Three-year-old Gia Gugliemelli of Hagaman likes her sand toys. She also likes splashing in the Great Sacandaga Lake.
“And I love my puppy,” said Gia, as she spent an afternoon with her mother Candice at Mayfield Beach.
Sorry Gia — no dogs are allowed at the Burr Road beach off Route 30 (just past County Highway 123) in Mayfield. But picnics, charcoal, football, chairs and blankets are allowed, for beach lovers hanging out in a serene setting.
“It’s family oriented here,” said beach director Michelle Buckley. “It’s beautiful, it’s clean, it’s very calm up here. People love how many lifeguards we have. When we have a crowd of 250, we’ll have four lifeguards on at the time.”
The beach is about 100 feet long and almost 100 feet wide in some spots, and about 50 miles away from the Capital Region. Swimmers and sun worshippers show up Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. The beach is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Admission is $10 per vehicle. Mayfield residents can buy season passes for $20; out-of-towners can get on the same ticket for $50.
During early summer, day camp groups fill the beach with kids. Some days will be slower, so noise is out and wide-open spaces on the sand are in. Buckley said the sand is always clean — the beach staff rakes it for 30 minutes every morning.
“We work very hard to keep it the way it looks,” Buckley said. “People bring chairs, they bring baby tents … ”
“ … Those little pop-ups so babies are out of the sun,” added Virginia Hall, who staffs the front gate.
“And they bring floatees and a lot of sand toys,” Buckley added.
In the water, people will wade out into 4 feet. At the beach limits — floating red and blue buoys mark swimming areas — the deepest point is about 8 feet.
When visitors aren’t on the sand or in the swim, they’re on the grass. The small park behind the beach is filled with pines and other trees. Twenty wooden tables and 11 outdoor grills are musts for the picnic set.
Candice Gugliemelli, Gia’s mom, said lake lovers don’t have to dodge stones during those first steps into the water. “It’s pretty sandy here and it’s close to home,” she said.
Other summer fans appreciate the Mayfield spot.
“It’s a clean beach, a nice area, a good place to go on a hot day,” said Jason Spraker of Perth, who watched his daughter Jaidyn, 11, and son Jacob, 6, splash and chase each other in shallow waters just off shore.
The last swims this year at Mayfield Beach will be Saturday, Aug. 29.
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