We took down the tents and were out of the campground at 6:15 vowing never to return.
What a contrast with our earlier KOA which was so quiet at night, had defined tent sites with wood chips, allowed clotheslines, and had individual bathrooms and showers that were pristine.
After parking our car at Wind Gap we continued with Jerry driving to Delaware Water Gap. We had planned on breakfast at McDonalds but the highway sign neglected to give the exit number and we could not spot it from the highway. We found the Water Gap Diner in town and decided to have breakfast there. That breakfast was our best on the trip with Gale having a Greek Omelet, Klaus the Western Omelet, and Jerry a large stack of pancakes with scrambled eggs.
We parked at the trailhead in town at 7:50 and followed a road uphill before dropping down to lily pad filled lake where we chatted with two couples taking photographs of a green heron and learned one had a daughter who owns The Laughing Pint Pub in Baltimore. From there we continued on well constructed steps made from big blocky rocks that went up between large rhododendron hugging the trail. The narrow trail through a woods of tall hemlock and bushy rhododendron continued up providing views of the Delaware River. At 1400’ the trail turned to dirt and smaller stones which made walking easy.
Once on top we came upon Late Start a 62 year old man who was walking alone from Marion, VA to Katahdin, MA – his 2nd attempt to complete the walk. He had walked last year from Springer Mountain, GA to Marion but gave up because of the terrible heat and the drought which dried up a lot of the springs. He mentioned that he had at least 8 people who promised to do the AT with him this year but one by one they had dropped out until he knew he just had to start alone. He reported that he generally walks 7-10 miles a day, getting up at 4:30, on the trail by 5 and stops walking around noon. His tips were to use the European Stirrystick (4 lithium batteries power a light that messes up the DNA of organisms) to purify water and a shoulder pad from a car seatbelt to reduce abrasion on his shoulders from the pack. He was the first thru hiker to share his journal with us – a list of the hikes that were the hardest and those that were the most beautiful. No location was on both lists!
We continued on the wide road and then turned into the woods on a narrow trail. This turn was hard to see and Jerry who was ahead alerted us. After 7 miles of easy walking (a lot fewer rocks under our feet) we encountered an area with huge slabs of rocks. We stopped for a lunch break in the shade, sitting on one of the uplifted rocks. Gale was the only one hungry after our large breakfast and she only ate about half of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Once back on the trail we got a frantic call from Jerry to get our camera quick. He had encountered a 4-5’ rattlesnake which was still on the trail with 8 rattles vibrating at a furious rate. The snake looked huge with a body as large as a man’s forearm. Klaus was only too happy to let Jerry take the photos and was deciding we needed to climb more rocks when the snake slithered into the woods downhill away from the trail. That made our 3rd snake, and 2nd rattlesnake during our 8 days hiking.
The trail stayed level but continued to be extremely rough with erratically spaced rocks. We scrambled over a large boulder field to gain an elevation of another 40’ and then continued on a level trail where again careful foot placement was mandatory. The woods were mostly oak and elm trees with an understory of ferns and small blueberry like bushes. There was a very steep downhill to the finish, switchbacks not included. We got down without incident and did a “high 5” in celebration of a successful trip. We drove Jerry back to his car and headed to McDonalds back in Wind Gap for a quick dinner and lots of drink refills. Then it was about a 4 hour drive back to Silver Spring.
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