The Beauty Around Us

DeRuyter Lake Getaway: Day 1

By Linda G. on July 8, 2022

We left home on Tuesday, June 28, around 6:30 am, en route DeRuyter Lake NY.   DeRuyter Lake is located approximely 30 miles southeast of Syracuse.

We made two sightseeing stops on our way to DeRuyter Lake. 

Our first stop was at Pratts Falls County Park in Pompey.  There was a collection box for a $2.00 entrance fee at the entrance to the park.

The highlight of the park is Pratt’s Falls.

The best vantage point to view Pratt’s Falls is from the end of the Falls Trail.

We crossed under Falls Trail sign and followed the trail for a few steps. We came to a split in the trail. We took the trail to the left and hiked down some steps. If we had taken the trail to the right, we would have walked the entire 0.6 miles. We shaved off a few steps taking the trail to the left. I like to save hiking steps, whenever I can!

Here is a short video that I took, while at Pratt’s Falls.

Our second stop was at Tinker Falls in the Labrador Hollow Unique Area, located in Cortland County, NY. 

Here is a very short video clip that I took, while at Tinkers Falls. You can hear the water falling (what little there is!).

We arrived at Airbnb “DeRuyter Lake NY House for 2 on Water’s Edge” at 2:00 pm.  

We let ourselves into the Airbnb with a key, the whereabouts of which our hosts had told us.   Bob carried in everything from the car.  There are steps down to the house, so I carried very little inside.  I did make the beds, a full size bed and a queen size bed.  We were told to bring pillows, sheets and blankets.  Each bed was covered by a blanket and a bedspread.  Each bed had four pillows.  I took the blankets and bedspread off each bed and made them with the sheets we brought.  I put pillowcases on two pillows for each bed.  I folded the blankets and bedspreads and placed them, along with the extra pillows on the couch in the tiny loft at the top of the stairs.  We left the pillows we brought from home in the car. I believe the request to bring our own bedding is a leftover from pandemic days. After settling in, we relaxed on the dock at water’s edge, enjoying the sunshine, cool breeze and the sound of lapping water.

At 5:00 pm we drove the short distance (~3 miles) to the village of DeRuyter. We went shopping for bath towels, which we had been instructed to bring with us.  Unfortunately, we left our bath towels on a chair in the kitchen at home, necessitating the purchase of new towels.  We stopped for snacks too.  We stopped at Dollar Tree and Big M in the village of DeRuyter NY.  The stores were right next to each other.

After shopping, we ate dinner at Shelly’s Restaurant. It was Taco Tuesday, and Shelly’s had Mexican and taco specials.  We decided we didn’t want Mexican.  Bob ordered a Grilled Buffalo Chicken sandwich with potato wedges.  I ordered a turkey tomato melt with macaroni salad.  Both meals were good; service was good too.

We spent rest of the evening at the Airbnb enjoying the lake views from our dock, but also from inside the house while watching TV.