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Out on the Lake, Down on the Farm: Add Farming to Camp Chingachgook’s List of Outdoor Activities

By James H. Miller

Sunday, August 12, 2012

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Within the last five years, the farm at Camp Chingachgook has expanded considerably into a sustainable producer and educator. The camp has taken in more animals, sown more plants and  vegetables than ever, becoming a well-maintained, wholesome setting where hundreds of campers, from the youngest to the oldest, can experience functional farming, in some cases for the first time.

Needless to say, the campers are learning all that comes with that experience.

“It’s neat, the kids are getting a sense of where their food comes from,” says Jessie Gardner, the primary caretaker of the Chingachgook farm. “It comes from a farm, it doesn’t come from a grocery store.”

Rhode Island Hens

Not only Gardner’s name makes her the ideal person for the primary caretaker position (meaning she spends every morning and evening there). She’s lived on a family farm in Hudson her whole life, one that dates back to the early 1700s, where she devotes the better part of her time and energy.

Camp Chingachgook offers, among other skill classes, a farm tutorial, which began three years ago, and teaches campers the basic skills of plant and animal care and maintanience. Home on the farm are pigs, rabbits, goats, and a horse, many of which were acquired within the last three years. Campers learn about animal behavior, how to detect an animal health emergency, biology, how wildlife and weather affect farming, sustainability, and plenty more constructive knowledge.

The most recent additions to the Chingachgook farm are five Rhode Island Hens, whose eggs the campers have been helping to collect. “They’ve been excellent with the kids,” Gardner says. “Not too skittish.”

Gardner hopes the farm class will provide kids with a better understanding of the day-to-day reality of farmers, of food production, and the process that typically gets obscured by supermarket aisles. “I want them to have appreciation of local farmers, and how hard farmers have to work to put that food on the table and put that food in the grocery stores,” she says.

But that’s not all she hopes for. By the time the campers leave at summer’s end, she wants them to have the skills and knowledge, and perhaps the drive, to build a farm back home. “They’re given the knowledge of how to take care of an animal and a garden, and if they want to go home and say ‘hey mom and dad can I start a garden?’” their parents will likely be confident enough of their skills to give them their approval, says Gardner.

The Chingachgook garden

Lately, with the recent wave of brutally hot weather, the campers have been learning how to keep the animals cool and comfortable. For the rabbits, bowls of water are frozen and sets insider their pens, while a lot of mud is made for the pigs to loll in at their pleasure.

At the beginning of each tutorial, the campers adopt either a garden plot or an animal, which provides them with a personal connection to the farmland. Often times, they have never had such a connection. “It’s funny see the kids do something for the very first time,” Gardner says. “Some have never held a chicken or never interacted with a pig before.”

Beside a bridge where rows of small campers saunter, is the tidy garden, which has doubled in size this year. It consists of blueberries, raspberries, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, one eggplant, carrots, beets, and corn; while additions this year include cauliflower, morning glories, sunflowers, and broccoli. “Everyone does a taste test, unless they don’t like it, then we give it to the animals,” says Gardner.

“The kids love being down here and getting their hands in everything,” she adds.

Gardener says she tries to keep up with what’s going on in other local farms, and support them at farmer’s markets. She knows that local farms are connected, and that what’s happening at one may be happening at Chingachgook. “I like to know what’s going on in the area in terms of particular insects and see how that might affect our farm here,” she says.

The gate to the garden remains open much of the day, allowing different clusters of kids to come pick, taste, and learn.

“We try to make the garden as welcoming as possible,” Gardner says.

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Shelving Rock Falls

Shelving Rock Falls

Day Trip Tips: Shelving Rock Falls

By Sam Gabriels

Friday, August 10, 2012

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If you’re searching for a day hike, it would be difficult to find one that exemplifies the varied topography and sheer beauty of the area more than a climb along the 50-foot Shelving Rock Falls.

Located on the east side of the lake, it’s easily accessible by boat or by car.

Usually, the falls are reached by the roadway, but to get the full Lake George experience, you should begin the hike in Log Bay.

A short, 2.5-mile canoe or kayak paddle from the Lake George Kayak Company on Green Island makes the trip just long enough to enjoy the splendor of the water.

Log Bay is directly across the lake from the Sagamore.  At the north end of the bay, you’ll find picnic tables where you can enjoy a nice lunch and store your boats. From there, you’ll embark upon a 1.5-mile hike to the falls.

