Lake Jocassee and Devil's Fork State Park

Lake Jocassee April 25-27, 2014 – 2014 has really been the year of new places to paddle for me. So far, I have camped and paddled in the Okefenokee Swamp, paddled the Broad River in Georgia and paddled a new section of Horse Creek. So, to keep up with this trend, my parents, a few friends from the kayak club and I went up to one of my favorite areas of South Carolina: the upstate.

This past weekend, Dad took us to Devils Fork State Park on the banks of Lake Jocassee, which was a new experience for all of us, I believe. In the upstate, there are plenty of different lakes, ponds, rivers and streams, and even after this trip I have plans to head back up there and see even more. It also helps that it is just gorgeous being up in the hills/mountains.

Like most of the lakes in our state (I’m pretty sure, I may be wrong), Lake Jocassee is man-made and here is a bit of information on it from lakejocassee.com:

“The name Jocassee comes from the legend of a Cherokee maiden. An Oconee tribe, the ‘Brown Vipers’ led by Chief Attakulla, inhabited the west side of the Whitewater river, while a rival tribe, ‘The Green Birds’, lived on the east. Legend says that a young Green Bird warrior, Nagoochee, was not afraid to enter Brown Viper hunting grounds. On one occasion, he fell and broke his leg and was convinced he was going to die. Then he heard Jocassee, Attakulla's daughter, who brought him back to her father's lodge and nursed him back to health. Jocassee eventually fell in love with him, but in a later battle, Cheochee, Jocassee's brother, killed and brought Nagoochee's head back on his belt. Legend has it that Jocassee went into the water and did not sink but walked across the water to meet the ghost of Nagoochee. The name Jocassee means ‘Place of the Lost One.’

“The Jocassee Gorges area was once home to the part of the Cherokee Nation; it now lies 300 feet (91 m) beneath the surface of the lake, near the Toxaway River. Nearby Keowee Town was a major hub in the Cherokee Path that connected Cherokee towns and villages throughout the area. Early 18th century traders delivered as many as 200,000 deerskins annually to Charleston, South Carolina and local Indians became well supplied with European firearms, ammunition, tools and clothing as a result. However, mounting discord between Europeans and Cherokees led to war in 1759. In 1785, General Andrew Pickens hosted a large gathering of Indian chiefs leading to a treaty that gave all of the Jocassee gorges area, with the exception of northern Oconee County, to the United States; the Oconee mountains were not ceded until 1815. European settlers, mostly of Scottish and Irish descent, came from Virginia and Pennsylvania as well as from Charleston. Land grants in the Jocassee area go back to 1791.

“Lake Jocassee is 7,500 acres of water with 75 miles of shoreline. The lake is at an elevation of 1,100 feet. The lake is used for recreation and is used by Duke Power to generate 610,000 kilowatts fo electricty with its Jocassee Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Station that was built in 1973. The dam is 385 feet high and 1,750 feet long.

“Duke Power and the state of South Carolina provide the Devils Fork State Park and the Double Springs remote campground, both managed by the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.”

So there you have it. Similar to Lake Murray, Lake Jocassee is man-made for energy and has also created an excellent place for exploration on land, on the surface of the water as well as below. This definitely makes me want to get my scuba certification this summer to be able to explore the different places that had to be flooded to create the lake.

Side note: it’s interesting to think about how many people were displaced by the government for various projects just in SC over the history of our state and country. Lake Murray, Ellenton, Jocassee are the most recent and there are probably more that I don’t know about or haven’t named going back to when the first settlers landed/migrated here.

Here is a map of Lake Jocassee. The lowest red dot is about where our campsite was located, the middle dot is the location of the boat ramp we used (I think) and the uppermost red dot is the location of a waterfall we found.

Back to the weekend, Mom and Dad went up Thursday to settle in and with Mom along, there wasn’t as much “roughin’ it” as with the Okefenokee. Mom and Dad have a small, 18’ camper and so we slept in a little bit more comfort. I still made them cook over the fire a few times and it was still not quite a 4-star hotel and I know a few friends who would have said, “Hell no!” to even the idea of camping in a camper. I joined in Friday evening after work and got up there around 8-8:30 after leaving around 5:15. By the way, if you have ever done traveling with a Garmin or other devise that gives you an estimated time, who doesn’t enjoy trying to beat that time. Kind of like, “Challenge accepted!”

