arrival…
With Falcon Ridge Folk Fest cancelled we decided to rent a lake house with Christine and Jaime’s families ( who camp with us at FRFF) and it just so happened to work out that the only one we could find for the first week of August was on LAKE OZONIA!!!!
When I was 12 my dad’s mother inherited a camp on this lake from her brother and we started spending 2 weeks there every summer. It was a 6 hour drive from our house in Webster, and hour from my grandparents in Massena and an interminable 12 hour drive when we moved to Toledo. Now it is under 4 hours from our home in VT. I’ve brought the girls here twice, camping at a campground on the Lake Ozonia Rd, visiting the old camp, kayaking around but now we are here for a week!
The Blanchard camp which we are renting is in the big bay on the Eastern side of the lake on the other side of the islands from the old Demo Camp. It is a bay I have tooled around maybe twice in the motorboat and once in the row boat as I rowed the lake calling out “SPOT” the time Spot disappeared for a few days.
We arrived around 4pm and unpacked and after dinner Colleen and I took single kayaks out into the warm butter light of sunset past the point to the center of the lake where we were graced with the rising of the almost full moon.
we approached the island and gazed out over the water toward the past but did not cross over into familiar waters leaving that for another day…
sunday…
There will be 12 of us so Colleen and I set up our tent on the water’s edge where we slept under the moon with no rain fly on until dawn when the rain moved in. We got up and went right into the lake and swam a big loop out to the point and across and back to our camp all before breakfast. Christine, Levi and Nora had arrived late last night and we mowed on pancakes to start the day.
We brought 2 kayaks and a canoe and the camp also has 2 kayaks and 2 canoes. Levi and Jakobi were the first to venture out foll0wed swiftly by Ambiana and Nora!
They had an adventure out in the middle of the lake, swimming off the kayaks but then unable to all get back in and a kayak foundered and they all made their way to shore, I had been watching through binoculars and Colleen and I jumped in a canoe to offer assistance but when we go to them they had it under control on shore and had enlisted help to bail and soon we were all paddling for home.
The camp is beautiful with a nice deck for sitting and eating. We had burritos for dinner and then took a sunset paddle.
This time we did cross into familiar waters and paddled close to Demo Camp. The owners were outside and we re-introduced ourselves. A few years ago we knocked on their door and they were very gracious and gave us a tour and let us swim off the dock.
We paddled around and found the FROG still perched on his rock. Sitting under the moon watching lightening fill up the scudding clouds I reflected upon the influence of Camp in my life. It would not be amiss to say that the summers I spent here with Family shaped the life I have today. The 2 weeks we spent up here at camp were holy times nestled in the bosom of Mother Nature. The early morning swims, the walks in the woods, the cruises around the lake all filled me with the sacredness of Nature and it is this what I sought when I left Boston in the Autumn of ’88 to spend the winter skiing in Breckenridge Colorado. It was not the skiing that drew me there but the mountains. The feeling of Camp infused my purchase of a backpack, tent, small stove and sleeping bag and drew me to New Zealand for 4 months of hiking and backpacking, it drew me to Alaska where my brother and I made hobbit homes in the winter woods. Our home in Vermont is very much indebted to Camp embraced as it is in woods, mountain and water.
To be back here at Lake Ozonia feels right, it feels of Family, of aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins and brothers and sisters, of generations who have sought out these waters and woods for the solace and peace it brings to their soul. A solace that I have tried to bring with me wherever I am and am renewing each time I return.
monday…
The last two nights rain has moved in and we wake to gray skies and falling rain. Today the wind was whipping out of the West and it charges right down this bay. All the trees are permanently bent to the East and peering out the tent the bay was filled with miniature white caps. No morning swim today
So we have indoor time and breakfast, Christine is in charge of food today and for breakfast we have fruit salad, turkey bacon and zucchini Parmesan bread. As the sun climbs it breaks up the gray mass of clouds and blue holes appear in the clouds through which the sun squeezes and eventually pushes them apart and we have another beautiful afternoon. That is my chair with my bag of stuff. I read and rock out to 80’s music as I continue to re-explore the music of my youth.
On our first early morning swim on Sunday I noticed lots of cans on the lake floor so I told Jakobi I’d give her a quarter for each one she brought up. She has made it a project and enlisted Levi and Nora in her quest.They spend the mornings and afternoons salvaging junk from the bottom.
They have found not only cans but plastic cups, a child’s mask, two platic whales, a flower pot and a bag of some kind of grease. The total I owe them and counting is $18.50. Are you worried Dad Jakobi asks but No I am proud of them and the clean up work they are doing.
