What Makes Lake Winnipesaukee a National Treasure

What Makes Lake Winnipesaukee a National Treasure

Ask a Bostonian where they spend August and there is a fair chance the answer is a lake in New Hampshire they would rather you not tell anyone about. Lake Winnipesaukee has been that answer for generations. It is the largest lake in the state, and once you have spent a few days on its water you understand why people keep coming back to the same cove year after year.

Lake Winnipesaukee 3-D nautical wood chart showing the lake's bays and islands carved in layered birch

The numbers give you a sense of the scale. Winnipesaukee covers roughly 69 square miles, wraps 170 miles of shoreline, and holds 44,586 acres of open water. The deepest holes run close to 180 feet. That is a lot of lake for one corner of the Lakes Region, and the shape of it, all fingers and bays and a scatter of islands, is exactly what makes it so satisfying to see rendered in wood.

Seven lakes in one

Locals rarely talk about Winnipesaukee as a single body of water. It is divided into seven distinct sections, each with its own character and its own regulars:

  • The Broads
  • Meredith Bay
  • Paugus Bay
  • Alton Bay
  • Wolfeboro Bay
  • Winter Harbor
  • Moultonborough Bay

The Broads is the open heart of the lake, a wide sweep of water clear of islands where the wind has room to build. Everywhere else, the map fills in. Around 264 islands dot Winnipesaukee, most of them uninhabited and left to the pines. Six are joined to the mainland by bridges, and a handful still get their mail delivered by boat. The M/V Sophie C. runs a route to the islands as a working US mail boat, one of the last of its kind in the country.

The Mount and the Ice-Out

The grande dame of the lake is the M/S Mount Washington, a cruise ship that has carried passengers between the lake towns for well over a century. Her first sailing of the season is a genuine local event, tied to an old New Hampshire tradition called the Ice-Out. People guess the exact date the ice will clear enough for the Mount to leave port, records of which go back well into the 1800s. Most years the answer lands somewhere in April. It is the kind of ritual that tells you a place takes its water seriously.

Lake Winnipesaukee cribbage board carved in the shape of the lake with pegging holes

What to do once you are here

With this much shoreline, the hard part is choosing. You can spend the whole trip on the water and never repeat yourself, or you can claim a stretch of sand and watch everyone else do the work. Both are respectable choices.

On the water

Winnipesaukee has long been called a fisherman's lake, and the reputation holds. The watershed produces good fishing all year, with landlocked salmon and lake trout the prizes anglers chase into the deep water off the Broads. Cusk, smelt, and rainbow trout round out the catch. When water sports are more your speed, the lake obliges: water skiing, tubing, snorkeling, scuba diving in the coves, and plain old swimming off a dock. From the shallows to the deepest channels, there is room for all of it at once.

On the trails

The mountains that ring the lake stay mostly under 3,000 feet, which makes them a fair reward for a morning's effort. A few worth the boots:

  • The Ossipee Mountains
  • The Belknap Range
  • Red Hill
  • Castle in the Clouds

Castle in the Clouds is the standout. The Lakes Region Conservation Trust keeps more than 28 miles of trails across the property, and depending on which one you pick you can finish at the Falls of Song, the largest waterfall on the grounds. Historic buildings, big views over the lake, and the odd sign of wildlife come with the walk.

Bringing the lake home

Lake Winnipesaukee wall clock with the lake's outline etched into the birch face

Between the eateries and the waterfront boutiques, the towns around the lake give you plenty of chances to carry a piece of it out with you. That is where a wood chart earns its keep. Each layer of birch in a Lake Winnipesaukee wood chart is a real depth contour, stacked to build the true shape of the water, from the shallow edges of Meredith Bay to the drop-offs out in the Broads. Hang one on the wall and you can trace the exact route of a good day on the boat.

The same map turns up in gear you actually use. A Lake Winnipesaukee cribbage board keeps the shoreline in your hands over a game on the porch. A lake-shaped clock puts it on the wall, and a serving tray brings it to the table when the guests arrive.

Lake Winnipesaukee wood serving tray with the lake map inlaid and handles on each side

Why it stays with you

There is real science behind the pull of a place like this. Time near water tends to settle the mind, and a few days of watching the light move across the Broads can reset an outlook better than most vacations manage. That is the feeling worth keeping, long after the tan fades and the boat is back on the trailer.

A Lake Winnipesaukee wood chart is how you hold onto it. In the detail of the depths and shallows you can find the cove where you anchored, the channel you learned the hard way, the island you circled at sunset. If you want to see where the lake keeps its national-treasure reputation, start with the New England charts, or browse the full collection and find the water you know best. And if a rainy afternoon at the lake ever needs filling, On Golden Pond was shot just up the road on Squam Lake. It photographs about as well as Winnipesaukee, which is saying something.

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