Everett Region of the Mid State Trail

The highest knob, the sharpest ridgelines, and some of the most dramatic views on Mid State Trail await intrepid hikers in the Everett Region. Everett Region starts at a connection with trails of Green Ridge State Forest near Flintstone, Maryland, climbs the highest and wildest sections of Tussey Ridge, and ends at US 22 near Water Street.

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State College Region of the Mid State Trail

Beautiful views and amazing natural features mark State College Region. Although the trail's heart is the most popular Region of MST, if you hike alone you still will probably encounter more bears than people. The State College Region, where MST began in 1969 as a project of Penn State Outing Club, extends from Water Street through the "Seven Mountains" of Rothrock and Bald Eagle State Forests to R.B. Winter State Park.

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Woolrich Region of the Mid State Trail

Straddling both of Pennsylvania's mountain zones, the Tiltrock Country and the Alleghenies, Woolrich Region continues MST's dramatic views, climbing its highest relief at the Gates of Pine Creek within the Allegheny Front. Rocks in the footway gradually get smaller and smaller traveling north, making this Region popular among backpackers. The Woolrich Region extends from remote ridges and valleys, past its eponymous historic mill village, over the Allegheny Front to the mouth of Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon.

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Tioga Region of the Mid State Trail

Entering Pennsylvania's Northern Tier, shaped by massive continental glaciers, Tioga Region continues the challenging backcountry hiking experience of MST through deeply wooded high plateau, and really rural low hills. The views continue and the terrain becomes ever more varied, offering pleasant natural and cultural discoveries around each bend and over every knob. .

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Everett Region
State College Region
Woolrich Region
Tioga Region

KTA Trail Care on Mid State Trail 2024

May 2-5: MST State College Region, based at Rimmey Cabin (Seven Mtns Scout Camp), led by Jason Davis/Kevin Busko ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

May 16-19: MST Woolrich Region, based at Ravensburg State Park, led by Tony Robbins ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it /570-939-2244)

June 6-9: MST Everett Region, based at Tenley Park, led by Chad North ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it /570-238-3591)

June 13-16: MST Tioga Region, based at Hills Creek State Park, led by Pete Fleszar ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it /717-576-3112).

Attention: The trail north of Rt 150 in Woolrich to the road crossing of Gravel Hill Road is closed from September 1st to January 31st. Once you cross the Susquehanna river please use the main road into Woolrich and then continue on the main trail. There are game cams along the closed route and you will be photographed.
5/2023-This same section is CLOSED due to logging until further notice.

Parts of Sections 18, 19, and 20 in central and northern Tioga County are closed for hunting October 1 thru January 31. See Section Updates for Sections 18, 19, and 20.

Maps Back In Stock!

If you are looking for PRINTED MAPS of Mid State Trail, they are in stock, order here

You can also get current maps through the FarOut (formerly Guthook) app. Click here

A modern option to assist hikers navigating Mid State Trail is the FarOut (formerly Guthook) app. Summary information from the new 13^th edition guidebook and the mapping is also available as an in-app purchase from FarOut app from FarOut Guides, familiar to the current generation of A.T. hikers. While the app itself is free, MST information is an in-app purchase and MSTA receives a portion of the proceeds. This information covers the entire trail – download at home, then it works when you are out of cell network. Those who persist in using outdated colonial units of measure will find a setting in the FarOut app to accommodate these, in addition to the official metric distances.

This tribute to Tom Thwaites was read at his memorial service on April 4th on behalf of the

Mid State Trail Association, and all the volunteers, who have, over the years, made dream of

a trail become the longest and wildest footpath in Pennsylvania.

The Mid State Trail began as, and remains, a volunteer coordinated creation.

This was something that Tom was both extremely proud of and exceedingly worried

about. He told the Penn State Outing Club students that it was their perpetual gift

to others and that it made Pennsylvania a better place. He later would characterize

it as a community project. Yet, at the same time, as the kilometers increased so did

the anxiety, as he saw the growing and continuous need for volunteer support to keep

the trail open. The closer his dream came to realization, the more eager he was to

give it away to people he could entrust with pieces of it. This is what lead him to

first develop a network of section overseers and then to give maintainers

an organizational home in the founding of the Mid State Trail Association.

What, after all, could be a more difficult and elusive quest than wrangling a disparate

group of highly idiosyncratic individuals into some form of a stable, cohesive and

sustainable volunteer base? Possibly, only lassoing a unicorn.

As the chief advocate and main recruiter for the trail, Tom became a kind of Pied Piper.

But the music he really wanted people to listen to, to hear, and to be enchanted by,

was the song of the trail itself. He knew from his experience with the 50 Hikes Guides

that even with his description in hand, the hike you take is always your own. Although

he was a beacon for the trail and his passion for it was incandescent, he never wanted

to overshadow the volunteer efforts of others. He encouraged everyone to shine

by their own light, so that they would become personally invested in the future of the trail.

Nothing would animate his eyebrows with delight more, than when a maintainer would

claim that their section was the best part of the trail.

In the late 90's Tom told a reporter that he was a tad less concerned about the future of the

Mid State Trail. He said "Its just nice to let the trail get a life of its own, because I worry

about what will happen to it when I'm gone. Now I think it will survive because it is such

a special wild trail".

Today, as we see Tom off from this final trailhead we need to give him credit for yet

another accomplishment, for in the end he was able to charm the unicorn into

eating out of his hand.

