When considering purchasing or selling vacation or primary real estate in the Deep Creek Lake, MD area, don't start the journey without a compass. Contact Betsy right away and allow her and her team to guide you through the entire process smoothly and with the confidence of knowing that you're fully informed and your best interests are being represented.

With over 150 years of family history in the Deep Creek Lake, MD area, Betsy Spiker is the eleventh generation of Garrett County natives. Like her ancestors before her, she has a special place in her heart for this picturesque region. With such extensive knowledge about and passion for the area, it's easy to understand why Betsy is so successful as one of Deep Creek Lake's leading real estate professionals. Whether it involves golf, skiing, wakeboarding, or just relaxing on the lakefront, she knows the Deep Creek Lake community and its amenities like the back of her hand and is the ultimate resource for buying or selling a home here. When it comes to working with the right real estate professional for your next move, you want someone who has Deep Roots In Deep Creek Lake. That's Betsy and her Team. Call or email her today for a free consultation.

DEEP CREEK LAKE HOT PROPERTIES SAMPLER FOR FEBRUARY 2010

Click here to view four of the latest Deep Creek Lake area properties sold and their sale price.

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Everything begins to come alive again in the spring, awakening the outdoor beauty of Garrett County - what an ideal time to visit Deep Creek Lake. The wildflowers are in full bloom and the trees are beginning to bud. The boating activity on the lake is just beginning, the water temperatures are getting warmer, and the fishing opportunities are excellent.

Garrett County has become one of the premier destinations for the sport of fly- fishing. With miles of pure, cold mountain rivers, streams and lakes, this area offers diverse fishing opportunities.

Spring is a perfect time to explore the area's spectacular scenery. Horseback riding is a great way to relax and enjoy the mountain air. The sounds and smells of nature come alive on horseback. What better way to take in the wonders of the outdoors, while spending time with your family and friends.

If mountain biking is your pleasure, you will love the endless trails to discover in over 80,000 acres of public parks and open areas just waiting to be explored. You can trek through forest land, across streams, and over the flat terrain while taking in the breathtaking views of the county. The local bike shops can give excellent advice on conditions and locations for the best ride of your life!

In the early spring, the whole family will enjoy watching the maple syrup Sap-To-Syrup demonstrations. Learn how the trees are tapped, the sap is boiled, and maple syrup is made. There's nothing like fresh maple syrup over steaming hot pancakes in the morning. Locally made maple syrup products are available throughout the county.

Early April is the time to come out and hunt for Easter eggs. Herrington State Park hosts an Easter egg hunt with the Easter Bunny. Dozens of colored eggs are hidden and prizes are awarded for children of all ages. Come join in the fun!

Your appetite for excitement is sure to be satisfied in the summer months at Deep Creek Lake. Water activities lead the list for outdoor adventure and family fun. Whether you prefer swimming off your own private dock, water skiing, jet skiing, or sailing, you are sure to find the perfect activity. For those of you who just want to lounge by the waterside and soak up some sun, Deep Creek Lake offers breathtaking views of the water and the mountains.

Boating is one of the most popular water sports during the summer months. Whether you own your own boat or rent one while you are here, boating is the best way to see the lake. Sailing on the lake is exceptional with races held every weekend during the season. Water skiing, jet skiing, and swimming are also popular lake activities during the warm summer months.

For the scuba enthusiast, Deep Creek Lake offers many hidden treasures to explore. Foundations of old farms, an antique vehicle, and natural bubbling springs await your underwater exploration.

Whitewater rafting on one of the area's wild rivers offers a challenge to everyone, The Youghiogheny, Cheat, Potomac, New, and Gauley all have become some of the most challenging and exciting whitewater rivers in the eastern United States. Commercial outfitters offer family float trips, kayak touring, and rafting expeditions for adventures at all levels, as well as Wisp Resort and Adventure Sports Center International one of a kind Whitewater Course.

With more than 80,000 acres of public land, hiking and biking are great ways to explore the scenic countryside. The state parks have miles of marked trails for an afternoon of outdoor fun. Take a horse-drawn hayride through the parks while enjoying a picnic lunch with family or friends.

