Twin Ponds Lodge is easy to misunderstand if you’re looking for a shortcut. People love to compress places like this into a single idea—something neat and dismissible. And when they do, it’s usually not because they’ve taken the time to see how the place actually works. It’s because reducing something complex makes it easier to judge from a distance. Here’s what I’ll say plainly: when someone gets condescending about the sexual side of Twin Ponds Lodge, it often has less to d

The switch flips on May 1 Starting May 1, Twin Ponds Lodge is back to being open seven days a week, and honestly, you can feel it coming. Seasonal campers start rolling back in. Familiar faces pop up again. The place shifts from spring mode into that pre-summer buzz where everything feels possible. Behind the scenes, we are doing what we always do this time of year: getting the camp ready, knocking out projects, tightening up the details, and making improvements that keep us

When an Appalachian Trail hiker stays in town for more than a couple nights, it’s colloquially referred to as “vortexing”. I set out on the trail determined not to vortex. I showed up at Twin Ponds Lodge by accident. I was hiking. I needed a few extra days before new hiking boots were to be delivered. I traded some labor for time here at camp. Technically, this is still my first visit. There’s something poetic about that. What was supposed to be a pit stop turned into the a

At noon today, the lodge closes. That sentence sounds restful. Cozy, even. Like staff naps, long silences, and a clean exhale. That’s a lie I tell guests—and sometimes myself. Yes, the guests leave. Yes, the bar stools get flipped. Yes, people technically sleep. But what actually comes next is two straight months of planning, repairing, budgeting, rebuilding, and asking dangerous questions like “what if I just redid everything?” This is not a vacation. This is the deep-winter