In 1989 Jean Aron wrote the 'Mid State Trail Song', this is it's final verse:

With my boots and pack I'll wander through the huckleberries blue,

'Til I rest my soul on Big Flat with a bear to share the view.

Let me go to hikers heaven at the ending of my tale.
It will look like Pennsylvania, and I'll hike the Mid State Trail.

In Memoriam

Thomas T. Thwaites

1931 - 2014

In the late 1950's when Tom relocated from the mid-west to Rochester, New York to pursue his Doctorate studies he naturally gravitated to the company of other hikers and together they would take excursions around the Empire State. At some point, a member of the group suggested that they try exploring the hiking possibilities to their south, in the Keystone State. As Tom recounted it, the rest of the hikers just smiled knowingly to themselves at the naiveté of such a recommendation, as one replied, "But don't you know that Pennsylvania is paved". As his wife Barbara confirms, Tom stuck to that mistaken notion until they moved to State College. He then spent the next five decades guaranteeing that other hikers would not again underestimate the abundance, diversity, or challenge of the hiking experiences available in Pennsylvania, pushing his Rolatape measuring wheel of two meter circumference along hundreds of kilometers of treadway and writing detailed trail descriptions marbled with wry observations and novel asides. The geological formation known as the Allegheny Front, he noted in one of his Fifty Hike guides, can be seen from the moon.

In State College, Tom and Barbara also found a circle of like minded peers and friends whose rambles and walks in Penn's Woods led them to recognize the untapped potential for increased hiking opportunities and long distance backpacking through trail development and connectivity. This core group had both the vision and the dedication to chart a course of trail building and maintaining that would lead, over time, to the establishment of the Mid State Trail, the founding of the Mid State Trail Association, the opening of hiking and skiing opportunities along the Allegheny Front and in the Quehanna, the launching of the Keystone Trails Association's Trail Care Program and, not incidentally, inspiring generations of volunteers to join and continue their project.

Tom believed that walking was a fundamental aspect of what it meant to be human, that the big toe was as important to who we are as the opposable thumb. He described hiking, and the pleasure we get from being surrounded by and moving through nature, as an activity that reattunes us to our deepest selves. For him, a boot busting hike was not only a day well spent, but also a spiritual encounter with who we really are. This explains, as well, why Tom held the outspoken opinion that the hiking experience deserved to be protected from the encroachment of other forms of recreational trail uses, and always championed the designation of 'hiking only' trails. With walkers being the slowest and most vulnerable user on a trail, Tom would rail that multi-use trails left hikers "holding the dirty end of the stick".

Over the years, and through successive editions, Tom's trail guides have given countless hikers the confidence to leave the trailhead behind and explore the hidden recesses of Pennsylvania's natural landscapes and varied geography. His unparalleled impact on promoting the hikes and trail systems of the state can only be rivaled by his standing as a mentor of, and recruiter for, the trail care movement that has done so much to build and maintain those trails and keep them safe and accessible for the use of the general public. "A few people with hand tools can work miracles", he wrote. "Physically and emotionally, the rewards of trail work are as real as they are little known". Thanks to his passionate advocacy and magnetic approachability participants continue to experience those rewards today. Even at his most quixotic Tom never lacked for a willing and loyal Sancho Panza to follow his footsteps, lopper in hand.

In the dusky twilight at the end of a trail care work day, Tom would sit in the circle, along with the other tired yet convivial volunteers, as the half light of the campfire flickered and sent shadows dancing across the assembled faces. Here he was most at ease and gregarious as he swapped stories with the other old-timers and chuckled at the recounting of human foibles and follies that seemingly have no end. As people new to the crew leaned in so as to catch the fleeting remark, or chimed in with a comment, the enveloping darkness would grow and the words and bursts of laughter would mix with the smoke and the crackle of the blaze and drift up and away into the night.

Mid State Trail Association, Inc. is a Pennsylvania incorporated non-profit membership corporation, and an IRS registered charitable organization EIN# 25-1424971

Mid State Trail Association

PO Box 885

Huntingdon, Pa. 16652

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Welcome to the official site of Pennsylvania's Mid State Trail, with the most current and complete information about Pennsylvania's longest and wildest footpath. You'll also find information about the Mid State Trail Association, the all volunteer organization presented with the task of maintaining the trail.

Today's urban society disconnects us from nature. All too easily we cling to the false hope that we have mastered nature, rather than standing in respect and stewardship of all things within nature, around us. Restoring our place within nature, requires of us that we get back to nature. Foot travel over a remote primitive trail brings an exhilaration, an aliveness that cleanses us of our worldly woes and restores our spirit. Mid State Trail was created to foster these simple, natural, spiritual experiences, so that we may all enjoy a greater respect for nature and therefore protect nature for all future generations.
Dr. Thomas Thwaites, Father of the Mid State Trail
The sign says 'Foot Path Only,' and immediately I know why. The trail is as sinuous and undulating as an angry rattlesnake, and in summer, I bet there are more than a few of those. Entering a labyrinth of rock, outcroppings of immense sandstone, harbor bear-sized crevasses inviting hibernation. The place is so peaceful I could nap, except I keep anticipating an ambush from a lost band of native people or one of the mountain lions that no longer prowl Penn's Woods.
Brook Lenker, PA DCNR The Word on the Wilds, December 2005
The foot path's length (504 km) and connection with the Great Eastern Trail footpath network, offers an extended unity with nature to long-distance walkers.
Dr. Thomas Kelliher, former President of the MSTA