Catching Up 2
Oct. 8th, 2011 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillOne of the things I learned while talking with Aurora was that Calderwood Lake, much talked up for its natural beauty by Gary, is not four hours drive from me as I thought, but only two. So instead of a daytrip being an all day deathmarch, it started to look quite do-able.
So I went to Calderwood Lake Sunday. I got a bit of a late start because it was eight in the morning before I really made up my mind to do this, and between getting everything ready (I can have the canoe ready in half an hour--the other half hour was for the warm clothes, the extra water, the right backpack with the contractor's garbage bag, the food, stopping at Wal-mart for drinks and gorp, and trying to throttle my GPS into directing me to Calderwood Lake--complicated by the fact that I thought Calderwood Lake was in Tennessee but it's actually at least partially in North Carolina. I eventually had to give up and just follow 129 south. I had checked it out on Mapquest and the turnoff for the campground is very distinctive, so I didn't think I"d miss it and I didn't.
129 north of Calderwood Lake is called "The Dragon's Tail" locally, and is much loved by motorcyclists. It is the road you might have dreamed of riding your bicycle down when you were young and broken bones were something that happened to other people. It turns and coils and writhes like a snake in the claws of an eagle. It is a very scenic road, with new views of forest at every bend, and there are a lot of bends. It is an interesting road; there is no risk you will get bored and go to sleep. I like to drive it with elegance, and a certain reserve, as befits a grown woman and boatbuilder with a wooden canoe tied to the top of her car. I enjoy the Dragon's Tail but I enjoy it methodically, savoring it, pausing to appreciate the curves rather than plunging into them.
Fortunately there are a lot of places to pull over and let the motorcyclists by.
However, rather fewer places are available for use than were originally designed into the road. Some of the existing ones are occupied by photographers stationed along the Dragon's Tail. I think they take pictures of the motorcyclists, hoping some of them will want pictures of themselves in an exciting pose like leaning into a turn. After a while I noticed the photographers pointing their long lenses at *me* which puzzled me. I'm just driving a car; it's not exciting.
So I thought they were taking pictures of Moxie. I bet it's not common to see something like her making her stately way, backwards and upside down (try *that* cyclists!--no, wait; don't) along the Dragon's Tail. However I later discovered that they take pictures of every vehicle that passes. I guess electrons are cheap and there's always the possibility that someone will want to buy a photo of their car. I think you'll be able to see one of the photos of Moxie here.
Eventually I came to, and spurned, the turnoff for Fontana Village (where I had always parted company from 129 before) and continued on and down another little bit to the bridge over the tail of Calderwood Lake, where I whipped off to the right just before I would have gone over the bridge, and found myself in the little campground next to Calderwood, just as advertised (or described on the Internet anyway.) It turns out Calderwood Lake is about two and a quarter hours drive from me, but I expect Aurora drives faster over the Dragon's Tail than I do. Maybe most people do.
The campground is squashed in by the lake, as the hills are quite steep there. So there's one camp space at a time, right next to the road, and then, well back from the highway, two boat ramps for small boats/trailers (a big one would get stuck between the lake and the hill.) Sunday was a very quiet day; I saw two motor boats as I was going out, and three kayaks coming back (paddled by people who happened to be camping at the campground, and that was it. In some places on the lake the shape of the surrounding hills would bounce faint machine snarls down to me--doubtless the motorcycles celebrating on The Dragon's Tail. But mostly it was just bird noises.
And the valley the lake is in is so narrow, and the hills so high, that for the first half of the journey out my GPS had no idea where it was. None. Not a *clue*. I was thinking about calling it "Lost Lake." I was okay with this, because the lake is basically one long (twisting) valley, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't get lost.
And it sure was pretty.
It is beautiful, but the land around the lake is quite steep. It's a kind of beauty that won't let you off the water in very many places. There are a handful of campsites that are accessible only from the lake, and those are just about the only places you can get out of the boat without going ploosh and disappearing.
Even those campsites are pretty steep. I got wet above the knee getting out here.
Because of the terrain, the campsites are easy to spot; the tent sites have been leveled and surrounded with a little curb of 4x4s to keep them from eroding, and they have picnic tables. Here are Ramp and Thag sitting on one table and musing on the natural beauty of the scene.
When Calderwood Lake was made (by Calderwood Dam) it flooded an old railroad track. Most traces of it are not visible, but there is a tunnel, that can supposedly be paddled when the water level is just right. When I visited, the water level was much too high for that, but you can see where the tunnel is.
I also found the back side of the tunnel, which is only a few hundred feet long.
It was cold the day I went, with intermittent wind. It was the first time this canoeing season that I went out with long underwear (and wasn't a bit sorry) and often found myself struggling into my jacket to break the wind. So perhaps it was not surprising that the trees were just beginning to turn.
About this time I decided I had better head back. I hadn't made it all the way to the downstream end of the lake, but it was starting to feel late, and I didn't want to be messing about trying to find the take-out after dark.
Calderwood Lake wiggles about so much I had some nervous moments on the return journey wondering if I had turned myself around and was paddling away from the put-in by mistake. Especially in that part that turned so sharply the sun was in my eyes when I should have been paddling vaguely south-east. I ran into three kayakers--two of them paddling beautiful stitch-and-glue kayaks made of different colors of marine plywood built by one of the paddlers, who were out for a brief trip but camping at the take-out. They took out perhaps ten minutes after I did, and I made friends with their dogs and admired their trailer (a combination hauling and camping trailer called a SylvanSport) in the time before sunset. I looked at that kind of trailer on the internet later but alas it is way out of my price range, plus I don't really need the camping part.
