Day Hiking the North Country Trail©

 

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

P.S.—Sorry for the lack of original pictures from this hike.  There was a phone camera malfunction, and none were saved.

 

Maybe you want to go fall leaf-peeping, maybe you just want to go for a great hike and get away from it all.  But maybe you don’t want to do primitive overnight camping, or you only have time for a day hike.  If so, I have just the place for you!  The Cherry Grove Quadrangle section of the North Country Trail!

 

You can stay at the Minster Creek campsite, or you could rent a room in a hotel in Warren, PA, but either way, it’s a wonderful day hike.  A travel map and a topographic map of the Cherry Grove, PA Quadrangle are available in the sources or HERE and HERE

 

To get there, first get to Warren Pennsylvania.  And from there navigate south to Clarendon, PA.  Just south of Clarendon turn right onto Cherry Grove Rd, which will take you mostly south.  Turn right (west) when you get to the intersection of Cherry Grove Rd, and 2002 (also known as Austin Hill Road if you go east and Hearts Content Rd if you turn west).  Turn left from 2002, when you get to Mayburg Rd/FR116.  Stay straight at the fork to continue on Mayburg Rd.  After about half a mile, you will see a parking lot and the trail head for a portion of the North Country Trail, on your right.  You’re there!  Park.  Hike.  Enjoy.

 

We went both east and west from the parking lot.  We hiked west to the junction of FR419, an hour’s walk in both directions, almost three and a quarter mile (just over 5 km), returning to the trailhead, before hiking east to the Queen Creek lean-to, an hour and a half, or so, away, about four and a quarter miles round trip (almost 7 km).  The entire hike was just over seven and a half miles (just over 12 km)

  

Remember this isn’t front county, even though it is only a short drive from an urban area, this is a primitive, and in some areas, an old-growth forest.  

So always let so one know where you are going,  and when you’re planning to get back.  And bring your Ten Essentials!  Never leave home without them.

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

Forest Service, USDA; “Visitor Maps and Guides: Allegheny National Forest Recreation Map”, https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/nfs/files/r09/allegheny/publication/Allegheny%20National%20Forest%20Recreation%20Map%202016.pdf, accessed October 10, 2026

 

National Park Service; “Ten Essentials”, https://www.nps.gov/articles/10essentials.htm, accessed October 10, 2026

 

USGS Store; “Cherry Grove, PA Quadrangle”, https://store.usgs.gov/product/824333, accessed October 10, 2026