Long Lake & Beyond

Long Lake and Beyond

My first experience in the Adirondacks was at a cottage on the Sagamore property in August 1977 with Becky, her sister Karen, brother Dave and Ed Woods who was Karen’s boyfriend at the time. The Sagamore Hotel had burnt down and the owners only rented a few of the remaining cabins. We were the only guest on the property that week around Labor Day. Becky and her family had stayed at cottages here throughout the late 60’s and early 70’s. They also had stayed at Prospect Point Cottages in Blue Mountain Lake.

During the middle of that week in 1977 I had to drive back to Philadelphia by myself to register for a course at Temple University that had gotten screwed up the week before and long after we had made our plans. So I drove back down and then stood in line to hand in my registration card. Stayed the night and then drove back up to Long Lake the next morning. Nothing online back in 1977.

Becky and I started going to Long Lake most every year in the early 80’s and initially stayed at the Gabel’s Cabins. That went on throughout the 80’s until the owners sold of the cabins individually and kept the main house for themselves. The late 80’s and early 90’s were Adirondack wandering years for us. We tried some other places on Long Lake and even went over to Indian Lake one year. One of the places we tried a few times was Green Harbor Cabins but it didn’t quite work with kids because of the cliffs and the tightness of the area. We were looking for a more open room for the kids to play. We were constantly exploring the region looking for that “perfect” place.

The most perfect place we ever found was just never available when we wanted to be there. That was Oven Point Cabins just a little north of the town. It was the ideal place and had met the owners, had a tour, and were totally excited about it. But we could never get booked. Finally, the owners subdivided the cabins among their kids and no longer rented to the public. Oh well.

In 1996 we started staying at the Shamrock Motel and Cottages in Long Lake. The owners were an odd couple but the grounds were almost exactly what we were looking for. Nice cabins with plenty of room and good views of the lake. There was lots of open space on the property to play, a shuffle court, a badminton net and set, a basketball hoop, and a game room with a ping-pong table. We then stayed there nearly every summer for 20 years despite some of their strange rules and odd attitude. We worked around them and dealt with their idiosyncrasies.

After about 10 years the owner’s son and wife took over running the business. The son was a retired army officer with a German wife. She was very nice although he had some strict military rules and attitudes but over the years he eased up and she became more intense. I know it’s hard to have a motel and cottages in a tourist area but that was what you signed up for.

In 2017 we all went there after a nephew’s wedding in the Catskills. I think we had four cabins and they freaked out… too many people for them. They never liked the guests interacting together and families were strictly limited. They said did not know the other two cabins were also part of our family but I think they were told. The problem incident was when everyone gathered in our large cottage to have some cake and ice cream for our grandson Henry’s 1st birthday. They came running when they saw everyone getting together. The wife and Donna had words and we never went back.

In 2018 we went to Sunset Point down the road and last year we went to Prospect Point in Blue Mountain Lake that only happened because there was a cancellation. That place is always booked up.

This year we will be going back to Sunset Point. Becky and I will have a cottage that Sean and Ashley will share with us for part of the time. Katie and Todd and the kids will have another cottage themselves. The owner of this resort encourage family interaction. The more the merrier.

The old Sagamore Hotel in Long Lake before the fire. When we were there in 1977 you could only see the foundation of the hotel. We walked around the ruins. It was destroyed in a fire in 1959.