Indian Lake, New York

It's hard to explain, but easier to understand if you have your own place of retreat. Indian Lake has become that for me. Often blanketed in mist and always surrounded by the old and rugged Adirondack mountains, for the past four years I can't help but feel a certain lack of bustle and hustle when I'm sitting on the beach with a chosen book or watching a storm blow up and across the lake from the southwestern mountain ridges.

Every year, the lake seems unchanged and every year it goes through it's own, sometimes drastic, cycle of 'feelings' during the week and often each day. Morning is calm and misty. The water can almost be glass. Droplets will literally form and stay on the surface of the water from paddle splashes and then slowly disappear as the lake absorbs each one back into itself.

Mid-morning into the afternoon the wind will pick up, generally out of the south and blow down the lake. Swimming at this time is wild fun. Often, to keep your head above water, you have to be glancing at what's coming with the next wave. You can end up with a mouthful of lake water or with a good deal of sloshing in one of your ears.

Evenings, it's back to glass. Water skiers paradise and well..perhaps an after dinner cigar in the kayak. Bobbing out on the lake, the water warmed throughout the day, one can't help but feel they're in a giant bathtub, with the steep mountainsides circling around.

My pictures can't do it justice. Really you have to see the Adirondacks for yourself to get the full experience. The Adirondack Park is about 6.1 million acres. Roughly half of the park is owned by private landholders, the other half by the state. Building new structures in the park is strictly controlled. A landowner can really only build on the structures already on their property. This has kept the park from exploding in lakefront buildings and in general kept it 'forever wild.' But at the same time, much of the park's small towns are dotted with dilapidated buildings and closed businesses. Sometimes, tourist season can come and go awfully fast and if an business owner can't make what they need during those three months, there's alot of scraping by come late winter.

It's hard not to look forward to some lake time every year. This year was especially worth it. My summer has been very busy with earning the rent and getting some artwork done for the upcoming album. Before I left I was also able to record some vocal tracks, so it has been a busy summer. Now that I'm back from the lake, I do miss it, but not terribly. It doesn't change in my head, and I know that if another year goes well I'll be sitting on the same Twin Coves beach in August next year.