Chuck Keiper Trail

The Chuck Keiper (rhymes with “viper”) Trail is a long-distance backpacking trail that visits some of the wildest and most visually arresting public lands in Pennsylvania, offering remarkable solitude. 

The CKT consists of a main loop of 47.3 miles, with a cross-connector (the East Branch Trail) of 3.3 miles. Using the cross-connector, backpackers can form a western sub-loop of 31.2 miles or an eastern sub-loop of 22.7 miles. The CKT passes through two Natural Areas and two Wild Areas. It also visits a significant waterfall on Yost Run and the historic remains of a splash dam on Eddy Lick Run. 

A connector trail, the Jack Paulhamus/Garby Trail, departs from the northeastern section of the CKT and leads 8 miles to the Donut Hole Trail, near Hyner View State Park on the other side of the West Branch Susquehanna River. 

Chuck Keiper was a longtime game warden and forestry official in Clinton County. The only access to the trail is via PA 144, through the eerily unpopulated and lonely plateau between Renovo and Snow Shoe.

The CKT is described in the point-by-point The Chuck Keiper Trail Guide by Dave Gantz (2016).  (The guide is currently out of print, with future availability unknown.) PDF maps are available for download from Sproul State Forest here, and they will mail you a copy if requested.

The CKT embroidered patch is available at the KTA Bookstore.​​

Maps from https://www.kta-hike.org/major-trails-and-find-a-club.html

*Photo above by Susan Kerlin