Deep Creek Lake is the ideal place to find the rest and rejuvenation your are looking for. Come spend your summer vacation and start making some unforgettable memories.

Fall is the perfect time to escape to the mountains and celebrate the glory of autumn. The mountains are bursting with their display of vibrant colors, and the air is clear and crisp. Come explore nature and view its breathtaking display of fall foliage in Deep Creek Lake and surrounding Garrett County.

One of the area's favorite attractions is the Annual Autumn Glory Festival. Held in downtown Oakland and the surrounding area, this fun-filled festival has something for everyone. Parades, crafts, antiques, food, fiddle and banjo contests, and much more provide great family fun!

Driving through the countryside, while enjoying its grand display of colors, is the perfect way to spend an Autumn day. You may find the treasure that you've been looking for browsing through the many antique and gift shops.

Another way to enjoy nature's abundance of Fall beauty is to hike or bike through the areas various state parks. The Nature Tourism Program offers guided tours for groups to learn more about the wonders of nature during the changing of the leaves, Horse-drawn hay rides and trail rides are available also. Pack a lunch and experience the colors, sounds, and smells of Fall.

With over 70,000 acres of public lands, hunting is a very popular sport in Garrett County. There is an abundance of land available to the public for deer hunting, turkey hunting, and small game hunting. The state parks and the area sporting goods stores can provide additional information regarding licenses and other hunting supplies.

In the winter months at Deep Creek Lake, outdoor fun takes on a whole new meaning. Wisp Ski Resort offers some of the best downhill skiing and snowboarding around. Wisp Mountain has a variety of terrain to suit any level of skier - from beginner to expert. With 32 trails covering 132 acres and a vertical drop of 700 feet plus the Pro Terrain Park, Rail Park, Super Pipe and Bear Claw Snow Tubing Park, everyone will enjoy the wide range of skiing possibilities. The chair lift system includes two quads, 5 triples, three ski carpets and four surface tows. Over 90% of the trails are lit for night skiing. The extensive snowmaking capabilities are world renown, providing excellent skiing conditions throughout the winter months.

The beauty of the snow-covered trees and the crispness of the air give a magical feeling of a Winter Wonderland to the landscape. Cross-country skiing, hiking, and horse-drawn sleigh rides are the perfect way to enjoy nature's beauty in our State Parks. Miles of cleared trails meander through the woodlands of Swallow Falls, Herrington Manor, and Deep Creek Lake State Parks. Take in the serene sights and sounds of the outdoors while enjoying your favorite sport.

Garrett County offers the snowmobile enthusiast miles of marked trails to explore and ideal conditions for this popular winter sport. An outline of the regulations and maps are available through the State Parks, to guide you on your tour.

The frozen surface of Deep Creek Lake is speckled with ice fisherman and their shanties, once the waters are frozen. Excellent ice -fishing can be had at the same places that are successful in the spring, summer, and fall. Dedicated fishermen brave the cold for the perfect catch.

The Annual Deep Creek Dunk is fun for both the thrill seeker and the spectator. Dunkers take a quick dip in Deep Creek Lake to benefit the athletes of Special Olympics in Garrett and Allegany County. Coordinated by the Maryland State Police and local law enforcement, this is an invigorating way to show your support for these athletes.

Although outdoor activities prevail, some come to Deep Creek Lake for total relaxation during the winter months. Curl up by the fire with your favorite novel or movie, or watch the snow as it falls silently outside. You will find the rest and rejuvenation that only our fresh air and mountain beauty can provide.

     Summer arrives softly at Deep Creek Lake, not on a certain date as the calendar indicates, but as we feel it. One morning the sun comes over Meadow Mountain tinting the eastern sky with drifts of pink and gold, rippling a path across the water, glinting off hulls of boats that wait in their slips. A soft June breeze brings the promise of summer of fun in the sun and water.

     From out of a cove, two loons skim onto the water then dive deep and surface 50 yards away, sending little ripples shoreward. Across the lake a bass boat trolls in and out around the docks. A lone skier cuts a wide arc on the smooth water, his slalom fanning a spray that sparkles in the sunlight. The low hum of the ski boat fades in the distance as the skier heads down the lake. Now the only sound is the morning trill of the song sparrow from the topmost branch of the little spruce tree. It is a peaceful Deep Creek early morning moment, a time to sit on the deck and sip coffee and watch the light and shadows play on the mountains reflected in the water.

