On Friday, at the start of a midsummer night, Rick Mosebach of Hicksville walked up to the Montauk Chamber of Commerce and stopped.
While this in itself may not sound newsworthy, that one final step marked the conclusion of a journey of around 90 miles, made over several months and entirely on foot.
With him were his sons, Adam and Ian; Adam's wife, Christina, and Ian's fiancee, Lisa. His wife, Jan, was waiting outside the Chamber of Commerce building on Main Street when the party arrived.
Mr. Mosebach, who retired in 2017 after a career that saw him in managerial roles at Morgan Stanley, Seer Technologies, and Credit Suisse/First Boston, had observed that walking might be a good way to exercise. "I didn't want to just walk in circles around my house," he told an onlooker moments after completing the trek. "That gets boring. I figured a destination is always good."
He chose Montauk, which he and his family have visited for at least 20 years, usually in the winter. "We're not used to the summer," he said, as Main Street hummed with traffic of the vehicular and pedestrian variety. "It's a different place in the wintertime."
Mr. Mosebach embarked on the journey in January. "My plan was to walk somewhere between four and six miles for each stint," he wrote in a contemporaneous account of his expedition, "and at the end of my walk, my wife, Jan, would pick me up and drive me home. On my next walk, she would drop me off at my previous end point and I would walk again."
Two walks in January were followed by three in March. In April, he began weekly forays. He had reached Farmingdale by the end of January, Islip by the end of March, Center Moriches at April's end, and Hampton Bays by the end of May. He arrived in East Hampton at the end of June.
His sons accompanied him on about three walks, he said, and a friend on five.
Mr. Mosebach reached Hither Hills State Park in Montauk on July 15, and completed the final leg of the trip on Friday, making his way east on Old Montauk Highway and into the lively downtown. "It was nice experiencing new places that you usually drive by," he said. "I took lots of pictures."
One takeaway from the experience: "Long Island is a beautiful and diverse place," he wrote. "I delighted at some of the parks and preserves that I walked past." Highlights included Hither Hills State Park, the windmills of East Hampton, and the 300-year-old windmill on the Stony Brook Southampton campus, which the playwright Tennessee Williams rented one summer while visiting the artist Larry Rivers.
He also took note of some of the South Fork's restaurants, where he and his traveling party would have dinner after a day's walk. The Lobster Roll on Napeague, Main Street Tavern in Amagansett, World Pie in Bridgehampton, and the Southampton Publick House were among the favorites.
Standing under the brilliant summer sun in Montauk's downtown, he reflected on the long journey. "It was fun," he said.
