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.
Click here to check out the latest YouTube videos from Deep Creek Lake
Summer Moments at Deep Creek
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.
by Joan Crawford of Deep Creek Lake
Lake Watchers
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.
By Joan Crawford of Deep Creek Lake
