Project Eveningland

6/28/2023 Wednesday

Rooster and Apollo drove me back to Wind Gap, where I resumed my walk from mile 1281 or so. What will my last day of Rocksylvania be like?

Rocky. Very rocky. Mostly potato salad type stuff but a few more challenging sections, especially the steep descents at the end of the day. Mainly though, as with the rest of the Rocksylvania Experience, the challenge is endurance. You walk miles and miles on rocks with your feet angling every which way.

Good fern gazing today, and I saw some very late rhododendron in bloom. Just a few white blooms scattered here and there. I can’t remember the last time I saw so many rhododendron. When it surrounded me, in tunnels, I felt for a moment that I was back in Georgia.

The skies were mostly cloudy—it was a gray kind of day. Gentle breezes, but also warmer temps and high humidity.

As I reached the outskirts of Delaware Water Gap, I stopped to admire a small lake with lily pads in the sunset light.

Earlier I’d made a reservation by text with Marty, of Marty’s Yellow House. The reviews were good. I expected run down conditions based on the low price. It was several dilapidated buildings. I’m not sure I’ve ever been helped so impatiently and with so much attitude. I told him it wasn’t going to work for me after I saw the room I was to sleep in. Not a great interaction.

Then I walked to the Deer Head Inn, which is nice enough but has a two-night minimum. The church next door runs a little hiker hostel that also has acceptable reviews. I went inside to check it out and it isn’t going to work either. Both Marty’s and the church had moldy smells that weren’t OK for me to be sleeping in.

The motel in town actually has bad reviews, so one can scarcely imagine the state it’s in. I guess I’m taking an unplanned day in Delaware Water Gap and paying for two nights at the Deer Head (I have a tiny little room up on the fourth floor—it’s very historic and one of the oldest jazz clubs or something like that). Maybe it’s just as well—the 15 miles of rocks I hiked on today beat me to hell.

I walked to a restaurant down the street for piping hot bar food. There was a couple behind me having a very serious conversation over dinner (we were squeezed close together in an area with tons of empty tables). She looked like Pink.

I walked back to my tiny (but air conditioned!) room. It’s on a corner with window dormers on each side. I’m blowing money. I’m blowing days. Nothing to be done.