Following the old carriage road, you’ll proceed south along the lake and come to a wooden bridge. After crossing the bridge, there are several footpaths meandering up the incline away from the lake.

Keeping to the stream crossed by the bridge, follow any of the footpaths up to the falls.

If you’re feeling adventurous, walk up the stream, where there are a few spots where you can stop and swim. But be forewarned: the rocks are slippery.

Once you’ve walked for about ten or fifteen minutes, the woods open up and you’re at the base of these splendid falls.

The water here is usually chillier than in the lake, so it’s the perfect place to cool off after the hike.

Trails lead to the top, but if you climb up the waterfall, you’ll find a naturally formed mountain pool called the Giant’s Bowl. Sitting in the bowl, you can enjoy a shower-like sensation as the waters cascade from the falls.

Although this trip does not yield spectacular views, the paddle across the lake and the hike up to the falls can be enjoyed by practically everyone, no matter what the level of their skills, and is a perfect introduction to the beauties of Lake George.

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Wakonda Lodge

Wakonda Lodge

With help from LA Group’s Pro Bono Design Program, Wiawaka Plans for its Future

By Anthony F. Hall

Friday, July 27, 2012

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Fuller House

That good communities can be made better communities through good design is a principle with planning firms, one which they put into practice through the One Percent Pro Bono Design Program.

The LA Group, a Saratoga-based firm that has worked extensively with Lake George communities, has used the One Percent Pro Bono Design Program

to assist The Hyde, YMCA centers, Yaddo and several local churches with planning and design projects which they might not otherwise be able to afford.

This past year, Wiawaka was chosen to be the program’s beneficiary.

“We’ve donated approximately 300 hours to the project since February,” said Mike Ingersoll, a founder of the LA Group. “Wiawaka’s mission, history and grounds deserve support, and the organization needed some guidance. Moreover, a project like this one is a good exercise for our staff; they truly buy into the One Percent Program when it’s for a good cause. So this felt right.”

Ingersoll and his staff helped Wiawaka’s Board and its director, Christine Dixon, develop a Master Plan that will help the century-old retreat for women preserve its past while accommodating change as it adapts to future needs.

“This is the first comprehensive look the campus has received in 100 years,” said Ingersoll. “The plan doesn’t have to be perfect; it can change as new priorities arise. But Wiawaka needed a basic tool for planning and fund raising, and this will help.

“It’s very exciting,” said Christine Dixon. “Once we had the drawings, the goals and improvements we had discussed seemed more real and attainable.”

Among the first goals, said Ingersoll, is to preserve the natural landscape.

“The goal isn’t to make it a Sagamore or a luxury resort. In today’s environment, this is a very distinct place; it’s very romantic in many ways. We want to preserve the landscape by enhancing it, by opening up vistas and making certain that facilities do not detract from the landscape,” said Ingersoll.

Over the years, parking lots and driveways have intruded upon the landscape.

Parking lots can be shifted to the road and driveways re-oriented to preserve open space, said Ingersoll.

Administrative offices could also be placed near the road, allowing Fuller House, the main building, to gain more space for lodging and events.

Fuller House also contains the kitchen, which should be moved to a new, modern facility, said Ingersoll.

“In Fuller House, the kitchen blocks view of the lake. If that were moved, there would be even more space for guests, groups, weddings and meetings,” said Ingersoll.

Since Wiawaka sees partnerships with programs for cancer survivors and women veterans, among others, as part of its path to sustainability, the facilities must accommodate group functions, said Christine Dixon.

The resort’s 1,500 feet of waterfront could also be better utilized, not only to provide more space for swimming but to dock a water jitney for transportation to Lake George Village, said Ingersoll.

Wakonda Lodge, built shortly after the resort opened in 1903 and which has been closed since 2002 is expected to be renovated and re-opened by 2013, said Dixon.

“We’re especially excited by the prospect of constructing an outdoor amphitheater at the site,” said Dixon.

According to Dixon, members of Wiawaka’s Board were scheduled to walk the grounds, plan in hand, earlier this week.

Among the topics still to be discussed include the future of undeveloped property across the road from the campus and accommodating off-season events, said Dixon.

