Please Suggest Eastern PA hikes

[SkeeterPee]

My wife and I have recently done some car camping/day hikes in the MD section of AT. We both enjoyed it. Can anyone recommend some eastern PA hikes that would also work well with car camping. If similar to MD, about 7mi hikes were comfortable, but more or less would also work if you want to suggest specific day hikes. I'm not sure how my wife will deal with bears so I would prefer to avoid bear areas for now.

My wife does not think she is interested in backpacking, but I have been accumulating some gear and should be able to try a short backpacking trip in the next few weeks in the same general area. A three day trip might be a good start. Any recommendations?

one possibility might be to park at PA 850 or PA 225 and do out and back to the other road. That would about 36 miles total, so perhaps that is more like 4 days for a first time 56 y/o backpacker. Perhaps I should find something with less miles first time? there are 2 shelters and a campsite shown between those two roads. perhaps hike to far shelter first day, then down to road to complete that section, then back to the shelter passed on the first day, and third day back to parked car. It looks like that would make too long of days. I've hike 13 miles on easy flat trails/20 miles in 2 days, but done that way it would be about 14 miles on a couple days.

Any better recommendations for the backpacking first trip?

[Kenai]

You might want to consider the Delaware Water Gap Recreational area, and try a hike up to Sunfish Pond. From the trail head by rt 80, it's a 4.2 mile hike. Kind of steep and some rocks, but there are some nice waterfalls, and you end up at a glacial lake. You can camp at the nearby campground, by the pond, if she still wants to do the overnight, or walk back out and car camp nearby, at the Gap National Park rec area. If she likes the overnight, you can get back on the AT, go either north or south. If she doesn't like it, the outlet stores are nearby in Wind Gap.

[fiddlehead]

Here's an idea for you.
Go up to World's End State Park and rent one of their cabins on or near the river.
Then do an overnight on the part of the Loyalsock trail that is in the park.
Come back to the cabin, your wife will probably love the cabin part and you can slowly introduce her to some good overnight hiking.

[Spirit Walker]

The Pinchot Trail in the Poconos is a nice easy 23 mile figure 8 hike. You can either do that as a backpack or go back to your car at night. Hickory Run SP has some nice long loops that you can do as dayhikes. Ricketts Glen has a great waterfall loop hike. Most of the state parks have loop trails. You can car camp or stay in cabins.

[Disco]

+1 on Ricketts Glen State Park, especially this time of year! Another relatively easy hiking experience is the AT as it passes through Caledonia State Park and Pine Grove Furnace State Park (home of AT museum), both parks have camping. If you decide to hike from Rt850, head south and stay at Darlington Shelter, very nice. If you hike from Rt225, head north and stay at Peters Mountain Shelter, very nice. Have a nice trip!

[capehiker]

Blue Rocks Family Campground has a side trail to the AT which takes you to the Pulpit and Pinnacle and back. Round trip is about 9 miles.

[JohnHuth]

There are nice hikes along the Horseshoe Trail - it begins in Valley Forge and hooks up with the AT. The only minor issue is that if you have one vehicle, it's an out-and-back proposition.