Everyone dreams of the great open outdoors, campfires and star filled skies but the sad reality is most campgrounds in northern New York be it private or state owned and operated are like parking in a Walmart parking lot. With about 10'-15' of space between them and the less end to end. Hell you fart with your windows open your neighbors don't just hear it, there's a good chance they'll smell it. A large open field full of some good kids wanting to have fun and a lot of booger nose brats being rude and thoughtless of other peoples considerations. Much like their parents who brought them there. You kids go do what you want while I get drunk with my new best friend next door. Hope I'm not bursting somebody's bubble but it's not all that glorious a lot of the time. (although it can be depending on where you go)There are some nice sites up here just hard to get into. Generally booked the year before. And that's my spiel for the day. Have a great weekend!
Just tell the truth as you see it. Many people never hear anyone's truth. I grew up in the outdoors of the upper peninsula of Michigan, about 5 hours drive north of your latitude, and far far from the big cities. Campfires, outdoors, star filled skies for sure, and so many back woods 2 rut roads actually called forest highways, that you can pull off the road anywhere you see fit, and enjoy it all, without any one for 20, 30 miles in any direction. If you ever feel like a nice slow drive to enjoy the scenery, I can absolutely 100% guarantee that the area around Sidnaw Michigan is for you. Nothing but dirt roads, real springs, streams, trees, deer, and mosquitoes in the summer. I recommend fall, about Sept, before the snow starts down. Spring is also nice, but you never can tell when a blizzard will hit. Stop any local and ask for someone to show you around in exchange for a great meal at their favorite local restaurant or bar, and you'll probably have the best tour guide ever made. I know that the lake camp grounds in the area are just like what you describe, but I can tell you of a lot of lakes with about 1 parking area, that no one will be at, because they don't have a crowd, a sandy beach, or a man made boat launch area. Hager Lake, Kunze lake, Martin Lake, etc etc etc. I hope I can go back some day, with a small boat or canoe, and plenty of campsite food, and go see them all one last time. Maybe a small old 4x4 jeep and a small teardrop camper with lots of ground clearance to get over tree roots and past ruts filled with big puddles. Hager lake had a road in that had to be seen to be believed... the puddles were perennial, and bigger than our truck, and a foot or two deep. There was no just drive straight through, it was creep around the edges and hope you don't get stuck. I wish I had pictures, but by the time I could afford a cheap 110 camera, someone who had owned it all since the homestead days finally gated the road, and built a house out by the lake. There are no photos of Hager Lake online. THAT is how damn remote my home town area is, still.
I was fortunate enough that my family is part owner (six members) of a camp in the Adirondack on Cleveland Lake with 165 acres. It's not a very large lake, about 15 acres and spring fed so it ALWAYS cold! It's about 3 1/2 miles in from the main road so there's no electric and you can't get cell service to this day. It's all good! We would swim till our lips were purple and tell our parents we weren't cold. The big treat would be my grandfather would go to town (Croghan New York)and go to the Croghan Meat Market and buy Croghan baloney. It was a big deal and they still make and sell it and actually ship it all over the country. It's kind of like Hickory Farms summer sausage. I could care less if I have any now and don't think it's that special anymore (or good for that matter)but that was part of my summer we always looked forward to. Still do work week in the spring and fall. Put up and take down screens , service the generator and put the dock in. Hell last year we built a new outhouse. Don't want to sound uppity but we have two plus and old pitcher pump in the camp for water. Hahaha
Oh WOW! You are a fortunate guy! That is fantastic! My COMPLIMENTS! I looked on the map, and there is nothing but wilderness to the East. Cold sausage and cheese, one of my favorites, with big crackers. Work week? You sir, just get more and more respect! Too few people see the charm in a family cabin, even fewer see the bit of responsible upkeep as something to do in return for the use of the cabin. I'd blow your mind with a blog about family cabins if I had a magic wand, and could get access, learn the histories, etc, etc. I think I posted one, but the might have been on facebook. I have a bad recall problem. It was a homestead that stayed in the family 4 or 5 generations, only accessible by water.
And I grew up with pitcher pumps and outhouses. It was a old boomtown from the 1880s that has (still) 3 public hand pumps (I have never seen or heard of any town in the USA that has public hand pumps) and my grandparents bought a 40 acre piece of an old homestead that had the log cabin until 1980, and still has the outhouse. And it got used when I lived there until graduating high school, as grandparents, their two daughters, their husbands, and 4 grandkids makes 10 people and your chances were that someone was using the bathroom any time you felt the need, so your chances were better that the outhouse was not being used, because there were no mosquitoes in the house, you know? Anyway, I am jealous! What an fantastic place to be able to go to, especially if you can coordinate and get family or friends to join you there! Sadly, now, it's probably impossible for anyone to buy land and build a cabin without needing a fortune, unlike 100-150 years ago. Plus govt interference didn't exist with permits, inspections, building codes, etc. Did you ever read "My side of the Mountain" as a kid? I did, and being a kid living in the Michigan woods, it was like a sales pitch to run away to the Catskills and get out in the woods.
