Wherever you are in Pike County, you’re never far from Delaware State Forest land. A constellation of 84,000 acres of wild, natural places, it’s a grand place to shake off civilization for a while. In the heart of it all is Thunder Swamp Trail, totaling 45 miles of hiking through glacier-carved landscape, with dozens of swamps and creeks. Wetland-born creeks like Nebo Swamp creek and Painter’s Swamp creek pour into the Little Bushkill on its way to Bushkill Falls. But whether named or nameless, waterways that rise here all flow to the Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. To get a taste of the place, I set out on a 3.5-mile walk in the woods to Painter’s Swamp, where a spur would take me to the edge of Thunder Swamp itself, and then back. It was one of those unreliable days in early spring — grey and cool, then sunny and warm, then bitingly breezy. Red blazes from the trailhead pointed the way down a rocky path, where I soon saw a lichen-covered boulder sporting fresh coyote droppings, the first of several I’d find today. The woods and terrain are an extension of the rocky, varied landscape of Promised Land State Park, further west along Pocono Plateau. Big slices of slate lie every which way along the trail, like unbound pages of rock. The woods are full of boulders covered with moss and ferns, often sprouting seedlings and even fair-sized trees. White and chestnut oaks abound, along with stands of beech, white pine, and the cold-loving red spruce. Like so much of the Poconos, this area was heavily logged to support the leather tanning trade, and by the end of the 19th century the big trees were gone. The debris and scrub left behind fueled terrible fires that further ravaged the land. Low-growing sheep laurel — an evergreen that moves in after fire or logging clears swaths of land — is still here, along with blueberries, witch hazel, and wintergreen. A great blue heron flapping up and away framed my first glimpse of the pond above Painter’s Swamp. Seven of the 15 lakes and ponds in Delaware State Forest are natural, created by the receding Wisconsin Glacier 10,000 years ago. But this pond is manmade – with a little help from beavers. A chain of three lodges lines the west side of the pond, and recently felled trees are proof the beavers are in residence. Beavers are the largest rodents in North America, with adults weighing in at 60 pounds these days. But at the height of the last Ice Age, when Pennsylvania was covered with tundra, beavers the size of black bears roamed here. No worries, though: They went out with the mammoth. I’ve spent too much time enjoying this part of the hike, and the spur to Thunder Swamp will have to wait for another day. But if you’re inspired to check it out, the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has an excellent map at www.dcnr.state.pa.us. Backpack camping is allowed along the trail, and no permit is needed for single-night camping. And if you’d like to leave civilization behind for just an hour or two, swamps in Delaware State Forest are calling your name. Carol Hillestad is a hike leader and writer for Get Outdoors Poconos, a grant-funded series administered by Brodhead Watershed Association.