I guess I had decided quite a while ago that a camp was the one thing I really,REALLY wanted. You see my dad had built a camp with two of his buddies and it was always awesome to simply be able to “go to camp”. His camp was originally designed to be a hunting camp, however that part of Warren county experienced some severe winters shortly after it was built in the sixties and the local deer population did not fare too well. Hunting was poor but the other opportunities available were outstanding indeed!
Fishing was available in Mill Creek, Kibby Pond, and the Sacandaga River. Skiing was nearby at Gore Mtn.. As a kid, I remember catching native brook trout in a little creek down below the camp where I was allowed to wander. I can remember showing up at camp in the winter when it was brutally cold for a ski weekend. It would always take forever for the camp to warm up. It was so wild! It was desolate and primitive with an outhouse. It was great.
The years went by. I spent 10 years in the Air Force and I made several trips to my dad’s camp with friends for fishing trips. We always had a great time. But I loved deer hunting, and though I had a good time hunting the southern tier, and I hunted out of his camp several times, I guess I always had this ember burning deep inside that told me I had to have my own camp. I looked forward to camp chores like splitting wood in preparation to a long week or two of hard hunting. I wanted to own my own land and literally know every tree on it. Ideally, I’d be able to return in the dark from a hard day’s hunt to a warm camp that I’d built myself. It was a romantic notion, considering I wasn’t a carpenter, architect, or builder by any stretch of the imagination. But I did have a goal...
After my time in the Air Force, I took a job as a systems engineer at Plattsburgh AFB. This was probably when I started to actively start looking for a suitable chunk a land. My wife and I are raising five boys so there was definately a ceiling price! The other thing was I really wanted a HUNTING camp. I started going over deer take statistics I’d obtained from the DEC. Through these I narrowed my search to a section of St. Lawrence county on the northern foothills of the Adirondack Park. I contacted a realty company, ‘Christmas and Associates’, that specialized in undeveloped land for recreational purposes. I specified what my ceiling price was, where I was looking, and that I would prefer to abutt state land. (At least have state land nearby) Within a month I received a call and was told about some parcels they thought I’d be interested in. ALL were double my ceiling! I then emphatically and loudly re-explained what my specifications were. I informed them I was going to buy some land, build a camp, and enjoy many future hunting seasons. If they were interested in selling it to me, please don’t call me until they had something that met all my expectations. So we got off on the wrong foot!
Several years went by. The base closed. I started a retail business in Lake Placid. I never really abandoned my idea of a camp, I just sort of back-burnered it for awhile. Then one day I received a call from Christmas & Assoc. They had about 3-4 parcels, was I still interested?... ‘What are the prices?’....’No kiddin, can you fax me over the sheets?’....’Can I sort of check them out myself, you know walk the property a little before I drag you guys out there?’.....’I can?,...Thanks,..I’ll give you guys a call in a week or two. I’m really looking forward to this.’
Guess what folks? Every single parcel met my expectations. However one stood out right from the beginning. Thirty-one acres of land on a seasonal road that had another 1400 acres of state land that started about 1/4 mile up the road. There were a couple of other camps on that road. I even met two guys who were locking up the gate to their camp as I came in. I introduced myself to Jake and Wayne. Jake owned the land across the road from the parcel I was interested in. ‘How’s the deer hunting around here?’....’Pretty Good’....’Did you guys have any luck this year, How many bucks did you take?’....’Well our camp took 5 this year.’....5,(FIVE),( V )!!!!!.....They didn’t know it yet. But Jake and Wayne had themselves a new neighbor.