“There has been some talk about winter activities and an expanded presence in the community, but no discussion about becoming a year-round facility, although that possibility exists,” said Dixon.

“This plan gives us a base-line,” said Dixon. “It’s fluid, and it can change, but in a generation from now, when there’s a new team in place, they’ll know where we were coming from.”

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Plant More Trees: Assembly Point Volunteers Win Support, Applause from New York State

By Mirror Staff

Thursday, June 14, 2012

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Kicking off a campaign to replace trees lost to last fall’s tropical storm Irene and indiscriminate cutting, volunteers planted 500 trees in fields, wetlands and along streambanks on Assembly Point on April 27.

The effort was the first of a series of similar events sponsored throughout the Adirondacks by the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Lake Champlain Basin Trees for Tributaries program.

The native trees and shrubs were grown at the DEC’s State Tree Nursery in Saratoga Springs.

According to the DEC, the Trees for Tributaries program was established to protect stream corridors within the Lake Champlain basin and is a partnership with U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“In the wake of Tropical Storms Irene and Lee, homeowners and communities across the state witnessed the devastation that swollen rivers and streams can pose to people and property,” said DEC Commissioner Joe Martens. “Our Trees for Tributaries program provides trees and shrubs free to municipalities and private landowners to restore damaged banks of streams, tributaries and rivers damaged by the tropical storms and subsequent flooding.”

Commented Leilani Crafts Ulrich, the chairman of the Adirondack Park Agency, “The Adirondack community continues to work together to overcome the devastation of last summer’s tropical storms. Replanting vegetation will help stabilize shorelines and diminish the impacts of flood events. I applaud the hard work and dedication of all who are so generously committing their time to plant our future.”

The effort on Assembly Point was organized by the the Assembly Point Water Quality Awareness Committee, which was established earlier this year.

“The group feels that they can be the feet on the ground and the eyes within the neighborhood, with the collective goal to identify negative impacts to Lake George and its water quality, and help promote positive initiatives to reduce those impacts,” said Kathy Bozony, the Lake George Waterkeeper program’s Natural Resource Specialist,

A similar committee has been proposed for Cleverdale and Rockhurst, Bozony said.

“A water quality awareness committee within a small community can inspire and educate by personally taking action to become better stewards of the lake, and can work closely with neighbors to do the same,” said Bozony.

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North Queensbury Asst. Chief Greg Franze prepares to make his ice dive.

North Queensbury Asst. Chief Greg Franze prepares to make his ice dive.

When There’s an Emergency, Volunteers Respond – No Matter What the Season

By Mirror Staff

Sunday, January 29, 2012

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North Queensbury Volunteer Fire Company hauls dive and rescue equipment on to the dive sight. Photos by Fred McKinney.

Living on a 32 mile lake, the first responders from communities in the Lake George basin need to be prepared for emergencies regardless of the season. In summer, they’re among the first on the scene whenever there’s a swimming or a boating accident. And when the lake freezes over, they’re ready when the call comes through that an ice fisherman is in danger. To be ready, countless hours of training are required. Earlier this season, members of the Scuba teams from fire departments throughout Warren County conducted ice diving drills with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office in Kattskill Bay. Fred McKinney, the prominent photo journalist who also happens to be a long-time member of the North Queensbury Volunteer Fire Company, was there and shot these photos.

 

Rescue divers prepare to descend through the 10' triangle hole.

Until the ice goes out, the scuba teams remind everyone:
If you fall through,Try not to panic. Call out for help only if you see someone. The cold shock that makes you hyperventilate will subside within 1-3 minutes.  Get your breathing under control and stay above water. You are more likely to die from drowning than hypothermia; Remove any extraneous objects that will weigh you down. (skis, snowmobile helmet, skates, etc.); Try to get out from the direction that you came in. Place your hands and arms on the unbroken surface of the ice; Begin kicking your feet to get your body horizontal. Then, pull yourself along the ice until you are out of the hole. Be slow and deliberate to conserve your strength and body heat; If the ice breaks, move forward and try again; once you are lying on the ice, do not stand up. Roll away from the hole, then crawl following your footsteps back toward shore. Don’t stand until the hole is well behind you. You want to distribute your weight evenly over a wide area to prevent going through again; If you can’t pull yourself out within 10 minutes from the time that you went in, cease all attempts. At this point, you need to extend the time period in which someone else could rescue you by conserving body heat. The body loses heat much faster in water than it does in air, so get as much of your body out of the water as possible. Keep your forearms flat and still on the ice. Hopefully, your clothing will freeze to the ice, possibly preventing you from going under, even if you become unconscious. It is possible to survive for up to two hours before succumbing to hypothermia. In other words, if you stay composed and keep above water, you have almost a two-hour window of opportunity to be rescued.