I am thinking about getting a canoe-trailer, though. I'm told they turn up on Craigslist sometimes.
So I went to Calderwood Lake Sunday. I got a bit of a late start because it was eight in the morning before I really made up my mind to do this, and between getting everything ready (I can have the canoe ready in half an hour--the other half hour was for the warm clothes, the extra water, the right backpack with the contractor's garbage bag, the food, stopping at Wal-mart for drinks and gorp, and trying to throttle my GPS into directing me to Calderwood Lake--complicated by the fact that I thought Calderwood Lake was in Tennessee but it's actually at least partially in North Carolina. I eventually had to give up and just follow 129 south. I had checked it out on Mapquest and the turnoff for the campground is very distinctive, so I didn't think I"d miss it and I didn't.
129 north of Calderwood Lake is called "The Dragon's Tail" locally, and is much loved by motorcyclists. It is the road you might have dreamed of riding your bicycle down when you were young and broken bones were something that happened to other people. It turns and coils and writhes like a snake in the claws of an eagle. It is a very scenic road, with new views of forest at every bend, and there are a lot of bends. It is an interesting road; there is no risk you will get bored and go to sleep. I like to drive it with elegance, and a certain reserve, as befits a grown woman and boatbuilder with a wooden canoe tied to the top of her car. I enjoy the Dragon's Tail but I enjoy it methodically, savoring it, pausing to appreciate the curves rather than plunging into them.
Fortunately there are a lot of places to pull over and let the motorcyclists by.
However, rather fewer places are available for use than were originally designed into the road. Some of the existing ones are occupied by photographers stationed along the Dragon's Tail. I think they take pictures of the motorcyclists, hoping some of them will want pictures of themselves in an exciting pose like leaning into a turn. After a while I noticed the photographers pointing their long lenses at *me* which puzzled me. I'm just driving a car; it's not exciting.
So I thought they were taking pictures of Moxie. I bet it's not common to see something like her making her stately way, backwards and upside down (try *that* cyclists!--no, wait; don't) along the Dragon's Tail. However I later discovered that they take pictures of every vehicle that passes. I guess electrons are cheap and there's always the possibility that someone will want to buy a photo of their car. I think you'll be able to see one of the photos of Moxie here.
Eventually I came to, and spurned, the turnoff for Fontana Village (where I had always parted company from 129 before) and continued on and down another little bit to the bridge over the tail of Calderwood Lake, where I whipped off to the right just before I would have gone over the bridge, and found myself in the little campground next to Calderwood, just as advertised (or described on the Internet anyway.) It turns out Calderwood Lake is about two and a quarter hours drive from me, but I expect Aurora drives faster over the Dragon's Tail than I do. Maybe most people do.
The campground is squashed in by the lake, as the hills are quite steep there. So there's one camp space at a time, right next to the road, and then, well back from the highway, two boat ramps for small boats/trailers (a big one would get stuck between the lake and the hill.) Sunday was a very quiet day; I saw two motor boats as I was going out, and three kayaks coming back (paddled by people who happened to be camping at the campground, and that was it. In some places on the lake the shape of the surrounding hills would bounce faint machine snarls down to me--doubtless the motorcycles celebrating on The Dragon's Tail. But mostly it was just bird noises.
And the valley the lake is in is so narrow, and the hills so high, that for the first half of the journey out my GPS had no idea where it was. None. Not a *clue*. I was thinking about calling it "Lost Lake." I was okay with this, because the lake is basically one long (twisting) valley, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't get lost.
And it sure was pretty.
It is beautiful, but the land around the lake is quite steep. It's a kind of beauty that won't let you off the water in very many places. There are a handful of campsites that are accessible only from the lake, and those are just about the only places you can get out of the boat without going ploosh and disappearing.
Even those campsites are pretty steep. I got wet above the knee getting out here.
Because of the terrain, the campsites are easy to spot; the tent sites have been leveled and surrounded with a little curb of 4x4s to keep them from eroding, and they have picnic tables. Here are Ramp and Thag sitting on one table and musing on the natural beauty of the scene.
When Calderwood Lake was made (by Calderwood Dam) it flooded an old railroad track. Most traces of it are not visible, but there is a tunnel, that can supposedly be paddled when the water level is just right. When I visited, the water level was much too high for that, but you can see where the tunnel is.
I also found the back side of the tunnel, which is only a few hundred feet long.
It was cold the day I went, with intermittent wind. It was the first time this canoeing season that I went out with long underwear (and wasn't a bit sorry) and often found myself struggling into my jacket to break the wind. So perhaps it was not surprising that the trees were just beginning to turn.
About this time I decided I had better head back. I hadn't made it all the way to the downstream end of the lake, but it was starting to feel late, and I didn't want to be messing about trying to find the take-out after dark.
Calderwood Lake wiggles about so much I had some nervous moments on the return journey wondering if I had turned myself around and was paddling away from the put-in by mistake. Especially in that part that turned so sharply the sun was in my eyes when I should have been paddling vaguely south-east. I ran into three kayakers--two of them paddling beautiful stitch-and-glue kayaks made of different colors of marine plywood built by one of the paddlers, who were out for a brief trip but camping at the take-out. They took out perhaps ten minutes after I did, and I made friends with their dogs and admired their trailer (a combination hauling and camping trailer called a SylvanSport) in the time before sunset. I looked at that kind of trailer on the internet later but alas it is way out of my price range, plus I don't really need the camping part.
I am thinking about getting a canoe-trailer, though. I'm told they turn up on Craigslist sometimes.
