As you may know, if you’ve scoured this website and read my bio, I am originally from Virginia and went to school in southern New York. While the state of New York is home to a variety of lakes, they’re not really present in the Hudson (River) Valley. The commonwealth of Virginia is home to a variety of man-made reservoirs but only two natural lakes, one of which is in the Great Dismal Swamp. Mountain Lake, the other, appears in both my memory and satellite imagery as a dry mud pit during the summer months.¹ On a recent visit to the NH State Jody Connor Limnology Center, the Chief Aquatic Biologist told us that he had done his graduate work at Virginia Tech (not far from Mountain Lake), but then immediately left the state after graduating as Virginia, land of few lakes, is not a great place to be a lake scientist.
I hadn’t really thought much about how little time I’ve spent around lakes before moving up here, but now I think about it every time I hike up to an overlook of Squam. Seeing the landscape sprawled out like that makes me think, “Wow! A glacier was here!” in a weirdly visceral way. The most recent period of glaciation did not extend as far south as Virginia, and so the glacial remnants that are so commonplace up here–lakes like Squam, lots of boulders–are new to me, and still surprising to experience in my everyday life. To be clear, it’s not that I’ve never seen a natural lake or glacial landscape before, but there’s something different here.
The view of Squam from East Rattlesnake in late January.
The view of Squam from East Rattlesnake in early March.
I’ve been trying to parse what exactly that difference is, and my tentative conclusion is that my initial introduction to the region was not as a tourist destination, but rather as a place that people live. In our national parks–where I have seen at least three lakes–land is set aside specifically for preservation and outdoor recreation, and what development there is exists to support tourism. When I visited NY’s Adirondack Park²–where I have seen more than three lakes–for field research in undergrad, my experience was likewise filtered through a tourism-focused lens, as we were surveying hotels about sustainability practices.
While the Lakes Region is itself a tourist destination with a large number of seasonal homes, arriving here in the off-season has formed my understanding of the region in a different way than a summer start would have. In the winter, the frozen lake has a different presence. I know things will change once things get warmer, and we’re out by the water all the time, but for now Squam is quieter, slightly more distant. In the next 9 months, I’ll get to see how the lake and human life in the region shift with the seasons.
Year-round residents experience the lake and its watershed differently than tourists in a variety of ways, many of which are important components of the SLA’s mission. Winter road salt and older septic systems have significant impacts on water quality but are not on the average tourist’s radar in the way that waterfront access or swimming advisories are. That said, because so much of Squam’s shoreline is privately owned, lake access for both residents and visitors is also an important part of the SLA’s work, as is the publicly-accessible trail network we maintain. Just as the lake goes through its own seasonal metamorphoses, so does the land around it–notably and topically during the wet and soft conditions of spring thaws. In order to help protect beloved local trails, several of our most popular trails are now closed for mud season. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s unearthed on the trails once the snow melts and the mud dries up.
¹ Not to be confused with Smith Mountain Lake (another reservoir). Mountain Lake’s other/primary claim to fame is that it was the filming location of Dirty Dancing. Maybe in the 80s the lake had a little more water. Welp.
² The Adirondack Park is unique in the US as this massive parcel of land–roughly the size of Vermont–that is protected under the NY state constitution for resource conservation, but there is still some amount of human development and resource extraction allowed.
Maria is a full-time member at the Squam Lakes Association, serving as a Trails and Access Assistant. Learn more about Maria here!