LAGUNA BLANCA
Christy
and I traveled to White Lake for the first time in 3 years last weekend. We’ve visited the area several times in the
past so that Christy could compete in various triathlons. However, the last triathlon she completed
there, in 2010, was a disaster. It was
held in early May, but oppressive heat made for a miserable race.
Despite
those memories, we decided to go back.
As usual, we stayed at our friend Mark’s trailer in Camp Clearwater,
which is on the shore of the lake. White
Lake is one of the few natural lakes in North Carolina. It is a Carolina Bay, which are elliptical
depressions found along the Atlantic Coast.
The origin of these bays is unknown:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_bays
We
left Charlotte Friday afternoon and enjoyed a surprisingly pleasant drive. We arrived in plenty of time for Christy to
pick up her race registration. Then we
headed over to the trailer. We had
dinner there and went to bed early, since we both had big days planned on
Saturday. We slept great thanks to the
unusually chilly weather.
We
were up a 6 Saturday morning. Christy
rode her bike down to the race site while I prepared for my adventure. Originally I’d planned for a solo paddling
trip on the South River. However, I
checked the river gauge, and was surprised to find that water levels were
actually a bit low. I also checked my
trip report from my last trip there:
https://www.angelfire.com/trek/fungi/Eastern_Carolina/South_River_5-08.html
By
that point I was having second thoughts.
So I called an audible and changed plans. Instead of paddling on a river, I’d visit
another of the Carolina Bays. Christy
and I had canoed there once, 11 years earlier.
On that occasion, we’d only had enough time to visit part of the
lake. This weekend I intended to check
out the other end of the lake.
I
left the trailer around 7 and eventually found my way to Horseshoe Lake. The Nature Conservancy website has directions:
but they are a bit flawed. First of all, those directions assume you are
coming from the opposite direction.
Also, the distances given in the directions are wildly inaccurate. Despite this, I eventually found my way
there. The access is off of Live Oak
Methodist Church Road. It’s a dirt road,
but it was in much better shape than it had been when we’d visited 11 years
earlier.
I
drove to the put-in and parked. When I
arrived, I couldn’t figure out why I’d gotten out of bed that morning. The wind was howling, light rain was falling,
and it was downright cold. Needless to
say, I was not prepared for those conditions.
I also discovered that I’d left all of my water bottles back at the
trailer. I was a long way from the
nearest store, so replacing the water wasn’t really an option.
I
thought about bagging the trip. However,
conditions on the lake didn’t look too bad.
Horseshoe Lake is much smaller than White Lake, and although it was
choppy, at least there weren’t whitecaps out there! Plus, I was already there. It was a little late to retreat. Still, I was pretty grumpy as I began
inflating my boat.
The
put-in is near the bottom of the horseshoe-shaped lake. On our previous visit, Christy and I had paddled
up the left arm through groves of Cypress.
This time I went up the right side.
Paddling
across the middle of the lake was rough due to the wind. I crossed to the far side, and began working
my slowly up the right arm hugging the shore.
Conditions were better there, and there was a lot more to look at along
the shoreline, anyway. Early on I found
groves of Cypress and lots of blooming water lilies. A bit later I found the first of many Pitcher
Plants in bloom. The Pitcher Plants
extended along both shorelines as far as I could see. I’d say there were thousands, but that’s
probably a gross under-statement.
I
paddled up the right arm until I ran out of gas. I was paddling into a headwind, and while
hugging the shore helped, it was still tough going. I pulled up the GPS on my phone, and noticed
that I still had a ways to go before reaching the end. I abandoned the quest there and headed back. I was expecting a tailwind on the return, but
the wind shifted enough that it was usually blowing from my left. That meant that I had to constantly fight to
keep from drifting off-course.
I
made it back around noon, about 4 hours after departing. I was packing the boat up when another car
arrived. It was a couple with two
kayaks, but they seemed leery of the conditions. The wind had actually picked up since I’d
started that morning.
Before
leaving I hiked around along the shore looking for wildflowers. I found quite a few, including one bunch of
flowers that looked like tiny Mountain Laurel.
I finished my short leg-stretcher at the edge of the lake. I stopped there to get a photo of the
lake. I started to take a step to my
left for a better angle when it occurred to me that I should look where I was
stepping. I glanced down, and there was
a large, thick snake curled up under my foot.
I squealed like a little girl and jumped away. The snake never budged. I’m guessing it was trying to conserve heat
due to the cold weather. I’m not
certain, but it looked like a Cottonmouth.
However, I couldn’t see its head, so it may have been just an Eastern
Water Snake.
I
returned to White Lake and met Christy back at the trailer. She’d had a miserable race. The swim had been rough, and the windy
conditions had made the cycling difficult, too.
Christy came down with a mysterious illness that afternoon. It passed quickly, but we ended up scrapping
our plans to party with some friends that evening. That was probably just as well, as it was
nice to spend an evening relaxing.
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