Lake Jocassee - July 29-31, 2005
Submitted by Pam Reutebuch on March 5, 2006 - 10:26pm.
By Jeffrey Day
The trip to this beautiful Upstate lake got off to a somewhat rough start before anyone even got in their car and pointed north. Scouts who were in the Upstate reported to some planning to attend that the weather was terrible, so there were some last minute cancellations. One person said, "Well, I know I'll regret not going…."
And it turned out that by the time we battled through one huge storm on the way up, the weather was, if not perfect, the timing of it was good. The storms cooled things off for one. On Saturday, the rain held off until we finished a long paddle, then let up in time for us to cook dinner and eat in dry conditions. Shortly after we zipped into our tents, the rain started again, letting up Sunday morning to allow dry breakfast cooking, packing and getting on the water again.
The Friday night group, all arriving around 6 p.m. at Devil's Fork State Park, included Jeffrey, Linda, Rembert, Eric, David and Dianne. We talked about how many times we had to stop during the storm and had dinner. We also picked up lots of trash around our campsites (tent only, walk in, so a little more work, but no RVs running the AC all night.). After settling down to sleep around 11 or so, we didn't. The folks next door decided that 10 p.m. quiet time meant 2 a.m. Finally David and Jeffrey yelled for them to be quiet and they did more or less.
Saturday morning Greg arrived and set up camp with Jeffrey. Those who were coming up to paddle for the day were to meet us at the main boat ramp, which we could see from our campsite. We headed over there at 10 a.m. where four more paddlers met us. Greg headed to a couple other boat ramps before finding the right one (he made up for this later) and we got on the water at 10:40 or so. We'd decided to try to locate a couple of the waterfalls that drop into the lake. Because we knew the weather might turn, we decided to head up the western arm of the lake so we could beat a hasty retreat to the shore or back to the campsite without crossing too much open water.
Frankly, we were a little confused looking at our maps and looking at the lake. What was in front of us should have been big water, but it didn't look very big. What looked like landings and a scuba diving spot around the corner from the campground seemed to be farther than indicated on the map. Maybe we just aren't accustomed to paddling surrounded by mini-mountains.
But we started paddling anyway. The morning was hot, but the farther we went up the arm the cooler it got. We saw many other kayakers. Although we were told it was a busy day for power boats on the lake, we rarely had a close encounter with one. After an hour or so, at which time Jeffrey took a swim off a nice rock ledge and others went up into woods to use the facilities, the day paddlers turned back and the seven remaining continued.
Take a right, then take a right, then take a right. We first found the small…falls, Wright Creek… around the bend was the larger one, off Coley Creek….which takes a drop of about 20 feet from earth to lake water. All of us took turns paddling under it; Linda, with her sit-on-top, paddled through it, which cooled her off for the trip back.
We set a pretty steady speed back knowing that rain could come upon us and keeping an eye on the clouds rising above the hills. Accustomed as most of us are to paddling in fairly flat areas, it was a good lesson in reading the weather. As soon as we pulled all the boats up along the campsite, it started raining. We'd covered about 10 miles.
Sunday morning several people decided to head home and Jeffrey, Linda, David and Dianne launched and headed across the lake to check out campsites accessible only by water. After exploring on land, and not liking the trash we found, we got back in the boats, with all but Jeffrey heading back to the camp and home.
He explored the shoreline of…found several streams dropping into the lake, had a luna moth fly inside the boat, saved a giant beetle that was swimming and gave him a ride on the kayak deck for several miles, took a couple of swims, and paddled back to the campground across big water with a sideways wind that created enough of a chop to send a few waves over the bow. (This may be when the beetle disappeared.)
After dragging the boat up the side of a steep hill through blackberry brambles, he headed home. It started raining 15 minutes later.
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The trip to this beautiful Upstate lake got off to a somewhat rough start before anyone even got in their car and pointed north. Scouts who were in the Upstate reported to some planning to attend that the weather was terrible, so there were some last minute cancellations. One person said, "Well, I know I'll regret not going…."
And it turned out that by the time we battled through one huge storm on the way up, the weather was, if not perfect, the timing of it was good. The storms cooled things off for one. On Saturday, the rain held off until we finished a long paddle, then let up in time for us to cook dinner and eat in dry conditions. Shortly after we zipped into our tents, the rain started again, letting up Sunday morning to allow dry breakfast cooking, packing and getting on the water again.
The Friday night group, all arriving around 6 p.m. at Devil's Fork State Park, included Jeffrey, Linda, Rembert, Eric, David and Dianne. We talked about how many times we had to stop during the storm and had dinner. We also picked up lots of trash around our campsites (tent only, walk in, so a little more work, but no RVs running the AC all night.). After settling down to sleep around 11 or so, we didn't. The folks next door decided that 10 p.m. quiet time meant 2 a.m. Finally David and Jeffrey yelled for them to be quiet and they did more or less. Saturday morning Greg arrived and set up camp with Jeffrey. Those who were coming up to paddle for the day were to meet us at the main boat ramp, which we could see from our campsite. We headed over there at 10 a.m. where four more paddlers met us. Greg headed to a couple other boat ramps before finding the right one (he made up for this later) and we got on the water at 10:40 or so. We'd decided to try to locate a couple of the waterfalls that drop into the lake. Because we knew the weather might turn, we decided to head up the western arm of the lake so we could beat a hasty retreat to the shore or back to the campsite without crossing too much open water.
Frankly, we were a little confused looking at our maps and looking at the lake. What was in front of us should have been big water, but it didn't look very big. What looked like landings and a scuba diving spot around the corner from the campground seemed to be farther than indicated on the map. Maybe we just aren't accustomed to paddling surrounded by mini-mountains.
But we started paddling anyway. The morning was hot, but the farther we went up the arm the cooler it got. We saw many other kayakers. Although we were told it was a busy day for power boats on the lake, we rarely had a close encounter with one. After an hour or so, at which time Jeffrey took a swim off a nice rock ledge and others went up into woods to use the facilities, the day paddlers turned back and the seven remaining continued.
Take a right, then take a right, then take a right. We first found the small…falls, Wright Creek… around the bend was the larger one, off Coley Creek….which takes a drop of about 20 feet from earth to lake water. All of us took turns paddling under it; Linda, with her sit-on-top, paddled through it, which cooled her off for the trip back. We set a pretty steady speed back knowing that rain could come upon us and keeping an eye on the clouds rising above the hills. Accustomed as most of us are to paddling in fairly flat areas, it was a good lesson in reading the weather. As soon as we pulled all the boats up along the campsite, it started raining. We'd covered about 10 miles.
Sunday morning several people decided to head home and Jeffrey, Linda, David and Dianne launched and headed across the lake to check out campsites accessible only by water. After exploring on land, and not liking the trash we found, we got back in the boats, with all but Jeffrey heading back to the camp and home.
He explored the shoreline of…found several streams dropping into the lake, had a luna moth fly inside the boat, saved a giant beetle that was swimming and gave him a ride on the kayak deck for several miles, took a couple of swims, and paddled back to the campground across big water with a sideways wind that created enough of a chop to send a few waves over the bow. (This may be when the beetle disappeared.)
After dragging the boat up the side of a steep hill through blackberry brambles, he headed home. It started raining 15 minutes later.
View Photo Album
