Save the Date!
Annual Winter Social Sunday, January 22, 2023
Our Annual Winter Social, which could not be held the past two years due to the COVID pandemic, is returning in January of 2023! The social will be held at Character’s Restaurant in Sloatsburg on Sunday, January 22nd. Details will be announced when we get closer. Come one, Come all! Save the date!
Welcome to Our New Camp Chair
The Board has appointed Dave Hayes as the new Camp Chair for the Nawakwa Outdoor Association and Camp Nawakwa.
Our new Camp Chair, David Hayes Cohen, discovered Nawakwa on a kayak trip. He spent his free time in the pandemic fulfilling his membership requirements and has enjoyed being around Nawakwa for two years now.
Dave is passionate about camp life, enjoys hiking, kayaking, and camping in his free time. He lives in Mountainville, NY, with his wife Jess Scirbona (also a Nawakwan) and a very cute 3-legged pitbull mix, Petal.
As Camp Chair, he is looking forward to creating an inclusive environment where members of all ages can enjoy the outdoors together and continue the Nawakwan traditions of being stewards of this amazing place passed down to us.
Dave and Jess
Report on Historic Hike to Camp Bluebird
In the summer of 1924, the recently organized Adirondack Mountain Club [i.e., the New York Chapter, now the Nawakwa Outdoor Association] rented a two-story farmhouse on Upper Twin Lake. They named it Camp Bluebird (UT-10). To get to the camp, those members who didn’t have cars had to walk four miles up from Central Valley. The camp was an old 2-story farmhouse with a fireplace and sleeping accommodations for 23. Connected to the house on the west side was an open, covered pavilion about the size of Nawakwa’s main building and slightly removed and to the north another similar pavilion. These buildings were on the east side of Upper Twin Lake and near its north end and were about 50 feet above lake level.” The camp was used for two years until the spring of 1926 when Camp Nawakwa on Lake Sebago opened. [Note: Harriman State Park no longer lists a camp UT-10]
We crossed the outflow of Lake Nawahunta on large rock steps (there was no outflow due to the drought) and started our gradual climb up Stockbridge Mountain.
We stopped to look at a rock formation which formed a Cave Shelter just off the Long Path. Then we on to the Baileytown Road, making our way down to Upper Twin Lake.
Camp numbers UT 7/8 are the first camps encountered as one approaches the area. We next made our way down to the very picturesque Upper Twin Lake. We were on the east side of the lake (where Camp Bluebird once existed).
It was a beautiful and sunny day. We took pictures to record the event, had lunch at some picnic tables, and then started our return by way of the Baileytown Road.
