SCOP afloat on Lake Jocassee

This adventure saw the Family returning to the mountains for MLK weekend, but in a slightly different way. We sea kayaked on Lake Jocassee, located on the border of NC and SC.

A slideshow of pix from Don's APS camera
A slideshow of pix from Don's video
A collection of pix from Clint and Parthena mtac

Trip recap:

I'm sorry, but you're gonna miss most of the first part of these stories. With 13 people coming from at least 8 different places in 4 different states, there's a lot of adventure that only a few people were privy too. I'll start with the arrival of Flex and myself at Devil's Fork State Park.

We went to the Park office first, to check in and get the campsites reserved. Since klk had given me the numbers of the campground sites we should get, I figured it would be safe to reserve them without actually looking at them myself. My first bit of Jocassee adventure came in dealing with the lady at the office who was very adept at following Park regulations (and perhaps some of her own) to the letter.

"I must have a name, address and phone number for the responsible person at each numbered campsite."
"You can not use the same name for multiple sites."
"The responsible person for each site must sleep on that site."
"I must do a separate credit card transaction for each site."
"Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah."

So we gave her some names and numbers, pretty confident that they would not be waking us up at 1 AM to see who was sleeping on which site.

After the excrutiating paperwork process, we drove over to the primitive camping sites to check them out. Not exactly level, or waterfront. And you have to walk your stuff in about 100 yards. As we debated about the sites, we noticed an ol' crotchety looking fellow wandering around at the RV sites just up the hill. Turns out it was the Triangle, Asheville and WV gangs, checking out the higher rent portion of the campground. We all met up in the parking lot and quickly decided that for $4 more per site, it would be better to be able to simply park at the sites we were staying in. It also gave me a bit of glee to think I would have to make my helpful office friend redo the paperwork.

Unfortunately, she had left by the time we returned, and the other guys in the office were more than willing to be helpful and process the change quickly. While we were gone, Lori from Atlanta arrived, with a half full bottle of wine labeled simply "Woop Woop". She claims she had opened it the night before. In just a few more minutes, we were spreading our stuff over our home for the evening. The snack crew laid out an impressive spread for us to enjoy as we set up camp.

A campfire was built, and the Warriors prepared a chili dinner. They had enough for us to eat, and to share with every other camper between there and Memphis.

As we awaited the arrival of more Adventurers, Eric from WV spotted a car that he thought was Mr Dork's. Having a long history with Mr Dork, Eric hid behind a tree and prepared to jump out into their headlight beams and moon them. The rest of us were laughing and taking bets on whether it was really them or not.

Feeling confident, Eric jumped out and lit the moon. The car slowed, paused, and then lurched forward. It was Mr Dork and Poo Pie! Mr Dork's first comments were about something red on the moon, and Eric was promptly nicknamed "Eric the Red".

Yellow Feet arrived a little later, and our crew of 13 Adventurers was complete.

After a cool clear night, Saturday morning arrived with some light clouds and a horn sounding 8 times at 8 AM. Immediately thereafter, a zillion fishing boats revved their engines and zoomed out of the nearby marina to go off in search of trout. Seems this was also the day of a big trout fishing tournament. So much for quiet and solitude on the lake! Fortunately, the lake is big and the trout like quiet, so once the fishermen reached their spots, we didn't see much of them any more.

We had a great breakfast, prepared by Captain Old Guide and Parthena. About the time Flex finally exited the tent from a long night's sleep, a plastic tiara and earrings had appeared in front of her tent door. No one admitted to knowing where they came from. She felt sure it was because she had slept so late, and spent the remainder of the morning eyeing us all suspiciously.

Then we broke camp and headed for the northernmost boat launch in the park. By the time we had unloaded the boats and packed them for paddling, it was a little after noon.

We could see the cove across the lake where the Double Springs Campsites were located. It took us about an hour to get everyone launched, paddle over and figure out how to disembark. My guess is that these sites are designed for power boat campers, not kayakers. But we managed somehow, as Adventurers do, and it wasn't long before the snack and lunch crew had another spread laid out for us.

We decided to set up tents then, in case it began to rain while we were out paddling for the afternoon. By the time we had finished doing this, I discovered a hot pink feather boa laying on my kayak deck. Another mysterious gift. I convinced the Princess to wear her earrings on the paddle. She looked quite sharp in them. We're simple folk sometimes, and sparkly plastic can look just as good as sparkly silver or diamonds. I decided to stuff the boa into a dry bag and not wear it. I didn't want to look like a huge trout lure while I paddled.

We all paddled out and followed the shoreline north towards the arm of the lake where the Thompson River flows in. Our map was marked with a few waterfalls along the way. The sky was pretty much overcast by now, but the winds were calm and the temperatures were comfortable for paddling in full gear.

There were a couple of small waterfalls along the way, or should I say waterfalls on creeks that flowed into the lake. We checked them out but continued on, hoping for something more spectacular. After about an hour and a half, some of the group turned back toward camp. The rest continued on as a light drizzle started. We finally reached the spot where Wright Creek empties into the lake. It does so in a neat waterfall that cascades over a ledge, leaving just enough room underneath for you to slip behind the falls in a kayak. Very cool!

Arriving back in camp after just 3 hours on the water, we set up the tarps to ward off the light rain and got comfortable for the evening. Mr Dork got a fire going. SCOP found a mysterious box of valentine candy on his camp chair. A collection of grape drinks was produced, and fun was commenced.

The Princess and myself fixed two pots of chicken stew and served it with cornbread to a crowd that was more than willing to help us make it disappear. Cookies for dessert also managed to disappear rather quickly.

Once the storyteller was primed, the new Adventurers were treated to a new rendition of the Logo story (it's slightly different every time), complete with a demo logo in the flesh. They were then given logo hats to wear proudly. From there, more wine was poured, jokes were told, laughter was heard, rain fell, the feather boa was passed around, the Princess wore her tiara, and the evening slipped into Adventurer memory land. Sometime in the wee hours, the last of the night owl adventurers wobbled off to their tents and caught some shut eye.

Sunday morning came with fog and dreariness, but the breakfast crew cheered us up with fresh baked apple turnovers and egg burritos. After taking plenty of time to let the morning pass, we broke camp and paddled back to the boat launch.

One more spread of snack/lunch food was laid out in the parking lot before we circled up, left hands in, mtac'ed and wahhooed our band of Adventurers off to our corners of the matrix. But not without the question being asked: "When's the next Adventure?"

Click here for the pre-trip webpage

Current Jocassee weather.

(posted 1/23/04)