Colleen and Ambiana catch up on their reading while the others are in the water. They are reading books by the same author, Sarah J Mass
Levi and Jakobi are good buds and are always up to something! Always jumping into the water or getting in kayaks are hiding out in the secret room they have furnished in the camp.
and Nora is right there with them most of the time! Today we had the first gathering of the VT-Lake Ozonia Lake Swimmers and with one of us a kayak spotter we set out from the dock to swim to the point on the SW corner of the bay. At the point we switched spotters and swam back working up an appetite for dinner.
Andrea, Illiana and Orlando finally arrived around 6pm just as Christine was grilling pizzas for dinner. Orlando set up his tent lakeside right next to us.
Colleen and I have made a habit of taking a sunset paddle out on the lake. It was like a mirror last night with a beautiful sunset. There are several camps for sale on the lake and I dream of owning one so we can spend a week here in each of the four seasons of the year and rent it out the rest of the time.
tuesday….
Tuesday was gray and rainy all day as hurricane isaias moved through the region. The rain did not dampen our enthusiasm and we made a fire in the fireplace to dry wet towels and the kids still hit the water for swims between games and tomfoolery
swimming in the rain is a no brainer, you are gonna get wet so whats it matter if the water is falling from the sky as well as in the lake.
I made an appointment with the realtor to see the camp for sale across the bay. I found it really nice and quaint. It has two bedrooms in the main house plus a small apartment above the boathouse. It comes with two garages and an acre of land that is across the road which is plowed all winter. $260K but I bet they can be talked down.
Jaime and family were on dinner and they made pasta and soup and the hungry folk lined up and left nothing behind but dirty dishes.
wednesday…
The hurricane winds pushed an inflatable giraffe raft across the lake to us overnight where we rescued him and tied her to the dock in case anyone came searching. No rain today but a relentless wind out of the West made for chilly times. Christine went for a hike, Jaime went to Potsdam to pick up some things and rest of us swam and sat in the warm sun.
When all were back it was time for the newly re-christened Lake Ozonia Swim Club to make another outing. This time we decided to swim to the island since that was something my brothers and sisters and I used to do from Demo Camp though this swim was much farther. With Christine, Levi and me in kayaks as spotters and boat warners and Drea, Lili, Lando and Bobi in life jackets and Nora, Ambiana and Colleen taking the lead we headed of straight into the wind and the chop.
It took a long time to reach the channel between shore and island. By that time Levi was escorting Ambiana who had had enough back to camp and after this picture was taken Christine towed Lando back but Nora was resolute on making it to the island and the rest followed suit.
The final push was made, the island touched and a victory photo taken and then it was time to swim back.
With the wind and waves going in the same direction as our swimmers the return trip was made in triple time; Jaime floated out on a raft to meet us for the homestretch and soon we were taking hot showers in the outdoor shower and dinner was being prepared.
After dinner the kids all went for a bike ride around one half of the lake while Christine, Colleen and I went for a sunset walk around the other half of the lake.
There are big rocks everywhere here dropped by the glaciers as they retreated and melted. After we were all back at the camp it was time for a fire in the fireplace and games and a final sunset sit out on the lakefront as the stars came out and Jupiter rose higher in the evening sky.
thursday…
Upon waking a made the long swim to the island that everyone else did yesterday with Colleen in a kayak as my spotter. When I came back all the kids were in the water swimming in their pajamas
The giraffe still unclaimed got some love today while…
….Christine and Colleen read in the rocker Adirondack chairs on the deck….(which Colleen has commissioned me to build one for her)
…while Jaime did laundry and hung it to dry across the front lawn.
….while kids were in and out of the water. Just another beautiful day on LAKE OZONIA!!!!
Later in the afternoon I took to a kayak while Colleen did a big swim to the SW point of the bay and around it to the big rock on the point on the East side of the lake.
Dinner was rice and beans and salad and beets enjoyed by all on the porch
For our sunset paddle Colleen and I went to the very end of the lake, Represented by the far right in the above picture. Our camp is at the tip of the rusty bay up by the word Lake.
There are 2 small bays around corners at the end of the lake, the last resembling a swamp. It is fun to paddle out of these progressively bigger bodies of water on the the large lake.
friday…
Our last day on the lake. We spent it well in the water and out, long swims and paddles, good food and sun, Friendship and Ohana.
We took one last sunset paddle around the island and by Demo Camp.
Sunset from the camp. Sweet time.
