08/10/00 Paddling Lake Moomaw:
It seems a long time since I wrote the last trip report. 5 days, well, I guess that's pretty long. Being up in the mountains it's been tough to get chores done. I stopped off at the Washington National Forest White Rocks Campgrounds for a couple of nights so I'd be somewhat close to Blacksburg. I needed to get an oil change, do laundry, food shopping, etc. White Rocks is 20 miles way to hell and gone up a bunch of back roads. At least it was quiet.
Then I stopped at Natural Bridge 20 miles or so north of Roanoke. I knew I was in trouble when I started seeing signs for the Natural Bridge Zoo, Natural Bridge Wax Museum, Natural Bridge Hotel, etc. Sure enough, when I got there, it was a giant tourist trap. I walked away in disgust. It was hot and humid in the flat lands so I headed back to the mountains the next day.
I've had my eye on Lake Moomaw in the Washington National Forest near Covington on the West Virginia border for some time. It looks absolutely perfect on the topographical map with lots of contour lines completely around the lake, indicating lots of mountains.
I set up camp at the Washington National Forest Morris Hill Campground yesterday. A thunderstorm with some high winds passed through in the afternoon. I started hearing about thunderstorm warnings with high winds on the radio and figured I had already experienced it.
In good weather, I fold the rain fly on top of the tent so I can take full advantage of the four mesh windows in the tent. It also gives a great view of the moon and the stars at night. I usually go to sleep when it gets dark and get up when it gets light.
The moon was out when I fell asleep around 9pm. Something woke me up an hour later and I heard the pitter patter of a few raindrops on the tent and I could see lots of lightning and hear lots of thunder. As I was battening the hatches down the rain drops got bigger and came down harder on my bare back and butt. The lightning became more intensive and the thunder got louder.
I no sooner got back in the tent when all hell broke loose. The lightning was continuous and the thunder was one long, rolling boomer after another, some of them seemingly, directly overhead. And then the winds came. Did they ever? 30-35 knots, maybe more. The walls of the tent collapsed on top of me one at a time as the wind shifted directions. I have to give that cheap Wal-Mart tent credit. It held up really well.
With all the heavy winds, leaves, twigs and small branches were flying around. Two large leaves landed on the tent about two feet apart. A cluster of leaves then landed between and a little above the two leaves and with every flash of lightning I could see them outlined on the tent fly. If I had an overactive imagination I'd swear someone or something had its hands and face pressed against the tent trying to peer in.
The heavy winds only lasted 10-15 minutes. The lightning and thunder let up after 30 minutes or so. It was still raining when I finally drifted off to sleep. When I got up in the morning, my free standing tarp had also held up well in the high winds.
I had left my sneakers out so they were soaked and I didn't go for a morning walk. Instead I got an early in anticipation of some interesting fog action against the mountains. The road to the boat ramp was littered with lots of debris from the storm.
At 8am, steam was rising off the water. From the boat ramp I could see islands and mountain peaks peeking out from the fog banks. This leg of the lake is 150 feet wide. Steeply forested slopes rise about 100 feet along either shore and I passed a couple of bluffs made of shale and rising about 20 feet.
I scared up some kind of water hawk and played tag with it for a while. It would fly 20-30 yards ahead and light on a dead tree. I'd catch up with it and off it would go again. A couple of crows eventually chased it off across the lake.
As I neared the entrance to the leg, 4-5 mountain peaks would appear, change shape and then disappear in the moving fog banks. As I paddled into more open water more fog enshrouded peaks appeared off to the left. This was exactly what I had been hoping for when I saw Lake Moomaw on the map. The fog and the mist moving and playing amongst the peaks and knolls and valleys was a major bonus. Great stuff!
The fog was heavier around the lower lying knolls as I neared the 40-50 foot tall dam and more steam was rising off of the water. The sun was shining pretty brightly but even so I couldn't see into the fog rising on the other side of the dam.
As I approached the dam the voice of god spake out of the clouds to me, warning me of the dangers in approaching too close to the dam. Thanking him for keeping an eye out for me, I immediately turned away. It then dawned on me that it might not have been god's voice I heard but that of a loud speaker. I then saw the markers stretched across the lake warning of danger. Like a dork, I meekly paddled away looking neither right nor left until I was well away from the dam.
I paddled back around Johnson Point to the main body of the lake. Most of the fog was gone and I had a nice view of the many knolls, peaks and valleys. With the sun out now, lots of shadows added a dimension to the vista.
I soon came to a big rock wall varying from 20-5 feet high and several hundred feet long. One section seemed to have a thick vein of coal running along it. I couldn't investigate though. More markers warned boats away, probably because of falling rocks.
Across the lake a long ridge had appeared. The upper part was still covered low lying clouds. The sun was still throwing shadows over dozens of humps and hollows. After a while the clouds lifted a little. The remaining clouds just tipped some of the higher peaks making them appear to be covered with snow.
