Camp Gorham YMCA

Camp Gorham is a camp owned by the Rochester, NY branch of the YMCA. The camp is located in the tiny village of Eagle Bay in the Adirondacks (right by Inlet and a 10 mile drive from the slightly larger vacation town of Old Forge).
Camp Gorham is your typical summer camp (think of the film «Wet Hot American Summer»), it’s been a tradition in a number of families since 1961. The camp is 1500 acres (with a 400 acre lake). Although the camp is only on one side of the lake they own the land all around the lake as to keep the area quiet and private.
The camp is open for a number of weeks through the summer and for one week at the end of the summer they run «Family Camp» where anyone can go (though mostly families of all ages). I went during 2 summers with a girl friend and her family (who had been going for 30+ years). The camp is extremely welcoming and very well set up.
The campers stay in cabins (most of the time there are 2 families per cabin, the cabin we had had 3 bedrooms (with bunks) and a bathroom. Some cabins have kitchenettes, hot water, and a shower while others aren’t so lucky. The accommodations weren’t luxurious or all that comfortable but it’s not that kind of place and I wasn’t expecting it to be. The mess hall serves meals 3 times a day during scheduled times (8:30am, 12:30pm, 5:30pm), it’s not amazing food by any stretch of the imagination but it’s all inclusive and you definitely will be full for your entire week there.
The camp has a schedule of activities throughout the week that you sign up for after breakfast, you don’t have to participate in anything if you don’t want but part of the reason you pay to come here is so that you can do things like go on group hikes in nearby mountains, water ski, horseback ride, archery, kayak, or more. They also had camp wide activities like square dancing (a big tradition here). At no point did I feel like I was too grown up to be there which was nice. It was just a beautiful camp with lots of nice people with lots of things to do (or you could do absolutely nothing if you’d prefer).
If you’ve had enough of your time in the camp you can always drive into Old Forge or Inlet and go to a bar, a movie, or something which is what a lot of us did during the week (as there isn’t much to do other than relax during the evening hours).
Besides the less than luxurious accommodations and the frigid water temperatures I really enjoyed my experience at Camp Gorham and would love to come back, especially if I ever start a family of my own.