Director: I need an upstate New York lake. Foliage. Picturesque, secluded, quiet, and NO city buildings on the horizon.
Producer: Scouts! Time to mobilize! But remember – you have to find the lake in the five boroughs or the unions will break my legs.
Panicked Newbie Scout: Where are we going to find anything like that in the five boroughs??
Answer: When all hope is lost, go to Staten Island.
Of all the boroughs, I think Staten Island has surprised me the most with the sheer variety of available filming locations. You can find pretty much everything, from a 19th century village, to abandoned hospitals, to a gorgeous Chinese garden, to ancient cemeteries, to a boat graveyard…
The above lake is a great example. Located on the incredible 143-acre Camp Pouch property (a children’s camp), it feels like something that just shouldn’t be found in the borders of New York City. Totally secluded, without a single towering skyscraper or apartment building hovering over the treeline, it could easily pass for something upstate and beyond. And it doesn’t have that “lake in a public park” feel that so many, well, lakes in public parks have.
As a side note, I really have to do a post about Camp Pouch sometime soon. An escape for children from the hustle and bustle of New York for over 60 years, the owners are having trouble keeping it open, and developers are desperately hoping to tear all those trees out and put in a bunch of shit condos. The owners are fighting to keep it alive, but its future is uncertain.
Congrats to readers Grove for the first correct answer!
-SCOUT
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