in the Tracey Ridge area. That section was nicer as it was not impacted by any oil or gas that I saw and was pretty along the reservoir and had a lot of hemlock forest. I would definitely go back there. Here is a trip report from the 70 mile hike:
http://hikingandcampinginmdpaandbeyond.blogspot.com/2014/05/hking-north-country-trail-in.html
http://hikingandcampinginmdpaandbeyond.blogspot.com/2014/05/hiking-north-country-trail-in.html

[eegallatin]

Thanks guys I appreciate your help. After some investigation looks like I am gonna start in Salamanca, NY and work my way south to Bradford, PA. Then hike 70 miles south to Lucinda on the southern boundary of Cook's Forest. About 87 miles total. All of the info is much appreciated.

[mankind117]

If you have any more specific questions ask as I have hiked a good portion of that trail you will be doing.

[eegallatin]

Thanks again Mankind!