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Photo by Peter Menzies

Photo by Peter Menzies

This Will Do: Scaling Erebus

By Peter Menzies

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

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“Maggie!  Come!  Maggie!! Heel!”

Sixty pounds of crazed English Springer Spaniel crash through the thick underbrush toward me.

“Stay with me.”

I stop walking, take a look at the trail, and realize that something is wrong.  I should be going up, but I’ve been headed down hill for too long.  Shoot.  I was following the dog rather than the trail markers.  Sometimes when I hike I space out a bit.

An old galvanized pipe running along the side of the trail is the giveaway.   Come to think of it, this really isn’t a trail.  It’s one of the old Shelving Rock logging roads built by the Knapp family’s team of workmen around the turn of the century.  A nice place to walk, but it’s not where I want to be now.  I should be on a skinny track.  And I should be heading northeast, not south.  I glance at my GPS, note the distance travelled so far and turn around.  Now I’m heading uphill, hopefully in the right direction.

Before the dog and daydreaming sidetracked me, I was headed to the top of Erebus Mountain on the east side of Lake George.  Erebus – pronounced “air-a-bus”, if you don’t know it, is the mountain directly south of Black.

I’m on this mountainside for the first time for many reasons.  I haven’t climbed it (gotta check it off the list).  I have free morning to myself (a rarity), I need the exercise (desperately) – oh, and my brother-in-law Chris was here last weekend and said it was the “Hike from Hell. “  (How could I resist?)

Speaking of Hell – in Greek mythology, Erebus was the son of the god Chaos – and his name has since been associated with darkness and an awful piece of dark terrain somewhere between Hades and the surface of the earth.  It’s the place the dead had to slog through on their journey to Hell.  Perfect for a leisurely hike, right?

Who ever named this place got it right – although this untamed forest is beautiful – where I stand now is buggier, rockier, wetter, more overgrown and darker than anywhere else on the east shore.  It’s a bit scary, and definitely lonely.  And I’m certain that Chaos himself designed the poorly marked trail system that radiates like a misshapen spider web all over this mountain range.

About ten minutes after doubling back we reach the junction that I missed earlier.  A glance at the GPS tells me I’ve covered six tenths of a mile since my turn around –that’s 1.2 miles of extra walking.  Oh Hell.

“C’mon dog.  This way.”

A faded marker pointing east and uphill indicates the way to the top and we head off up the much steeper, narrower trail.

For the better part of an hour and a half we walk through dense forest where high underbrush obscures the lightly travelled trail.  As I plod along the feeling that I am going in the wrong direction creeps into my consciousness again.  Up here the path is less apparent than it was previously.  I realize that I am descending again.  No good.  Did I pass the summit?  There certainly were no markers at the apex.  I turn around and monitor the altimeter on the GPS.  Backtracking, I gain a few hundred feet of elevation and hit a point that seems to be the highest spot on the trail.  I’ve reached the summit!  I think.

Looking around there’s nothing but trees.  No view.  No gorgeous panorama of Lake George to the west and Champlain to the east as there is on Black Mountain.  Just trees, a panting dog, and blood trickling down my legs from all the scratches I’ve collected on the way up.

“This is it?  Maggie… What… The…Hell…”

It’s a bit of a let down.

Glancing to the east I see that there is more land rising above me – by land I mean a lot of rock and more thick tree cover.  There’s probably a way up there, a way to reach the real summit, but I’m done.  I can’t risk bush whacking to the top alone.  Twenty years ago, maybe, but now I just want to get out of here, and get to the bottom.

Heading back I wander off the trail at least three more times.  A blister the size of a quarter forms on my heel.  Even on the way down Erebus manages to confound me – I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the son of Chaos.

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They Did It! Two Lake George Men Row 500 Miles in Adirondack Guide-Boats

By Buzz Lamb

Saturday, August 27, 2011

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Brian Rooney and Al Freihofer can scratch one more item off their “To Do” list.  The intrepid pair successfully completed their quest to row their Adirondack Guide- Boats more than 500 miles from Kingston, Ontario, Canada to Lake George, N.Y.

