The Brodhead Watershed Association will sponsor a Get Outdoors Poconos hike on April 24 at the Swiftwater Forest Preserve in Paradise Township, Monroe County.

This is a free guided hike will explore the preserve, which is open to the public for hiking, mountain biking, birding, photography, cross-country skiing, and picnicking.

A steep old woods road runs through a mixed hardwood forest, passing the remains of a backwoods cabin and beautiful old dry-laid stone walls. A bend in the trail opens onto a surprising natural bonus — a miniature pine barren, complete with pitch pines, scrub oaks, and rocky outcroppings.

The trail, which is still being laid out and has yet to be blazed, continues uphill and down, making a loop (flagged with surveyor’s tape) through pines and hemlocks and other familiar habitats of the Poconos, including two creeks, Forest Hills Run to the north and Swiftwater Creek to the south.

Both streams join Paradise Creek a short distance downstream, to help form the beautiful Paradise Valley and feed Brodhead Creek and drinking water supplies downstream.

This hiking series is administered by Brodhead Watershed Association and part of the Delaware River Watershed Initiative, supported by a grant from the William Penn Foundation.

Meet at the cul-de-sac on Donaldson Road, off Lower Swiftwater Road, Paradise Township at 10:00 a.m. GPS coordinates: 41-06.144N, 75-17.625W.  The hike should last until 11:30.

Registration is required.  Call 570-839-1120 or 570-629-2727 or send email to: info@brodheadwatershed.org.

For information about this and other hikes, visit the Get Outdoors Poconos webpage.

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4/4/2016