Kayak on Laurel River Lake

Craigs Creek boat ramp
2/24 - 2/26/17
2017 bag nights: 3
Animals: 4 wild turkeys, assorted other birds, heard coyotes at night

Dropped off the kids at school and then headed south to Laurel River Lake. I got to the Craigs Creek ramp about 10 and was surprised to see 5 or 6 empty trailers (in the end, I never felt like the lake was crowded, just the occasional boat in the distance). I figured since it was Friday everyone but me would be a work. I quickly inflated the kayak and loaded up and hit the water. And ran right into a 20 MPH headwind. It was a beautiful day, but hard work.

I worked my way east following/exploring all the inlets, sometimes into the wind, but mostly had the wind at my back or in the "shadow" of the ridge so I did not notice it.

One of the inlets had a pretty good headwind going south, but then I turned back to the north and with the wind at my back, I decided to relax a bit. That beer was delicious. I could get used to kayaking.

I passed a couple nice campsites early in the day, but wanted to keep exploring. I also passed a couple of pretty trashed campsites that made me sad. I could have filled my whole kayak multiple times with all the garbage I saw. Around 4pm I found a nice flat area at the end of what looked to be an old road and decided it would make a nice campsite.

This is looking west down the long inlet from the same location as the above picture.

There was a pretty cool cliff line above the campsite that was pretty easy to get up to, I spent a little bit of time exploring before it got dark.

And then it was time for the sunset. I was hopeful that I would get the best of both worlds, the clouds would stay on the horizon and give me a nice sunset. And with the clouds on the horizon, I would have clear skies for stars. The sunset was a good one.

A 30 second exposure with my ND10 filter.

After dinner, I crossed my fingers and waited for the stars to come out. Orion in the middle with a hint of clouds

Looking towards the west and the remnants of the sunset and Venus. Mars is the sort of bright star about 10 o'clock from Venus at the end of the tree branch.

After enjoying the view for a bit, I climbed into my hammock and quickly fell asleep. I was awakened around midnight by massive gusts of wind pushing the tarp into the side of the hammock. And then the thunder and lightning became apparent in the distance. I laid there for a bit wondering if the tarp was going to get blown away and decided that I should take the opportunity to retie down the tarp and make it a little more weather proof. I was very glad I did. The rain started just as I was finishing and I scrambled back into bed. It ended up being the worst storm I have ever been out in, it reminded me of SW FL summer thunderstorms, lots of wind and rain and thunder and lightning. I was very glad to be low down and not on top of a mountain with all of the lightning. Thankfully, it never got closer than about a half mile. After about an hour, the storm passed and I fell back asleep.

The next morning was nice, but pretty windy. I climbed back up the old road/trail to get a signal and see what the weather looked like. The wind was going to be about 20 MPH until 5-6 PM, so there was no point in hoping it would die in the next hour or so.

I packed up and hit the water and almost immediately regretted my decision. I had about a mile to go and straight into the wind. It was blowing hard enough to cause some whitecaps. And then I got to the end of the inlet and the full force of the wind hit. I had planned on kayaking more to the east, but was worried that I would have a really long last day to get off the water. In addition, as I turned perpendicular to the wind, I began to worry that I was going to capsize. I decided to make a run for the White Oak Boat-in Campground. I figured that I could at least get out of the kayak and I knew that there was a gated road and a hiking trail to occupy me. Hopefully the wind would die down in the early afternoon and I could get back on the water for a couple hours.

I explored the campground a bit. It is spread out on a couple "fingers" that stick out into the lake, so walking the whole campground was about a mile or so. There was an inlet that still had submerged trees sticking out of the water, kind of surprising that they have lasted ~40 years.

I then hiked up the road towards the hiking trail. I was surprised to see a patch of daffodils on the side of the road. I suspect it used to be a homesite before the National Forest took over.

The trail follows a neat cliffline, but I did not any really nice photos.

Then I followed the road back to the kayak to see what the water looked like. It ended up being a perfect day for a hike. I probably covered about 5 miles and I had a beer waiting for me when I got back.

It was still really windy so I decided to make camp and hope for better weather in the morning.

The sunset was not as nice as the night before, but I can't complain.

The stars were good again, but I was too tired/cold to stay up long.

I woke up the next morning to bright sun, the temperature was right about 30 and there was no wind. I had a second cup of coffee and read my book and then packed up and hit the water. It was a very good day for paddling.

I only had a couple miles to go and was back at the boat ramp by 12. I could have done without the wind, but it was a great trip.