Right from the start, the two 59-year-old men learned that flexibility and adaptability would be the rules they would live by for the next 18 days. The original game plan was to arrive in Kingston, Ontario on June 20 and start the incredible journey to the Queen of American Lakes early the next morning.

As it turned out, they arrived at the starting point around mid-day on June 21, launched the boats and started rowing.  “It was good that the first day was just a half-day because I was exhausted,” Rooney said.  “The reality is that rowing is really tiring and often very painful.”

Rooney said at the end of the first day he wondered if he had the stamina to finish the journey.  “But, I had no choice either.  We were up there and the only way home was to row there,” he said.  “There was no bailing out.”

Both men said they never thought about giving up at any point.  “The whole time we had to draw on reserves of strength to keep on going,” Freihofer said.  “Al is a much better rower than I.  He has magic in his stroke and he gets much more out of it,” Rooney said.

Freihofer said he noticed a difference in Rooney’s style of rowing as the trip progressed.  “He was getting smoother…it all comes down to efficiency…how can you convert whatever energy you have into power to move your boat through the water,” he said.  “He bit off a big first trip.  Psychologically, just anticipating having to get up every day and doing the same thing again and again and again takes its toll,” Freihofer said.  “By mid-trip Brian’s endurance had skyrocketed,” he said.

In the St. Lawrence

Freihofer said the most pleasurable element of the excursion were the acts of kindness they experienced along the way.  “People who had no interest or nothing to gain by bending a rule or making an exception, after hearing our story, would say ‘how can we help’,” he said.

Rooney said a few times they had to row after dark to find a suitable place to pitch their tents.  “On Day 12 we didn’t put up until almost 10 o’clock at night,” Freihofer said.  “We had at least three nights that we were into darkness by the time we stopped,” Rooney added.

The men said seeing the countryside at four-miles-per-hour was rewarding.  They said the Rideau Canal was the most gratifying segment of the trip.  “I envisioned it as just an ordinary canal but it’s really a chain of lakes connected by a series of canals,” Rooney said.  “It was evocative of rowing through the “Narrows” right here on Lake George, but without the effect of the surrounding mountains,” Freihofer added.

Both men said the manner in which the canal system is managed was impressive.  “Every lock had a lock-keeper’s house that was immaculately kept…white clapboard siding with green trim and bathrooms for the public,” Rooney said.  “I didn’t see one piece of plastic or garbage floating in the water until we got to New York State,” Freihofer added with a frown.  “The Canadians really take care of their public places.”

The two seldom traveled side-by-side, with Freihofer often leading the way.  They said they did not encounter any commercial shipping vessels until they reached the St. Lawrence River.  “Even on the Ottawa River, headed towards Montreal, we did not see any major ships…it was all recreational boats,” Rooney said.

They were alone most of the time but on the Ottawa River they encountered a group of kayakers.  “We sort of embedded ourselves in this gaggle of kayaks,” Freihofer said.  “We rowed with them for a few hours. As soon as we went through a lock they turned off and went for lunch and we didn’t get invited,” he said with a laugh.

Looking one way and rowing another has its trials and tribulations as well.  Freihofer said they had to be alert while navigating the St. Lawrence River.  “If there is a huge ship coming at you, you better be looking at it every few minutes,” he said.  “They’re moving along at a pretty good clip.  If you let 10 minutes go past…they’re right on top of you.”

Rooney said the wakes produced by the cargo ships were not problematic but at one point they encountered an Italian mega-yacht which threw a four-foot wake off its bow.  “We had to turn and take it (the wave) bow first and when we did, half the length of our boats was lifted out of the water,” Rooney said. “It could have easily rolled us over if we had taken it sideways,” Freihofer added.  Both men spoke very highly about the performance and stability of their Adirondack Guide-Boats.

Inclement weather was a factor on several occasions.  “We had a lot of rain the first week.  One day, early on, we rowed non-stop for five hours in steady rain,” Freihofer said.  According to Rooney, when they were on the Ottawa River going into Montreal a nasty squall came through the area. “A Canadian Coast Guard boat came along to ask if we were OK,” Rooney said.  “There was no ‘are you crazy?…get off the water! or anything like that,” he said.  “They looked at the rig, looked at me…I was wearing my life jacket, and they must have figured ‘he knows what he is doing and he knows what the risks are’ so they left,” Rooney said.

