Day 189: Bob is up at 5:00 and he gets me up at 5:50. We pack, have breakfast and drop off the keys. The drive to our start is cool and foggy. We are still on Hwy 9 South. The surface is excellent and the scenery is lovely. At 4.6 km we pass a sign that says, ‘Entering Adirondack Park’. As I pass along the shore of Lake Champlain, I see a number of sets of stairs down to the water. They are gated and posted as Private Property. The edges of the road are also posted, ‘No Trespassing’. There is a real diversity we both notice. We see homes of the very wealthy and the very poor.
Bob gets a call from the editor of a paper in Elizabethtown. We will see her when we pass through. At 17 km we arrive at Ausible Chasm, an area of waterfalls and old buildings. I stop and take pictures. As Bob goes along the highway, he sometimes has less than a foot of shoulder to walk on. If traffic gets rushed, he will stop and step off until it passes. There are many short, steep hills and a few long ones. We are in the Adirondack Mountains and will be for a number of days. The colours of fall are fantastic. At 32.5 km we come to a sign welcoming us to the town of ‘Lewis’. More hills and it starts sprinkling. It is still misting when Bob arrives at 40.1 km at 3:20.
We drive through Elizabethtown to Westport and the Westport Hotel where we are being billeted tonight. We are checked into Room 1. This hotel is like an Inn. The room has twin beds and a tiny bathroom with a tiny shower. We make good use of it. There is wireless in the room but it cuts out several times during the session. We have a delicious dinner in the dining room. Our host, Wayne, is not here but we talk to several of the staff about the walk. We go to our room about 6:30, watch a little TV, and get to sleep by 9:00.