Everyone dreams of the great open outdoors, campfires and star filled skies but the sad reality is most campgrounds in northern New York be it private or state owned and operated are like parking in a Walmart parking lot. With about 10'-15' of space between them and the less end to end. Hell you fart with your windows open your neighbors don't just hear it, there's a good chance they'll smell it. A large open field full of some good kids wanting to have fun and a lot of booger nose brats being rude and thoughtless of other peoples considerations. Much like their parents who brought them there. You kids go do what you want while I get drunk with my new best friend next door. Hope I'm not bursting somebody's bubble but it's not all that glorious a lot of the time. (although it can be depending on where you go)There are some nice sites up here just hard to get into. Generally booked the year before. And that's my spiel for the day. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteJust tell the truth as you see it. Many people never hear anyone's truth.
DeleteI grew up in the outdoors of the upper peninsula of Michigan, about 5 hours drive north of your latitude, and far far from the big cities. Campfires, outdoors, star filled skies for sure, and so many back woods 2 rut roads actually called forest highways, that you can pull off the road anywhere you see fit, and enjoy it all, without any one for 20, 30 miles in any direction.
If you ever feel like a nice slow drive to enjoy the scenery, I can absolutely 100% guarantee that the area around Sidnaw Michigan is for you. Nothing but dirt roads, real springs, streams, trees, deer, and mosquitoes in the summer. I recommend fall, about Sept, before the snow starts down. Spring is also nice, but you never can tell when a blizzard will hit.
Stop any local and ask for someone to show you around in exchange for a great meal at their favorite local restaurant or bar, and you'll probably have the best tour guide ever made.
I know that the lake camp grounds in the area are just like what you describe, but I can tell you of a lot of lakes with about 1 parking area, that no one will be at, because they don't have a crowd, a sandy beach, or a man made boat launch area. Hager Lake, Kunze lake, Martin Lake, etc etc etc.
I hope I can go back some day, with a small boat or canoe, and plenty of campsite food, and go see them all one last time.
Maybe a small old 4x4 jeep and a small teardrop camper with lots of ground clearance to get over tree roots and past ruts filled with big puddles.
Hager lake had a road in that had to be seen to be believed... the puddles were perennial, and bigger than our truck, and a foot or two deep. There was no just drive straight through, it was creep around the edges and hope you don't get stuck.
I wish I had pictures, but by the time I could afford a cheap 110 camera, someone who had owned it all since the homestead days finally gated the road, and built a house out by the lake.
There are no photos of Hager Lake online. THAT is how damn remote my home town area is, still.
I was fortunate enough that my family is part owner (six members) of a camp in the Adirondack on Cleveland Lake with 165 acres. It's not a very large lake, about 15 acres and spring fed so it ALWAYS cold! It's about 3 1/2 miles in from the main road so there's no electric and you can't get cell service to this day. It's all good! We would swim till our lips were purple and tell our parents we weren't cold. The big treat would be my grandfather would go to town (Croghan New York)and go to the Croghan Meat Market and buy Croghan baloney. It was a big deal and they still make and sell it and actually ship it all over the country. It's kind of like Hickory Farms summer sausage. I could care less if I have any now and don't think it's that special anymore (or good for that matter)but that was part of my summer we always looked forward to. Still do work week in the spring and fall. Put up and take down screens , service the generator and put the dock in. Hell last year we built a new outhouse. Don't want to sound uppity but we have two plus and old pitcher pump in the camp for water. Hahaha
ReplyDeleteOh WOW! You are a fortunate guy! That is fantastic! My COMPLIMENTS!
DeleteI looked on the map, and there is nothing but wilderness to the East.
Cold sausage and cheese, one of my favorites, with big crackers.
Work week? You sir, just get more and more respect! Too few people see the charm in a family cabin, even fewer see the bit of responsible upkeep as something to do in return for the use of the cabin.
I'd blow your mind with a blog about family cabins if I had a magic wand, and could get access, learn the histories, etc, etc.
I think I posted one, but the might have been on facebook. I have a bad recall problem.
It was a homestead that stayed in the family 4 or 5 generations, only accessible by water.
And I grew up with pitcher pumps and outhouses. It was a old boomtown from the 1880s that has (still) 3 public hand pumps (I have never seen or heard of any town in the USA that has public hand pumps) and my grandparents bought a 40 acre piece of an old homestead that had the log cabin until 1980, and still has the outhouse. And it got used when I lived there until graduating high school, as grandparents, their two daughters, their husbands, and 4 grandkids makes 10 people and your chances were that someone was using the bathroom any time you felt the need, so your chances were better that the outhouse was not being used, because there were no mosquitoes in the house, you know?
Anyway, I am jealous! What an fantastic place to be able to go to, especially if you can coordinate and get family or friends to join you there!
Sadly, now, it's probably impossible for anyone to buy land and build a cabin without needing a fortune, unlike 100-150 years ago. Plus govt interference didn't exist with permits, inspections, building codes, etc.
Did you ever read "My side of the Mountain" as a kid? I did, and being a kid living in the Michigan woods, it was like a sales pitch to run away to the Catskills and get out in the woods.