Northampton Beach

I love visiting Adirondacks and staying at Northampton Beach Campground,  especially since our dear friends Nancy and Patrick have a cabin in the area.  The campground is on the shore of Great Sacandaga Lake, a reservoir created by damming the Sacandaga River.  The name Sacandaga means Land of the Waving Grass.  The lake is very large, with beautiful coves and islands in the northern section, not far from the campground.

The area settled in late 1700.early 1800 and badly impacted by clearing and logging. Adirondack Park is designated as National Historic Landmark, combining public Forest Preserve lands and private lands. It is not a national or state park, but it is the largest National Historic Landmark with total area over 6 million acres from which 2.6 million are owned by State of New York as Forest Preserve.  Wild Adirandacks has great details about geology of the region, essentially these are new mountains from old rocks.  Interestingly, this is not a range in the traditional sense, but a dome that is still growing.   I’m glad that the park was created in 1892 for us all to enjoy.

We met with Pat, Nancy, Dave and Mary for dinner, then the guys built a great fire, though I’m not sure if there was a need for power tools.  It was great to catchup since they recently hiked Mt. Katahdin, the end of AT and very challenging mountain.  I would not be willing to attempt it, especially the infamous Knife’s Edge trail, I’m proud of having such adventurous friends.

There are many hikes in the area, we did two of them, Chase Lake trail (Shaker Mountain Wild Forest) and then 3 lakes, Bennett, Middle and Murphy (in Wilcox Lake Wild Forest).  All these lakes are so pretty, so quiet.  Chase Lake had a nice lean-to and two canoes, Dave used one to explore the lake a bit.  There was a loon at Murphy Lake diving for his snack, as we were munching on some apple cider donuts. The woods are a mix of evergreens and deciduous tree, and to be able to hike with pine needles and no rocks was such a change from usual NJ hiking.

There are no designated biking trails, but road biking is relatively easy, especially for someone with e-bike. We took one trip, northwest of Northville, where the road paralleled East Stony Creek. It was not flat, the road was winding with hills but again, e-bike to the rescue!

Hiking and biking was good, the weather is not super warm, just mid to upper 70’s. Walking around the campground, I don’t see it as crowded as the few times we were here before.  Probably the cooler weather and occasional rain scared people away.  There’s a large group of Gen X women only camping in the site next to us, they have a pontoon boat and yes, they know how to party, you go ladies!

The town of Northville is very quaint, with 5 and 10 Department Store,  Village Scoop Ice Cream Shop, J.F. Farm Store and Cafe, which has great produce, specialty coffees, sandwiches and even better apple cider donuts. '

I love walking along the beach at the campground or kayaking on the lake. These are the most beautiful vistas. Feels good to enjoy it again.