Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [139]
Savage River Forest is the state’s largest forest with 53,000 acres, about 10,000 of it designated “wildlands.” There’s primitive camping, hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, canoeing, mountain biking and hiking in this northern hardwood forest. (tel. 301-895-5759)
Dining
In Oakland, Englander’s is an old-fashioned grill and soda fountain that also sells antiques – 4,000 square feet of them, to be exact. (corner of Second and Alder streets, tel. 301-533-0000)
The Cornish Manor Restaurant & French Bakery in an 1868 Victorian home with a fireplace in every room. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations required. (Memorial Drive, just off Route 219 in Oakland, tel. 301-334-6499)
On Deep Creek Lake, choices range from the hip, and sometimes rowdy Uno Chicago Grill with its “Honi-Honi Bar” (open daily 11 am to the wee hours of the morning, tel. 301-387-4UNO), to the quiet and refined Four Seasons at Will o’ the Wisp, where Muzak plays in the background, and the menu is extensive and quite sophisticated. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. (Route 219, tel. 301-387-5503, Ext. 2201)
For between meals, try the Copper Kettle Popcorn Factory (tel. 301-387-5655) on the lake, and next to it, Lakeside Creamery, (20282 Garrett Highway, tel. 301-387-2580) where you can grab a cone or sundae and sit by the water (open summer only).
Lodging
TIP: There are many places to stay in Garrett County; call the Chamber of Commerce and request the Official Four Season Vacation Guide for the Deep Creek Lake Area. (tel. 301-387-4386, www.garrettchamber.com)
Within walking distance of Oakland’s historic downtown, there’s the Oak Mar Motel & Restaurant (tel. 301-334-3965, $); and the Town Motel (243 N. 3rd Street, tel. 301-334-3955, $).
At Deep Creek Lake, there’s the Will O’ the Wisp motel and condominiums (tel. 301-387-5503, www.willothewisp.com, $$); the Carmel Cove B&B, a former monastery with 10 luxury rooms (tel. 301-387-0067, www.carmelcoveinn.com, $$$); and many vacation rental homes. Lake Pointe Inn B&B is a late 1800s renovated lodge just feet from the lake and across the street from the ski and golf resort (tel. 800-523-LAKE, www.deepcreekinns.com, $$$$).
Pet-friendly: All of the following accept pets: Wisp Mountain Resort Hotel (290 Marsh Hill Road, Deep Creek Lake, in McHenry, tel. 800-462-9477, www.WispResort.com, $$$$); Comfort Inn at Deep Creek Lake (2407 Deep Creek Drive, tel. 301-387-4200, $$); Savage River Lodge (1600 Mt. Aetna Road, Frostburg, tel. 301-689-3200, www.savageriverlodge.com, $$$$); and Swallow Falls Inn (1691 Swallow Falls Road, Oakland, tel. 301-387-9348, www.swallowfallsinn.com, $$).
Information
Garrett County Chamber of Commerce, tel. 301-387-4386, www.garrettchamber.com.
TIP: No alcohol is served or sold in Garrett County on Sundays.
TIP: Contact the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to request the Maryland State Forests and Parks brochure, which has a thorough listing of the services offered in the more than 50 parks and forests in the state, tel. 800-830-3974, www.dnr.state.md.us.
Trip Journal: The Sub-Arctic Swamp
The small lettering on Maryland’s state map read, “Sub-Arctic Swamp.” Even if we were avowed sun-worshippers, I knew we’d find a way to visit this natural area. The term was just so intriguing, and fun to say. What we weren’t expecting as we entered the Nature Conservancy’s Cranesville Swamp Nature Preserve on a hot summer day, was the cool, dense shade of a small tamarack forest, the country’s southernmost stand of the only conifer to lose its needles in winter.
Mature tamaracks are the only conifer that turn color – a fiery, burnt orange – and lose their needles in fall. So dense an overstory does the interlocking branches create that virtually nothing grows beneath a mature stand. It’s a scene straight out of my childhood in Upstate New York, where a tamarack forest was a wonderful place