LAKE GEORGE CRUISES  WITH INDIAN PIPES - Captained Charter Cruises

We hosted a German couple who wrote this article for the German version of Conde Nast

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This is a loose translation that was done by Dr. Felix Wimpfheimer, a renowned New York Doctor. Sometimes the English to German then back to English comes out in a very poetic license mode.

World- Wide New York State:  New York can offer more than sky scrappers and the Statue of Liberty. Upstate attracts the nature of the Adirondack Mountains and the romantic Finger Lakes.

On the Lake, we meet John Orlando and his wife. The owner of several pieces of real estate[ actually a representative of the Sagamore Resort ] and of one marina dockhands. He[ john ] invites us [ along with Warren County Tourism rep ] to a boat trip on Lake George. It is 30 [32 ] miles in length and 172 islands rise from its clear water. You can drink it without fear, opinions John proudly.

Since more than 20 [ 35 ] years he lives on the Lake with numerous vacation homes and a millionaires row of houses and fancy villas. The villas belong to wealthy New Yorkers.

Despite the wealth nevertheless the wilderness is guaranteed. One third of the Lake falls under "Forever Wild" program and is under a stronger nature protection than as a national park. Only the rattlesnakes on Diamond Island were chased away. The first settlers brought pigs [ to get rid of the snakes ] and then the scary magic was soon gone [?????]
Before Recluse Island, John stops the motor. On the Island there seemed to be ghosts [spookiness], and he himself pretends to have seen a woman fully clothed in white [ghost] stood at window of her villa. The house has been vacant for decades [not true]. Who is this mysterious woman? Nobody can say, but it is thought that she was in touch with the first people who lived on the island. The Jesuit father St. Bernard hid on the island in the 18th century and lasted over a year in the wilderness. The unknown beauty unfortunately did not wave to us. Also Phantom Island has been abandoned [now camping ]. There for a long time lived a shy very eccentric artist who hid under the earth [tunnels] and later on, he was led from the island in a straight-jacket.

"Most of the People" on the islands are normal says John laughingly. In Paradise Bay, a lovely inlet on the extreme margin of the Lake, we are completely alone, only the sounds of some water birds and the lapping of the blue water are to be heard. The author Thomas Jeier and his wife thoroughly enjoyed the trip and his article just adds to the "Fact and Fiction" of our beloved Lake George.

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