2014 Trip Six, Sept. 30, Fall in Canada and Deb and Rebecca’s Wedding

Keene, NY, Tuesday Sept. 30

Road trip six of 2014 is about one-half over and we are back in the U.S. The next 9 nights we will be in the Adirondacks of New York State. During our five nights in Montreal, the fall colors in New York have also progressed.

Fall colors in New York

We left Montreal and successfully dealt with detouring around a major ramp from one highway to the next critical highway that was closed to travelers in our direction. We successfully re-entered the U.S. without upsetting any border crossing guards. We successfully found a Best Buy to purchase a new camera since I dropped the camera as I was trying to put the strap around my wrist. It fell onto a granite sidewalk. It broke. This time I bought a service contract that covers drops and falls. Now I will never drop a camera again.

As mentioned in a previous post, the Adirondacks are an extension of the Canadian Shield. This is a unique area. It is not state or national park. It encompasses an area larger than Yosemite, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks combined. But it is only 48 percent publicly owned, the rest is private. There is a regulatory body to control development. Adirondacks Park has a wide variety of topography but one notable fact is that it has 46 mountains over 4,000 feet in height. Over the next nine days we will drop in additional factoids.

Ausable Chasm

Plattsburgh NY was a stop before our night’s lodging. We ate here, gassed up the car,and re-filled a prescription at a local Walgreens. Our activity for this driving day was a visit to Ausable Chasm. The Ausable River flows from the Adirondacks to Lake Champlain. It is not a huge river but given the elevation drops from the mountains to the Lake, the river has carved a few gorges/chasms and created some waterfalls.

cairns along Ausable Chasm trail

Ausable chasm

Ausable Chasm is one of those waterfalls and chasms. It is a privately owned tourist attraction dating back to 1870. It offers trails, scenic views, and a rafting trip through a short portion of the chasm. Our effort to take the raft trip was thwarted though. The falls here also provide hydro power and the power company turned off the tap a short while before we got there. So our trip was limited to hiking.

Ausable Chasm

Ausable Chasm is also where I dropped the camera. This generated a return trip to Plattsburg. Tonight I will charge up the new camera.

We checked into our lodging, the ADK Trail Inn. Not much to comment on yet, it is of the Mom and Pop variety. The Auable River runs behind it and provides some scenic views for us. Dinner was at the ADK Cafe in Keene, down the road about 5 miles from our lodging. We heard their advertisements on Upper NY Public Radio when we were driving in Quebec Province. They are of the type that serves locally raised products, etc. Tonight’s meal was quite tasty.

Ed and Chris Sept. 30 10 pm