I’m not a golfer and I have little interest in spas.
So when Lara and I drove over the Dragon and into northeast Georgia to meet her brother, sister-in-law and another couple for a weekend in the mountains, I strapped the kayak to the top of the truck intending to explore nearby lakes.
After debating between Nantahala Lake and Glenville Lake in North Carolina, I opted for the latter, mostly because it looked a tad closer to where we were staying and it looked very remote. The drive over there definitely suggested it would be remote. I entered the GPS coordinates for Pine Creek boat ramp (N 35o 11′ 41” W 83o 10′ 22”) into my Garmin. The GPS took me over some rough terrain, including a single lane dirt road that ran up and over the mountains, but eventually I found the ramp.
The lake was built by Alcoa in the 1940s and currently is owned by Duke Power. While it’s a pretty lake, it’s not as remote as I’d hoped. There are a lot of vacation homes along the shoreline and there was a good bit of boat traffic on the water, though it mostly was pontoons and ski boats. No Vol Navy yachts throwing off six-foot wakes on this lake.
I paddled a large loop, covering 9.9 miles in all and getting back to the cabin in time to see most of the Alabama game. Not a bad way to spend a football Saturday.