As I was getting up there, I had to stop a few times to admire the sunset over the various bodies of water (and Clemson University) and even stopped on a bridge at one point because I saw nobody ahead of me or behind me. So, I quickly snapped a couple pictures with my phone but, wouldn’t you know it, by the time I’m pulling away someone is driving up ahead of me. They’re in a black Jeep Wrangler so as I pull back into my lane and start going I give them a smile and a wave expecting to get one back… instead I get a mean-mug face from both the driver and the passenger and not one, but two birds from the driver. OK, asshole. Sorry for causing you to have to slow down a little bit. In my book, no harm, no foul but apparently he felt the need to show his displeasure. I’m deeply hurt… really, I am.

Anyways, if you have done any driving at dusk and into night, you know that it can be a little difficult to find places that you are unfamiliar with so it took a bit to find the campsite in Devils Fork State Park (man, that’s a great name that leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling all over while driving at night). But I eventually did find the spot and hung out around the campfire until around 10 or 11 (I tell ya, we're some party animals!).

The next morning, after not getting a whole lot of sleep due to a bunk that is just barely long enough for me to fit in diagonally, we woke up around 8 to get the day started. Breakfast was bacon and scrambled eggs over the fire with coffee to wash it down (honestly, I love camping and the cooking that goes on and there is no sarcasm at all. It is just a lot of fun). We were joined by Bob (you’ve met Bob before via this blog) and then it was off to the put-in at one of the boat ramps.

At this point, I will also point out that we were not the only people on the lake Saturday, obviously. There was also a bass tournament going on that day, so while I didn’t hear them at first light, there were a bunch of boats zooming around all day and apparently they had quite the send off that morning. This caused us to have a bit of waves to deal with all day long because for whatever reason these nuts prefer to zoom from cove to cove as fast as they can. Wouldn’t that alert the fish to their presence?

Now, I mentioned we had a group. Our group for the weekend included Jimmy, Virginia, Eric, Mary, Bob, the parentals and me. Before we took off, the foursome from lunch went in search of Jimmy and Virginia who were out walking the dogs and wanted to meet up with us after getting ready. Eric and Mary said they would join us later after having put in closer to their campsite.

So, Dad, Mom, Bob and I went to a boat ramp that wasn’t closed (another one that we had thought about was closed because of all the trucks and trailers from the bass tournament). One of the cool things about kayaking and canoeing I have found is how many people are at least trying it these days. It never fails, other than Okefenokee and Horse Creek, I always seem to come up on a few people or a couple groups of people giving kayaking a try. Jocassee also had a few of these groups and as we were putting our boats in the water, there was a group of 10-12 people that appeared to be renting kayaks and taking a tour from a local out-fitter. Let me just say that has been one of my dream jobs for quite a while. I know guides don’t make a lot of money and you have to be creative in how you do it because seasons change and people only want to go kayaking or rafting from late April through early September so you’d have to find another, winter-time job. But the idea of getting to kayak or raft almost every day sounds pretty awesome to me. So, if I ever hit the lottery, you can bet that 1) my Facebook account with disappear and 2) I will take on a part-time job doing that as soon as I can.

Anyways, back to kayaking. We let the group do their mass seal launch and, honestly, I was hoping to see one of them flip within the first 50 feet. But no, no entertainment of that kind, sadly. After giving them a head start and waiting a minute for Jimmy and Virginia,  our group got in and puttered around for a minute. But Mom was ready to go so we had to take off and to start our exploring.

Now, before I said that Lake Jocassee was very similar to Lake Murray. This isn’t fair to Jocassee because it is, in my honest opinion, heads and shoulders above Murray for a few reasons. The first is the water color and quality. It is mountain/spring water coming from several mountain rivers and streams and is clear and has a blue/green color to it. It’s refreshingly cool/cold (will get back to this in a minute) and is just great. If you’ve ever been to Lake Murray, you know this isn’t the case there (I always seem to feel so dirty getting out of Lake Murray… like I can’t scrub my skin hard enough). The other reasons include waterfalls you can paddle/boat/hike to and very little development/houses along the banks. So, for me, Lake Jocassee is much better and once we got into our kayaks, I just couldn’t get over how gorgeous the water was or the surroundings of small mountains.