“A trip like this is not about how fast you can row but rather how much time can you sit in the seat pulling the oars,” Freihofer said.  “I’d lie awake in my tent at night and every old athletic injury I have ever suffered was screaming at me,” Rooney said.

Al Freihofer (left) and Brian Rooney

Freihofer said at the three-quarter mark they made it into Lake Champlain. By the time they reached Burlington, the trip had come to feel serendipitous. The pair completed the 100-mile length of the vast lake rowing up the La Chute River at the southern end as far as they could go.  “We used two-wheeled carts which we strapped to the boats and we walked them a mile-and-a-half through downtown Ticonderoga, right by Aubuchon Hardware,” Freihofer said with a laugh.  “A former Town Supervisor let us put them back in the water in his brother’s back yard which was a couple of hundred feet from the dam.”

Rooney said it wasn’t until they began rowing the last leg on Lake George that he felt relief. The pair ate egg salad sandwiches at Mossy Point. “That was our fuel for the day,” Freihofer said.  The incentive on the final day of the voyage was to enjoy a lobster dinner at the Lake George Club in Diamond Point but the greater reward was their sense of accomplishment.

Right up to last the day the pair encountered challenges.  “A south wind came up just when we reached the top of the Narrows.  A row that could have taken an hour or maybe less took us two-and-a-half hours,” Rooney said.  They arrived at the Lake George Club at 8:30 in the evening…just in time for dinner.

Rooney said his wife, Cecile, encouraged him to attempt the 500-mile long trip. At the end of the journey, Rooney said he was happy to find out that he was as tough as he thought he was.  Freihofer said, for him, rowing a 14-foot Adirondack Guideboat with his best friend made him arguably the richest man in the world.

When asked what advice they might offer to others who might attempt rowing for several hundred miles Rooney said, “You have to embrace the unknown ahead of you.  You have to press on, not knowing where you’re going to land tonight.”  Freihofer said he believes people seek adventure.  “Just go…take that journey…that would be my advice,” he said.

When asked if they would do it all over again a pall of silence fell over the porch where we were sitting.  After what seemed like an eternity Rooney replied, “I don’t know that I would do it again.  It was the most sustained, grueling physical thing I have ever done.”

Freihofer, who has made several long-distance rowing trips, said, “For me, it would have to do with destinations.  This row interested me because I heard other people talk about the Rideau in such glowing terms,” he said.  “But, this is the first time I finished one of these rows where, in the past I felt this primal urge to get back in the boat and row another day…and now I’m not ready to get back in the boat today,” he said.

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Farmhouse Restaurant owners Kim Feeney and Kevin London

Farmhouse Restaurant owners Kim Feeney and Kevin London

Farmhouse Restaurant’s Owners Leading a Revolution on Lake George

By Anthony F. Hall

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

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Kim Feeney and Kevin London, co-owners and operators of the Farmhouse Restaurant at Top of the World, share a passionate conviction that people have a right to good, healthy food.

They’re quiet revolutionaries. And the revolution, which may have begun as a protest against globalization and now addresses issues like biodiversity and climate change, is a quiet one.

But it’s changing the way we think, taste and talk about food.

The banner may have been raised first, in this country at least, in restaurants like Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse. But the revolt has spread to community-supported farms in places like Essex County and even to public school yards, where students raise their own fruits and vegetables.

It came to Lake George in 2005, when Jim Feeney, the owner of the Top of the World golf course,  invited his daughter Kim and her boyfriend (now husband) Kevin to open a restaurant at the resort.

Last year, the two helped establish a local chapter of

Slow Food,  the movement dedicated to preserving and supporting traditional ways of growing and producing food. It began in 1986 as a reaction against a plan to open a McDonalds near the Spanish steps in Rome. It’s now an international organization with 100,000 members and 1,000 local chapters.

Last fall, Feeney and London were named delegates to the movement’s biennial international conference in Italy.

Both can discourse eloquently about the politics and economics of sustainable agriculture, (Feeney has a degree in agricultural economics, London was a protégé of David Barber, a founder of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture on the Rockefeller estate in Westchester County), but they realize that if they’re to win converts, it will not be though pamphlets and posters, but through the food they serve at their restaurant.

