Day 161: Wilmington, NY to Carp, ON

We woke this morning to more rain. We laid in bed listening to the soft pitter patter that tapered off as we rolled out of bed for our final day of adventuring.

After the breakfast of champions (oatmeal), we explored High Falls Gorge, a privately owned park in the middle of the Adirondack mountains. Before heading out on the trail, we watched the historical movie (aka slide deck on a TV) in the visitors centre; the boys were not impressed. 

The trail was a beautiful boardwalk over the Ausable River. We saw waterfalls flowing over eroded basalt dikes, gorgeous autumn leaves and some cool cylindrical potholes eroded into the gorge walls.

We walked the adjacent Nature Trail to get some additional exercise and then headed back to the campground for lunch. Our last lunch was the victory sandwich for climbing Porter Peak (which we did yesterday) - tuna fish with cheese. Yum!

Then it was off for our final leg of our journey.

We drove through Potsdam and Ogdensburg, crossed the international border into Canada, and drove home to Carp, Ontario.

Only in the US…

Huge sign at the border.

We pulled in to our farm around 2:30 pm and were greeted and welcomed home by Grandma Susan. It sure was wonderful to see her!

We spent the afternoon unpacking the trailer, unloading the truck, and prepping our school backpacks for tomorrow. It feels odd to be back; like somehow we lived three years in five and a half months but have only been gone a day. We are both happy to be home and sad for this time away together to have come to an end. What a grand adventure we had!

 

We quizzed each other on the drive home, wanting to record these answers before time causes us to forget.

Q: What was the best thing you saw or did?

Liam: Mario World at Epic Universe in Orlando

Seamus: Rocket Geyser at Yellowstone
Alistair: catching huge redfish in the Gulf of Mexico

Daddy: hiking to alpine lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park
Krystal: Diamond Caverns in Kentucky

Q: What is the most delicious thing you ate?
Liam: beignets in New Orleans
Seamus: Macrons during high tea in Charleston
Alistair: the huge hamburger in Lake Placid
Ian: BBQ in Austin
Krystal: Bluebell ice cream in Texas

Q: What will you miss most about the trip?
Liam and Seamus: being somewhere new everyday
Alistair: learning some new everyday
Ian: breathing so much fresh air
Krystal: quality family time and exercise that doesn’t feel like exercise

Q: What are you most excited to do when you get home?
Liam: see my friends
Seamus: have good toilet paper
Alistair: sleep in my own bed
Ian: go hunting and fishing
Krystal: step out of the shower on to a fluffy bath mat

Q: What have you learned on the trip?
Liam: what its like to be nomadic
Seamus: how much your butt can hurt from driving
Alistair: how much elevation impacts the weather
Ian: American revolution history
Krystal: karst topography

Q: What has the trip taught you not to take for granted?
Liam: clean, private, hot showers
Seamus: easy walks without elevation
Alistair: an oven to bake bread and cookies
Ian: free laundry at home
Krystal: time spent together without screens

And that’s a wrap. We travelled for 161 days, drove 143,667 km, touched two oceans, did four oil changes and are due for a fifth, visited 38 American states and three Canadian provinces, and had one absolutely incredible, completely unforgettable adventure.

Thank you to everyone who followed along on our journey. If you have been receiving our posts via email, these will stop. We will keep blogging occasionally as we return to homesteading life and get back into a routine here at Gael Glen Farm as we prepare for winter. 

What an experience we had. It has been a pleasure to share it with you. We will never forget the joy we found in our grand adventure of 2026.