October, 2022 - Kristen Ann McLaughlin

Mended Oar Outpost

This is a view of Mended Oar Outpost today–not exactly the way it looked during the 10 years when we rented it, since the land around it has been cleared and there’s been considerable renovation, both inside and out. But it does show the gorgeous location, complete with lily pads. And it’s still painted red.

(If you want to see what it looks like today, go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page. There are more photos here as well. It can be rented through Lakefalls: A Private Estate for Weddings & Retreats.)

Broken Oar Outpost

It was a dream come true–we had our own getaway in the New Hampshire woods. And all for only $150 a year. How could this be?

“You all have house karma,” a friend once told us. And apparently this was true; we had a great apartment in Greenwich Village and now a rustic wilderness retreat cottage. Or “camp,” as the New Hampshire natives called it.

Since the place had been built in the 1950s, used for awhile, and then abandoned, a few improvements had to be made before we could settle in. The exterior needed painting, so we chose a warm shade of red. There was no bathroom, so we built an outhouse and rigged up a port-a-potty for nighttime use. We hooked up the old propane refrigerator and stove.

How we got here, part 2

Late in the summer of 1980 we drove up from our Jane Street apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City, for a week’s stay at an Adirondack lodge located deep in the wilderness of southwestern New Hampshire.

Today an upscale wedding venue , the lodge then rented weekly for $150 and featured an enormous great room with an imposing, walk-in stone fireplace, vaulted beamed ceiling, and arched, floor to ceiling clerestory window overlooking a small private pond with its own waterfall. At that time there were several small, simply furnished bedrooms and a functional kitchen, but the setting was–and still is–spectacular. Getting to the lodge involved driving carefully over a winding, rutted gravel road lined on either side by thick woods, but once there, we felt like we’d arrived in paradise.