Destination: New York : A New Beginning for the Lodge at Land’s End : Classic Adirondack Resort Recalls Days of Quiet and Leisure

We have been at Land’s End for only a half-hour and already I am relishing the wood all around me. The chocolate-colored main lodge, the honey-blond rowboat moored in the lake, the two unpainted Adirondack chairs placed casually at the end of the dock.

We have driven more than six hours to get here, but there’s no complaint from us. This newly opened Upstate New York hideaway seems even more intoxicating than has been promised.

Land’s End is a careful renovation of a classic Adirondack great camp on Upper Saranac Lake, about half an hour from Lake Placid in New York’s 6-million-acre Adirondack Park. Its parts consist of a spacious house with nine themed guest rooms, a boathouse brimming with canoes and skis and paddles and rowboats (with a water-view suite upstairs), a tennis court and a beautifully manicured lawn, all on 16 acres of lake-front property at the end of a dirt road.

Apparently, no expense has been spared to re-create Land’s End’s distinctive heritage, which dates to the period between the Civil War and the Great Depression when wealthy families tackled this rugged terrain to spend summer holidays in the high peaks of the Adirondacks.

*

Scott and Susan Yeaw, he a doctor, she a nurse, purchased the property last year (it was originally developed by Donald and Wilhelmina Du Pont Ross) from a church group that had used it as a retreat for the past two decades. “I had to give a lot of single beds away,” Susan Yeaw says.

In less than six months, they polished and redecorated from top to bottom, hired a chef to create breakfasts and dinners, signed on their teen-age daughter as the waitress and chambermaid, and opened for business in June. They operate all year long, including Christmas and ski season (Whiteface Mountain is about 45 minutes away).

The decor of Land’s End looks almost as if Ralph Lauren and crew had just been here for a catalogue photo shoot and left the perfect furnishings behind. The Naturalist Room has a king-sized twig bed; the Winter Sports Room has a Pendleton blanket-covered club chair; the Adirondack Life Room has moose antlers on the wall and a log bed, and the Fisherman’s Room has a wood-burning stove and old pine and antique fishing memorabilia.

We opt for The Boathouse, overlooking the lake. The large suite has a nautical theme with ships’ flags and old photographs on the walls and a sitting room that looks like the lounge of a distinguished old cruise ship. There is also a small kitchen, good for storing lunch supplies and Saranac beer. But what separates this private niche of Land’s End from the run-of-the-house look is its outdoor porch.

There, for hours in the early morning, then after dinner through darkness, we sit on the Smith & Hawken lounge chairs and do nothing. Listen for the loon’s cry. Watch a spider devour a dragonfly caught in its web. Stare at blinking buoys on the far side of the lake. Talk quietly about the past and calmly about the future.

Back at the lodge, breakfast is served from 8 to 9, and Mozart is playing softly through hidden speakers when guests arrive in the communal dining room. Thick French toast one day, hearty oatmeal another. Eggs, fresh fruit and yogurt. Hot coffee made with sweet mountain water. Guests share tables, and the talk centers on canoeing and fishing and the general good cheer that everyone feels about discovering Land’s End in its debut.

*

During the day, we take an easy mountain climb on one of the dozens of trails marked for hikers in the park. Or we row out to the middle of the lake and fish for perch and lake bass, reeling them in as fast as we can get our night crawlers on the hook. Dinner, though a bit early for us at 6:30, is a pleasant affair. It is preceded by hors d’oeuvres in the lodge’s great room, and most guests have brought their own wine; there is no liquor license at Land’s End. We have three dinners during our stay: poached salmon in dill sauce, filet of beef and fresh stuffed chicken breasts. Each main course is preceded by an interesting salad and followed by a high-calorie dessert.

There is, of course, a fairly stiff price to be paid for the comforts of Land’s End: up to $325 for a couple per night.

GUIDEBOOK

Land’s End

Land’s End, New York 30 and Kimpton Road, HRC1, Box 4-C, Saranac Lake, N.Y. 12983; tel. (800) 859-9224. Rates are $170-$325 per night per couple; $50 off those prices for one person. Directions sent on receipt of deposit.