Weiser State Forest water-trail campsite 101

public land records

Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.

PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry designated campsite, Weiser State Forest (district 18), DCNR type "Primitive (Water Trail)". Coordinate is DCNR's own, from its public Designated Campsites layer read 2026-08-15: https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/agsprod/rest/services/BOF/Camping/MapServer/0 (the layer behind https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/bof/camping/). DCNR records the positional source for this point as "GPS". FREE. DCNR (read 2026-08-15 at https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/what-to-do/stay-overnight/overnight-prices-and-policies): "There are no entrance fees or day use fees for any state forest in Pennsylvania." and "Most backpacking and primitive camping within a state forest is free." This site is not reservable and carries no reservation-system ID; DCNR routes it to the forest district office, which issues the primitive camping permit at no charge. Stay limit and permit: DCNR (https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/what-to-do/stay-overnight/backpacking-and-primitive-camping) - backpackers "are permitted to camp in most areas of the forest without a permit if staying no more than one night in any location"; a free permit is required to stay at a campsite more than one night, to stay at a site marked "permit required", or to have a campfire during spring wildfire season. Camp no closer than "200 feet of a forest road", "25 feet of a trail" or "100 feet of a stream or any open water". Fire: DCNR (https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/what-to-do/stay-overnight/backpacking-and-primitive-camping) - "No campfires are permitted when the state forest district forester determines the forest fire danger to be high, very high, or extreme." From March 1 through May 25 you must have the district's permission to have a campfire at all. Check with the district before you go. Weiser State Forest's own camping page says of the Susquehanna River Trail island campsites that "Permits are not required" and that "Groups of 10 people or less may stay no more than two nights at any one campsite"; the sites sit on DCNR islands in the 51-mile middle section of the Susquehanna River Trail between Sunbury and Harrisburg, and the Susquehanna River Trail Association maintains them. NOTE THE CONFLICT: DCNR's GIS layer sets Permit=Yes on these same points. Treat the forest page as the better source for the permit question and call the district (FD18) if it matters. These are islands - they flood, and they are watercraft access only. DCNR Permit field: Yes. DCNR description: "Weiser SF. Campsite is located on an island on the Susquehanna River Trail. WATERCRAFT ACCESS ONLY. Contact the forest at FD18@pa.gov for more information. No permit required unless staying more than 2 nights" DCNR note: "Susquehanna River Trail Site" Not field-checked by us. Seasonal road closures and district-level restrictions are not in this layer - check with the district office. Nearest USGS GNIS populated place: Liverpool, about 1.2 mi straight-line. --- NIGHT-SHIFT REVIEW 2026-08-18 (reviewer nightshift-verified): APPROVED. Re-read DCNR's Designated Campsites layer today at https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/agsprod/rest/services/BOF/Camping/MapServer/0 : OBJECTID 2439 is still present, Name "101", Type "Primitive (Water Trail)", Water "Non-Potable", Permit "Yes", ShowOnPublicMap "Yes", positional Source "GPS", DCNR LastEditedDate 2023.05.05 10:38 - every one of those unchanged from the 2026-08-15 read, and the live geometry is 0.9 m from the coordinate this row holds. All 801 OBJECTIDs we ingested from this layer are still in it today; none were dropped. Independent check 1 - the coordinate does NOT intersect any polygon in DCNR's State Forest boundary layer (https://maps.dcnr.pa.gov/agsprod/rest/services/BOF/StateForests/MapServer/0, read 2026-08-18); see the note below. Independent check 2 - nearest drivable OpenStreetMap way is 453 m away (highway=primary "PA 147"), measured point-to-segment against way geometry pulled from Overpass on 2026-08-18. Consistent with a DCNR "Primitive (Water Trail)" site. The fee, seven-night stay limit and campfire quotes above were re-read verbatim on pa.gov today (overnight-prices-and-policies, motorized-roadside-camping, backpacking-and-primitive-camping) and all three still match word for word. Duplicate check done on coordinates, not name: no approved or published camp anywhere in the DB within 250 m. The one flag this review raised: the coordinate does NOT fall inside any polygon of DCNR's State Forest boundary layer. That is explained by DCNR's own record, not contradicted by it - the Description reads "Campsite is located on an island on the Susquehanna River Trail. WATERCRAFT ACCESS ONLY." River islands are not drawn in the state forest boundary layer, and the nearest drivable road is 453 m away across water, exactly what an island site should look like. Kept as free (fee=0): DCNR's Description says "No permit required unless staying more than 2 nights", so the row's permit-required tag is only true for stays over two nights - treat it as free and permit-free for a one- or two-night paddle-in stop. We could NOT confirm the island's ownership from a boundary layer; we are relying on DCNR asserting it maintains a designated campsite there. Still not field-checked by us; nobody from this project has stood on this site.

US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.

On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.