The View from Squam - our Blog

The View From Squam - our Blog

2016 RDC Photo Contest

 

1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place

Scenery

Scenery squam photo conest
Brice Eldridge
Scenery squam photo conest
Susan Bircher
Scenery squam photo conest
John Hogan

Fun & Adventure

fun and adventure squam photo contest
John Hogan
fun and adventure squam photo contest
Jeff Von Kohorn
fun and adventure squam photo contest
Stephen Anderson

Flora & Fauna

flora and fauna squam photo conest
Claire Hogan
flora and fauna squam photo conest
John Bagwill
flora and fauna squam photo conest
Patricia Eldredge

Off Season

off season squam photo contest
Betsy Whitmore
off season squam photo contest
Eric Morse
off season squam photo contest
Brice Eldridge

Congratulation to the winners and thanks to everyone for submitting great photographs to the RDC Photo Contest. Click on a photo above to see a large image in a new window - note: you may have to disable pop up blocker settings in your web browser.

Yoga Weekend at RDC

There's still room for you to join this awesome getaway yoga weekend at RDC!! Check out our little promo video:

Join Katie O'Connell ERYT 500 and Ayurveda Yoga Therapist at Dragonfly Yoga Barn for a getaway weekend at Rockywold-Deephaven Camps on Squam Lake, NH June 9-12th. Enjoy daily yoga, kayaking, buffet meals and lakeside lodging, tai chi, hiking, and more! Register: www.dragonflyogabarn.com

Ice House Photos

Here are some photos of the truck drivers unloading the ice cakes and the ice house crew packing the ice tightly at the Deephaven Ice House during the 2017 ice harvest.  Photographs by Eric Morse.

 

Ice Harvest 2016 Time Lapse

Here is a time lapse video showing the first day of the 2016 RDC ice harvest on January 27th. There are 4,300 photographs in the video showing two and a half hours of real time in two minutes and 30 seconds of video.  Time lapse video by Eric Morse using a GoPro Hero camera.

 

Annual ice harvest to begin later this month

By BOB MARTIN
Laconia Citizen
www.citizen.com
January 11,2016

SANDWICH- The ice harvest is a tradition that has been going on for more than a century at Rockywold-Deephaven Camps, and due to a strange start to winter with unseasonably warm temperatures, the start has been delayed slightly.

Camp manager John Jurczynski has been monitoring the ice on a daily basis and believes they should be able to start the harvest sometime around Jan. 19.

"The earliest I'd say we'll be doing it is a week from Tuesday, a day after Martin Luther King Day," Jurczynski said. Realistically, it will be the following Monday, but it really all depends on the weather.

He said surprisingly, this isn't too much later than normal, as last year the harvest started about a week earlier than this year's projection. The starting date tends to vary, with two occasions happening as early as the week between Christmas and New Year's and others, like in 2014, being as late as Feb. 7.

Normally mid-January is the time we do it, said Jurczynski. It will be close to that, and maybe a little bit later.

There are two locations where the harvest has occurred. Jurczynski said on Saturday that Squaw Cove has more than seven inches of ice, while the historic location of Deep End has next to nothing. Twelve inches of ice is required for the harvest to happen, and he said unless something drastically changes, they will be harvesting in Squaw Cove. He said there is a 99 percent chance they will be at Squaw Cove.

Odds are, we will be harvesting from Squaw Cove, said Jurczynski.

Jurczynski said about 15 years ago, there was a similar winter with mild temperatures. Ice wasn't forming in Deep End, so they sought out Squaw Cove to continue the harvest. He said with only a few inches of ice that year, they became nervous and started searching for a spot that was more protected. They found Squaw Cove and now it has become one of their harvesting spots.

Jurczynski said with the rain on Sunday, it should actually work out fine for the ice because the temperatures are expected to drop as the week goes on. He said issues arise when there is too much wind or snow, as the snow will insulate things and decrease the speed of the growth of ice. Fortunately, there is not much for snow in the forecast.

The ice harvest is an annual tradition on Squam Lake, and one of the last remaining ones in the entire country. While the camp has been open since 1897, organizers have to make educated guesses on how long the tradition has been going. Back in the day, there were no trucks and chainsaws. Instead, there were horses pulling the ice from the lake.

Each year, a crew of about a dozen people cut through the ice with a massive straight saw and several chainsaws. Many have been involved for many years, including Norman Lyford, who has been helping cut the ice for more than seven decades. He learned from his father, Colby, when he was only a teenager.

Each ice cake is about 12 inches-by 15 inches-by 19 inches. The ice is moved along in an assembly line fashion, being pushed with long sticks, and taken up on a ramp into a pickup truck. The truck then takes the blocks of ice to a couple of ice houses named Rockywold and Deephaven that are lined with saw dust for insulation.

Each block weighs about 120 pounds and each year there is more than 200 tons of ice harvested. There are about 1,200 blocks harvested per day. The process tends to last about three days.

Each cabin at Rockywold-Deephaven Camps is equipped with an old-fashioned ice box instead of modern refrigeration units. There was actually a time when the camp toyed with the idea of having mini-fridges in the camps, but this was frowned upon by guests.

During the summer, ice is distributed to the cabins to be put into the ice boxes for keeping food and beverage items cold. Guests generally stay at Rockywold-Deephaven Camps for a 14-week period over the summer.

2015 RDC Photo Contest

 

1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place

Scenery

Scenery squam photo conest
Rich Lundy
Scenery squam photo conest
Brice Eldridge
Scenery squam photo conest
Mitja Pelcl

Fun & Adventure

fun and adventure squam photo contest
Christine Joern
fun and adventure squam photo contest
Nancy Roberts
fun and adventure squam photo contest
Lee Bagwill

Flora & Fauna

flora and fauna squam photo conest
Betsy Komjathy
flora and fauna squam photo conest
Jana Macikova
flora and fauna squam photo conest
Holly White

Off Season

off season squam photo contest
Stephen Anderson
off season squam photo contest
Klement Perko
off season squam photo contest
Jana Flores

Congratulation to the winners and thanks to everyone for submitting great photographs to the RDC Photo Contest. Click on a photo above to see a large image in a new window - note: you may have to disable pop up blocker settings in your web browser.

"We feel rooted within our own families as well as with those special friends we meet at this place. We are regenerated by Squam Lake's natural wonders-- fragrant pines, mountain summits, star-filled night skies, and haunting loon calls, to name a few.

Those of us lucky enough to spend some summer days at RDC share in a restful calm. We are certainly grateful for this unique place of simplicity and peace. I know we take this spirit with us when we leave Squam, counting the days until we can return".

Margie Howe Emmons

RDC Photo Gallery

Scenery Photo Gallery for RDC on Squam Lake

SQUAM LAKE SCENERY GALLERY

Facilities Photo Gallery for RDC on Squam Lake

FACILITIES GALLERY

Activities Photo Gallery for RDC on Squam Lake

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Lodging Photo Gallery for RDC on Squam Lake

LODGING GALLERY