     An hour later the shoreline comes alive as riders of wave runners climb aboard their machines and rev their motors. They speed away from the docks to the wide open lake where they converge, pick up an impromptu race, or just play their own version of motor cross. They zoom back and forth, chopping the water into little waves that rock boats in slips and sailboats on moorings. The entire lake seems to be waking now, with motorboats pulling tubers, kayakers dipping paddles left and right, bare legged swimmers squealing as their toes touch the water. It is a morning to be young, at the beginning of summer with September miles away.

     On the shores of Turkey Neck where the early sun shines on silver spindles of sailboat masts, another group of young people look for riffles on the water, wind. It is a day of sailing school at the yacht club for little boats to sail a triangular course around two marks as young sailors learn to tack and come about. One by one they raise their single sails and soon a small fleet clusters around the starting line waiting for the signal. The starting gun sounds, the sails catch the wind, and the little boats move out, looking like toys on a pond. On Saturdays, the larger boats - Flying Scots - will be out there as parents of these young sailors and other adults compete for the hardware of racing. On any given weekend, as many as 50 boats might race. Their skippers are a different breed from the motor boaters. They are people who prefer the challenge of nature to the speed and thrills of horsepower. They have learned to catch the wind and ride it home.

     A summer day at Deep Creek Lake has something for everyone, even those former skiers and sailors who are now content to sit on a deck chair and watch the waterfront activity or ride on a float boat in the late afternoon when the sun is low and the water still. On a warm summer evening they might even cruise in the moonlight.

     Here in this place of four distinct seasons where the weather often determines the days activities, it is easy for anyone of my generation to become a lake watcher. Now that we are no longer in or on the lake where we might have been 20 years ago, we enjoy watching the younger ones who are. So we sit on our decks and patios or look out the window to see the ever-changing scene, different from hour to hour, day to day, season to season.

     We have plenty to watch during the summer season when the lake seems to be in a happy mood, especially on sun-bright days with the water matching the sky and puffy white clouds floating above the mountains. For the past several weeks we have watched tubers and water skiers enjoy their freedom in the sun. Boats and waverunners criss-cross the water, and we watch waves from their wakes roll shoreward to rock sailboats and splash against docks.

     While the sun is high, a west wind ruffles the surface, but by late afternoon the wind dies and the lake becomes smooth, inviting swimmers to come in. We see long rays of the sun shimmering paths across the water and gleaming gold in windows along the shore.

     During this fun season I remember summers past before we had jet skis and wave runners and everyone in our family water skied. We would try to be the first boat out there in the morning before any others disturbed the water. It was a great feeling to cut a ribbon of wake across a glassy surface and watch spray from our skis make little rainbows in the early sunlight. In those years, Deep Creek Lake was still Marylands best-kept secret.

     As I watch kids today jumping off over-sized tubes, I remember how our daughters and their friends would capsize our old canoe, then climb up on it and jump. We see shiny new float boats cruising along on silver pontoons, and I remember the float boat our neighbors had probably the first one on the lake a flat wooden hull with a canopy called a Huck Finn, and the one we got later where we could put a charcoal grill on the forward deck and cook our hamburgers out on the water. The small outboard fishing boats that used to troll around the coves are now outnumbered by newer high-tech bass boats that maneuver in and out among the docks. We still watch sailboat races on weekends as Flying Scots and Lasers compete for trophies. We see their white sails cluster around a mark then watch their rainbow-colored spinnakers billow in the wind.

     Probably no change of scene or mood on the lake comes as abruptly as the one that occurs the week after Labor Day. Summer visitors will have gone, families returned to the cities, with kids back in school. Those of us who live here will once again claim the lake as our own as we welcome the days of September when the lakes mood is quiet and peaceful. Mornings will be still, with pockets of mist hanging low over the water. We will watch as the rising sun lifts mist from boats and docks then unwraps spindles of sailboat masts and tints the water pink.

     When the mist has gone and the air is clear, trees along the shore will reflect in the still water and we will know that another summer has passed.