June 8, 2023 - Rest Day in Jim Thorpe Camping Resort

June 18, 2023

June 8, 2023 - Rest Day in Jim Thorpe Camping Resort

Start and end: Jim Thorpe Camping Resort, PA
Turnaround: Jim Thorpe, PA
Miles: 4.6
Feet climbing per mile: 108
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/123980208

With the air quality so bad because of the Canadian wildfires, I had decided to spend this day at the campground rather than riding to Hackettstown which I would do the next day, Friday the 9th. It had been a cold night, dropping down to 39F. I stayed in my tent until 9:30 when the temperature had risen to 53F with the air quality still in the hazardous range.

I spent most of the morning in the living room of the camp store, drinking hot water, watching the weather news on the television, and revising the beginning of my route to Hackettstown. Rather than riding the rough Flagstaff Road, I decided I would ride to the center of Jim Thorpe where I would enter the D&L Trail on the east side of the Lehigh River and ride the trail for four miles before taking the D&L Trail on the west side of the river as I had done on Tuesday. I installed the TrailLink app on my phone and read reviews about the section of the D&L Trail on the east side of the river which led me to believe that it would be fine for my road bike. I also revised my return route between Wind Gap and Hackettstown.

By noon the sun had come out and the air quality was starting to improve.

I considered swimming in the pool again but decided against it. I spent some of the afternoon taking a nap in my tent. During the afternoon in my tent I realized that I could make an improvement to my sleeping bag, which has a single zipper on its left side. The vestibule to my tent, on the other hand, is to the right from my point of view in the sleeping bag. This mismatch of directions adds to the challenge of getting in and out of the sleeping bag. By turning the sleeping bag inside out I moved its zipper to the right, facing the vestibule.

As I wrote in my post about the previous day, Linda Maurer, one of the owners, told me I didn't need to do anything special about storing my snacks and other items with scent to protect them (and myself) from bears. However in the early evening I discovered that some critter, probably a bird, had attempted to get to the chocolate-covered almonds in my top-tube bag. During my nap I heard a lot of chirping outside my tent, maybe from the frustrated culprit. I need to find a way to repair the damage the bird did.

By 6:30 the air quality had improved substantially, so I rode to the center of Jim Thorpe to find a restaurant where I would have dinner. I chose to eat at the Marion Hose Bar, which had outdoor seating so I could have my bike near me. When I ordered a soup and a hamburger, my waitress asked whether I wanted the soup as an app. I had never been asked that. She also called me "Hon" at least a dozen times. I've come to expect being called that in a diner by a middle-aged waitress, but not in a restaurant by a 20-something.

The Marion Hose Bar is located in an historic firehouse, the Marion Hose Company No. 1, and they have a hose to prove it.