“If the food weren’t good, or if the service were poor, people wouldn’t return,” they say.

The Farmhouse, (which once was a farm house when Top of the World was one of the largest farms in the area) is, “seasonally inspired; we grow our own produce, and the menu changes every day,” says Feeney.

The couple maintains a one-acre garden and, to compensate for the short growing season here, two greenhouses. What they can’t produce themselves, they buy locally.

The restaurant features artisan breads from local bakers, cheeses from places like Thurman’s Nettle Meadow Goat Farm in Thurman, organic fish and meat from nearby farms, New York wines and locally-crafted beers.

“The label ‘organic’ means nothing to me if I don’t know where the food comes from,” says London, the restaurant’s chef. “We’re proud of our producers, and we list them on the menu.”

He finds his suppliers, he says, through the recommendations of other producers, at farmers’ markets and Slow Food conferences. “I base my menu not only on our produce but what’s available from my sources,” says London.

The distance between the producer and the table can be a long one. His goal, London says, is to narrow that distance, “to shorten the food chain as much as possible.”

He wants to be involved not only with the farmers who supply him with beef and chicken but with fishermen and coffee growers. The results of the couple’s efforts have been a region-wide reputation and the loyal following of regular customers.

But Feeney and London acknowledge that their’s is not the usual Lake George fare. “We’re not just out of the box, we’re a hundred miles out of the box,” says London.

Because they knew that the kind of restaurant they wanted to create was not necessarily one that could succeed in Lake George, and was unlike any to be found at a traditional golf resort, they initially resisted Jim Feeney’s request that they come to Lake George.

The couple were living in New York; Kevin was working as a chef, Kim as an investment banker. They met at Cornell.

By 2005, though, they were ready to leave the city.  Jim Feeney was willing to allow them to plow under an acre of meadow for use as a garden and agreed to give them free rein in the restaurant.

They became partners with Kim’s family. If, after five years, the restaurant was not a success, they would move on and the Farmhouse would become a more conventional clubhouse dining room.

“My parents were excited that family-members would be running the restaurant, but it was a leap of faith for everyone,” says Kim. But it is in such leaps of faith that revolutions begin, even quiet ones.

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Seneca Ray Stoddard captures the Horicon Pavillion in the late 19th century

Seneca Ray Stoddard captures the Horicon Pavillion in the late 19th century

A Part of Nature’s Self: Horicon Pavillion

By Anthony F. Hall

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

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Less than five years after William West Durant more or less invented the Adirondack style of rustic architecture at Camp Pine Knot on Racquette Lake, Cyrus Butler built the Horicon Pavillion on Lake George’s Black Mountain Point, the first hotel to be constructed in that style anywhere.

“It is the most striking and picturesque hotel on Lake George,” wrote Seneca Ray Stoddard in 1880, and who took these photographs at about that time. “It seems here a part of nature’s self.”

Now part of the Adirondack Forest Preserve, Black Mountain Point can be reached by boat or by the Shelving Rock Mountain trails. Visible in the water are the ruins of the original Minne-Ha-Ha, which Butler had towed to the bay as a floating restaurant and, not far from the shore, logging roads and the remains of a boys’ camp which was discontinued before New York State purchased the land from the Knapp family in 1941.

Elsa Steinback describes the hotel in her “Sweet Peas and a White Bridge.”

“Horicon Pavillion like the rebuilt Minne was designed as much for daytime visitors who wished to climb the mountain and find a good meal awaiting their return as for longer staying guests. The hotel had a large pleasant dining room but only twelve bedrooms. There was a stable full of horses and mules for those who wished to ride up the mountain or southward toward Shelving Rock over the level shore road the lumbermen left. Of course, the needed steamboat landing was built. This pier extended out from a whalebacked rock south of Black Mountain Point. A rustic bridge led from rock to shore. The old path to it is one of the few things traceable.”

Steinback’s historical account is helpful, but to truly visualize the Horicon Pavillion, Stoddard’s photographs are the best aid, and we reprint a selection of them here.

