Ottowana
The camp in summer
Ottowana is the name of our camp on Twitchell Lake in the southwestern region of the Adirondack State Park in upstate New York. The name is a combination of our son's name (Otto) plus the meaningless but appropriately native american indian sounding suffix "wana", hence Ottowana. We bought the camp and 13 acres of land in July 2004. It is not accessible by road. In the summer, access is by boat. In the winter, it is possible to cross the lake on the ice by foot or cross country ski; alternatively one can snowshoe overland approximately 1 mile. A map of Twitchell Lake and its surroundings can be found here.
To reach the camp we drive down the Twitchell Lake road from Big Moose until we reach the end at the foot of Twitchell lake. Here there is a small parking lot with a NY state maintained boat ramp and a dock. The existence of the state dock is fortuitous, since it means that NY state keeps the Twitchell Road plowed in the winter. This region of the country can receive in excess of 300 inches of snow per season, so if the road were not plowed it would be much more difficult to reach our camp in the winter (more on winter at the camp below). We keep a 2nd hand Grumman canoe chained to a tree adjacent to the parking lot and dock. A lot of the seasonal residents do the same - the woods by the carpark here are littered with numerous canoes and small rowboats that people use to access their camps.
The dock at Ottowana
After we arrive at the parking lot, we unlock the boat, retrieve the paddles that we keep lashed to the seats, and paddle approximately 1/2 mile to the dock at our camp. Once at the camp, we put our 12' Alumacraft in the water and attach an 8 horse power Johnson, both of which are stashed at the camp. This makes it a lot easier to traverse the lake from the camp to the dock and car. Having said that, there is something very appealing about motorless transport. I can honestly say that if all the residents of the lake agreed to eliminate motor powered transport, I would happily comply (There is no danger that this will ever happen however, at least until we deplete the planet's petroleum reserves)
Crossing Twitchell Lake in the winter