Meribah

We hope you'll enjoy exploring some of this information about our family's private retreat located off the beaten path in the quiet hills and dairy farms of Lincklaen (Chenango County) in central New York State. We are just 45 minutes north of Binghamton and 45 minutes south of Syracuse, right on the border between the Finger Lakes and the Leatherstocking region.

We've been enjoying spending time here since January 1994 when we bought the property from the Baden Powell Council of the Boy Scouts. They had maintained "Camp Purchas" for decades as a year-round facility with a full-time caretaker and everything from sailing on the lake in the summer to survival skills training in the winter. But when the Council began to devote more resources to developing a new Finger Lakes area campsite, they decided to sell the property in Lincklaen. In the late fall of 1993, we found it listed for sale, visited once with our children who were then just 3, 5, and 7 years old, and couldn't resist embarking on an adventure to recreate it as a private retreat for our family and friends. Early on, we renamed it "Meribah."

From the beginning, we have tried to provide a comfortable space to relax in the company of friends. We keep the accommodations simple and we focus on spending quality time together.

On occasion, we do make rental arrangements with individuals and small groups who want to come to Meribah, typically for a week at a time. We always rent to just one group of guests so that the entire space is yours during your stay.

Over the years, we have made Meribah available for family reunions, summer vacations, and church retreats. Local organizations including the Syracuse Food Coop and the Resolutions (an a cappella singing group from Colgate University) have enjoyed coming to Meribah for retreats and planning meetings. We have had guests from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, as well as Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, and El Salvador.

Your cell phone won't ring and there isn't a TV. (Update -- As of summer 2008, your cell phone will work. We still don't have a TV, though.) But you will definitely hear the frogs peeping at night and the dairy cows mooing at milking time in the morning. And if you just keep your eyes open, there are lots of wild turkeys in the tall grass, geese landing on the lake, turtle eggs buried in shallow holes underground, bats catching mosquitos at dusk, and crawdads hiding under rocks in the creek.

Build a campfire under the stars, wade in the creek, gather wildflowers on the hillsides, hike in the woods, and relax in a hammock overlooking the lake. Sleep late in the main cabin. Read a book on the porch of the lodge.

Or we’ll help you plan a day trip to the the Finger Lakes wine country and the incredible Ithaca Farmers Market , an afternoon at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in the nearby beautiful village of Cazenovia, or a morning hike on the Finger Lakes Trail that winds along adjacent to our property.

Take a look at the links at the top of the column on the right for plenty of other ideas about things to do and places to go.