Trip to Deer Island

Catherine and I were lucky enough to go to Deer Island for a visit with Charles & Lina's family. It’s in the middle of Upper Saranac lake in the Adirondacks. Deer Island is the summer vacation spot for Lina's extended family - its been in their family since the early 1900's. I'll take an hour to walk around the shoreline of the island - it’s big! There is only one other cabin on the island. Most of the island is unspoiled wild forest. I took a bunch of pictures, but they don't do it justice. Deer Island has a complex of about 7 buildings. We stayed in Bircholm - its the main two story building with the wrap around porch. It gets its name from the Birch Bark Wall paper lining the stair case in the entry way - which I forgot to photograph - its beautiful. The fireplace mantle has an artist conch decoration. Its a fungus that grows on dead trees. The drawing is scribed onto the surface and it turns brown.

The weather was nice; the water was warm for upstate NY. We spent allot of time swimming, sailing, fishing, kayaking, and boating. The kids swam between the 2 docks to the floating slide, and enjoyed going back and forth to the small island about 50 yards off of the shore called Mink Island. I spent allot of time on the porch of the boat house overlooking lake, and on the porch of Bircholm. You'll occasionally see some beautiful wooden boats cruise by. A fancy resort around the bend, The Point, has a lovely HackerCraft that frequently made the rounds. Deer Island has its on Old Woodie, the To 'n Fro. It draws lots of looks when its one the water. Its a 75 year old wooden Richardson Cruiser. When you arrive at the mainland dock - the To 'n Fro comes to pick you up. Its the only way to load up 20 people and see the sights on the water.

We had a really nice group of people, all connected through Charles and Lina. The kids enjoyed playing together, and the adults enjoyed visiting and playing too. We had a very interesting cook, Chris, who frequently crewed on large boats. He kept us well feed, in between paddling the kids around on a wind surfer board. He surfs all over the world - so paddling on the lake was not a problem. He's the fit, tan guy in some of the pictures.

One night Carroll fired up a movie projector - we saw several movies filmed on Deer Island in the 30's. The only thing that’s changed is the people dressed allot better! The place is virtually the same. Catherine's observation was everything in the houses is an antique - and still works! We had a full moon and a clear sky several nights in a way. You'll see several pictures where I was trying to capture the moon. We had a delightful time!