After a mile or so, the ridge disappeared behind a smaller, but closer ridge. Cole Mountain follows the lake on the left and Bolar Mountain on the right. Neither are very high but both are very close and closed off any further views of the mountains behind them.
I passed a couple of blue herons and one flock of 20 Canadian Geese with a number of youngsters mucking about in the shallows and a larger flock of 50-60, most of which were asleep. Some big, humongous horseflies buzzed around for a while. They were at least 2 inches long.
The Lake Moomaw is a little more than 6 miles long but less than a half mile wide. With the mountains on either side I had no more great views except those I could see at either end of the lake and until I got back to where the mountains had started.
08/12/00 Paddling Lake Moomaw:
I got a late start this morning and skipped my morning walk. While having breakfast a heavy fog moved in and I could see mist floating through the campsite, probably because the nights since the big storm have been down in the 60's. I got tired of waiting for the fog to burn off but when I got to the boat ramp, surprise, surprise! The fog was not blowing in off the lake, instead it was nice and clear. The mountain peaks at the other end of the cove could be seen clearly but through the typical blue haze that usually hangs over these southeastern mountains.
The heavy winds during the storm the other night brought down a lot of trees. I hiked one of the trails yesterday and it was like an obstacle course trying to go down the trail with large branches and trees strewn about. Some trees and branches were already dead and just blew over. Many others, however, were alive and either were uprooted or snapped off under the heavy winds. These weren't little trees either.
Today the lake also showed evidence of the storm with many trees littering the slopes and the shoreline. I'd have to say that with the damage caused, the winds must have been much higher than the 30-35 knots I had originally thought.
Sitting way back in a cove, I saw a motor boat come in behind me. Two guys pulled up and identified themselves as game wardens. Since I wasn't moving I guess they thought I was fishing. When they saw I wasn't and that I had a PFD under the front bungees, they politely asked if everything was OK and left. That's the first time I've ever had a game warden come up to me for any reason.
Paddling back into another came I thought "I see more deer and turkeys and wildlife back in the small coves and inlets than anywhere else on a lake." I no sooner had that thought than I looked up and saw a doe climbing up over a ridge 100 feet above me. The deer around here are more of a rust color than the tan seen farther north and other places in the south.
I spend a fair amount of time walking and driving gravel roads and such and see quite a few deer and turkeys. I'd much rather catch a glimpse of a wild animal like that than see them up close in a protected area where they are less wild. Of course I'd like to see some 10 point bucks and a big old Tom turkey all puffed up out and some black bears in the wild too. Well, maybe someday.
Out of the coves and on open water, the mountains peaks and knolls and ridges became visible again. These are really great views, ones you can sit and admire for as long as you want. Shorter knolls and hills in the foreground add a lot to the vistas.
I soon came to some rock bluffs 50 feet high and pointing every which way. Some of the layered rock was slanting to the left, some was slanting to the right. Some was standing straight up and some was laying flat while some was curving and swirling up and down as if part of a pattern. There was some really heavy pressure exerted from the bottom sometime in the past.
Many dead trees and stumps could be seen back in some of the coves, probably growths in low lying areas before the water levels rose with the dam being built. It was kinda fun paddling through them without hitting anything. Well, at least trying not to hit anything.
With all the poking around, I had traveled less than a mile in an hour and a half.
I had the GPS out for a while monitoring my speed. I seem to be averaging 3.5 knots at, what I would consider, a nice easy stroke at normal speed using about 50% power. I monitored my speed the other day when I was using about 2/3 or 3/4 power and seemed to average between 4.0 and 4.5 knots. Assuming the GPS is accurate, I think that's pretty good for an old guy in a 12 foot Perception Acadia that's as wide as a barge. I can maintain the stronger stroke for a fair amount of time too. Well, I usually do about 10 strokes and rest for 2, etc.
Just before lunch I paddled a half mile back a river that was crowded with standing dead trees. As I had lunch a nice breeze made the temperature really cool. I had covered less than 2 miles in 2 1/2 hours.
Paddling back I saw to large, black birds with white tails swoop into a knoll near where I had seen the bluffs earlier. After searching for them with the cheapy binoculars for a while I finally spotted them perched in a dead tree near the top of the knoll, one above the other. And, sure enough, they had white heads. These are the first eagles I've seen in a couple of months. They sat there for a couple of minutes. Then, first one, then the other flew off and soared around for a while. One of them disappeared in behind the knoll and the other was lost in the horizon.
Strong winds had picked up shortly after lunch. One foot wind waves combined with the waves from all the boat traffic made the ride a little choppy.
Except for white water kayakers, I hadn't seen any other kayakers and just a couple of canoes all summer. I had no sooner had that thought than I saw a couple with brand new Wilderness System sea kayaks pulling out from the boat ramp. Geeze, I'm starting to scare myself with these thoughts occurring right before the event. And tomorrow the stock market will...