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Lake George Races Produced an American Champion, A Young Andy Rooney Told the Tale

By Mirror Staff

Monday, January 3, 2011

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A local, Lake George rivalry, rather than an ambition to become the world’s greatest speed boat racer, inspired George Reis to acquire a 1922 Hacker called Miss Mary and then transform her into three-time Gold Cup winner El Lagarto. That, at any rate, is what an article that appeared in the March, 1949 issue of Motor Boating magazine claimed.  To quote from the story: “In the late 1920′s, Reis got tired of having an old Lake George rival, Commodore Jonathan Moore, beat him. Moore had dominated Lake George racing for as long as any of the natives could recall and Reis decided it was time he was beaten. Dick Bowers, a Wall Street  broker and World War I pilot, was a close friend who lived across the lake from Reis. He thought he knew of a fellow in Buffalo, Ed Grimm, manufacturer of Peerless marine engines, who had a boat he’d sell which might beat Moore’s Jolly Roger.”

The author was not a stranger to Lake George. His name was Andrew A. Rooney, better known today as Andy Rooney, the author, columnist and radio and television commentator. Originally from Albany, he spent his summers on Pilot Knob. If Rooney cannot recall  specific details about the article, it is because he wrote so many that year, he says. In 1949, he and his wife returned to Albany  where they lived while he tried to finish a book and make a living as a free-lance writer. “I was looking for any idea I could sell,” Rooney recalls. “I spent a week in the neck tie department at Fowler’s department store in Glens Falls in order to write an article about neck ties. I think I sold it to Collier’s.”

Rooney can remember, very clearly, the boats he wrote about. “There were so few of them on the lake in the 1920′s. When they came across the lake, we’d run out to see them. We recognized them.” And, of course, he remembers George Reis, Anderson Bowers and Jonathan Moore.

Moore was a New York City businessman who kept a summer home on Heart Bay. According to his granddaughter, Mary Chester Flagg, he inherited his love of racing from his father, Harrison Bray Moore. H. B. Moore’s New York Lighterage Company hauled freight, including the steel and granite for the Brooklyn Bridge. He loved fast boats and  could afford to indulge his passion. In 1876, he commissioned a 54 foot steam yacht, the Pampero. In 1888, he challenged the owner of another steam yacht to a race from Bolton Landing to Lake George Village, with the loser paying for a banquet at the Fort William Henry Hotel. The Pampero won. In 1892, he beat the steamboat Horicon in a race from Rogers Rock to Hague.

G-2 racing on the Detroit River

Jonathan Moore’s first boat was the Jolly Roger. Reis bought Miss Mary only after he was certain that it could beat Moore’s boat. “Bowers got a bicycle, measured the distance one wheel revolution covered, then, counting the bike’s wheel turns, he rode off a mile… The boat clocked close to fifty miles per hour and Bowers bought it for Reis,” according to Rooney’s article.

On the day of one of Lake George races, Rooney continues, Reis sneaked down to the races on the far side of the lake. “The new boat had been entered under the name of Reis’ sister so that Moore would have no idea that George Reis had a plan afoot to trim him… As the race was about to start a thin streak of mahogany knifed across the lake and as Reis came abreast of Moore he waved gaily and took off in a cloud of spray to win the Lake George championship.”

According to Moore’s family, it was after that race that Moore commissioned the Falcon from John Hacker, powering her with a Liberty engine. He worked on the boat in secret in his vast boat house, even adding steps to its hull, according to his grand daughter.

Rooney writes that it was the Falcon that motivated Reis to find a boat even faster than El Lagarto. El Largtito, however, was a disappointment. Reis then placed El Largtito’s more powerful engine in the El Lagarto, added steps, and created the boat that would go on to win the Gold Cup in 1933, ’34 and ’35. “Reis and Bowers never set foot in El Lagartito again,” Rooney writes. “Reis had spent $12,000 to buy himself a boat that would beat his arch-rival Moore… and found out too late to save himself the money that he had one right in his own boat house. They clocked El Lagarto at 63 mph that day and during the next few years they were to get her closer to 75 mph”

While the El Lagarto went on to achieve world-wide fame, the Falcon retired to near-obscurity. Moore may have given up racing because of poor health, his grand daughter says. But, she suspects, his inability to beat El Lagarto may have played a role.He died in 1941.

As for the author of the story of El Lagarto and the Falcon, he,too, went on to bigger things. After a year as a struggling author and free lance writer, Rooney says, he thought he’d try his luck in radio and in that new medium, television.

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