We made our way up the west bank from the boat ramp and took our sweet time exploring coves and inlets. Along the way, Eric and ____ caught up so at one point we had a solid group of eight kayakers paddling along taking pictures but the biggest thing we were all after was to find a good waterfall. This had Eric and Dad bent over a map and GPS unit a few times, but eventually we just used the map and used our eyes to figure it out.

There are several larger falls around the various banks, and we were also able to find a very small fall early on before hearing and spotting another higher up on land.

Now, remember when I said the water was cool/cold? Well, along our journey we found a rope swing that I just had to try. Come on, if you know me, you know that I am not one to shy away from something like this. So, with Dad holding my boat, and Bob filming from below, I donned the GoPro on a head strap and went for a quick ride. And boy was that fun even in the temperature of the water caused me to come up singing soprano for a minute or 15. This time of year, the water was downright frigid and if I hadn’t been awake before hitting the water, I was after my plunge.

From here, we kind of got strung out a bit. Eric and ___ ended up cutting across the biggest expanse of the lake to head to the other side (they headed for a sheer cliff face that was created and say they saw an eagle… dang, I should have gone with them). The rest of us went up and found a small waterfall in a cove where a few bass fishermen were trying their luck. It seemed like everyone we talked to was not having any real luck with the fish biting that day. I guess when they’re not hungry they’re not hungry.

I took some video and pictures at this small waterfall (OK, I took a lot of video of the waterfall as I was trying to practice some free-shooting and that can be seen HERE) and we tried our hand at casting (notice, casting, not fishing because when there’s nothing being caught, all you’re doing is working on your cast) but also had no luck getting any bites. Then we all headed back, slowly checking out various spots again from time to time.

I know what some of y’all are thinking. That’s HIGHLY anti-climatic. Well, it’s a giant lake and there is plenty more to explore, but it’s not like we were playing peek-a-boo with gators or dodging rocks in whitewater. It’s just a nice, peaceful place to kayak and explore nature.

Along the way, I found a Luna Moth out alive in the waves so I decided to help my karma a bit and picked it up and made for land to a small out-cropping of rocks and trees next to some girls sunning on a rock (OK, I’ll admit, being a guy I MAY have landed closer to them because they were good-looking and not because that was the ONLY out-cropping with a good tree for my new-found friend to dry off on. But, I did make sure to show them the little guy and they seemed pretty interested in checking him out so…)

Once our group of Bob and the parents got back to the boat landing, I decided to practice my rolling a bit and got in three good rolls before we headed back. Practice makes perfect they say and I want to make sure I can easily roll myself back over as I want to do more whitewater this summer and that is kind of an important skill to have at the ready. I really want to practice rolling back over without a paddle.

FYI, for anybody reading this who is interested in learning to roll or how to rescue yourself from a rolled over kayak, our club is having a rescue clinic on Saturday, June 21. When we get closer, I’ll post more about it. But it is an excellent time every year for people to try new boats they’ve never been in/on or to learn different techniques for rescuing yourself and others while out on the water. You can never be too safe or have too much water safety knowledge because that PFD and whistle will only help you so much.

After getting back, we all kind of did different things but I wasn’t ready for a nap, mostly because I knew if I napped now, I might not sleep as well later, so I went for a hike. It was a solid 2.5 miles or so and really let me see some cool things around the park. There are two real trails around Devils Fork and the one I took was quite… a challenge. When I say it was up-hill both ways, I’m not just blowing smoke. Sure, there were downhill portions as well, but it seemed like there were more up-hill portions than downhill so I got a solid workout in because of it. But, it allowed me to see more of the park and coast line between our campsite and the boat ramp we used to put in earlier.

I would definitely recommend giving Devils Fork State Park and Lake Jocassee a try for the camping and kayaking. I hope to go back again later in the summer to see the other side of the lake as well as try to find a few more waterfalls and animals.

Next up? Well, I honestly don’t know. Might have to start thinking about another first…

Rope swing and rolling video can be found HERE.