The Loop Around a Small Lake in Late May

Getting there and parking

The drive is sixty-two miles from my door and took one hour and ten minutes on a weekday. Almost all of it is interstate, with a long climb out of the Kanawha valley early on. Traffic was heavy with trucks in the climbing lanes and light almost everywhere else. I came off at the park exit and was at the water within two minutes of the ramp.

The park road is paved, narrow, and posted at fifteen through the picnic areas. It drops to the lake in one easy grade with a stone wall along the low side. There are two main lots and I used the lower one, which sits nearest the dam. Eleven vehicles were parked there at one o'clock and about twenty when I came back.

Restrooms near the lot were open and clean, and there was water at a spigot outside. A shelter above the lot had a group under it and a game of some kind on the grass. Nothing about the arrival is complicated, which matters when the walk is the whole point. You can be out of the truck and on the trail inside five minutes of parking.

The shaded half

I went counterclockwise, which put the wooded side first and the open side last. That order was a mistake in late May, and I will reverse it the next time out. The trail leaves the dam on packed gravel about four feet wide with a firm edge. For the first twenty minutes it stays level and runs ten or fifteen feet above the water.

Old oaks and tulip poplars close overhead and hold the temperature down noticeably. The surface changes to packed dirt with roots showing where the slope gets steeper. Two wooden bridges cross feeder streams, both with rails and both dry underfoot. The second one is longer and has a bit of spring in the middle when you cross.

A short grade climbs away from the shore to get around a wet area near a spring. That grade is rooted and would be slick after rain, though it was dry for me. Mountain laurel was just starting on the upper side and would be full within a week. I made the far end of the lake in thirty-eight minutes without pushing the pace at all.

The open half

The return side sits lower and has almost no canopy over it for most of its length. The surface is gravel and grass, wide enough for two, and level nearly the whole way. Anglers stood at four or five spots along it with the water flat in front of them. Cattails fill the shallow upper end, and red-winged blackbirds were loud inside them.

Sun on that side at two in the afternoon is constant, with no relief for twenty-five minutes. The temperature read eighty-one degrees and it felt like more with the water throwing light back. I drank most of what I carried on that stretch, which surprised me on a short walk. A hat would have helped, and the next time I will carry one for this side.

Two picnic tables sit along the open half, both in full sun and both empty when I passed. Near the dam a paved section picks up and carries you the last 200 yards to the lot. That pavement was hot enough to feel through boot soles by the middle of the afternoon. Anyone bringing a dog should think about that surface before starting in the afternoon.

Herons and other holdups

I stopped four times for wildlife, and three of those stops were the same bird. A great blue heron worked the shallow upper end and moved ahead of me down the shore. It let me get within about forty feet each time before lifting and dropping farther on. That went on for a quarter of the loop and added ten minutes to my walking time.

A second heron stood on a stump near the middle and never moved the whole time. Geese had goslings on the grass near the shelter and were not shy about the trail. I gave them the wide side and they still made noise about it as I passed. Turtles lined a half-sunk log in the sun and slid off one by one as I neared.

The lake surface stayed flat until about three o'clock and then a light wind came up. After that the reflections broke and the far shore stopped doubling in the water. Fish were rising along the shaded edge and left rings that spread and disappeared. None of this is rare, and all of it is the reason a small lake holds attention.

What it came to

The day ran four hours and twenty minutes from my driveway back to my driveway. Driving took two hours and twenty minutes across 124 miles of mostly interstate running. The loop itself took one hour and twenty-five minutes, and I spent another thirty-five around the lot. I was home with about four hours and thirty minutes of daylight left, which late May hands out generously.

This walk does not suit anyone who needs shade the whole way in the middle of the day. The open half is genuinely open, and there is no shortcut off it once you commit. Footing is easy except for one rooted grade that would turn greasy in a wet week. Go clockwise in summer so the shaded side comes last, and start before noon if you can.

In cooler months the order will not matter and the open half becomes the pleasant part. The loop is short enough to repeat in a season and different enough each time out.