I was in some serious need of water time. My boats haven’t been out on the water near enough, and I had been suffering from FOMO as I looked at photos of other paddling friends on camping trips and long paddles. The weather finally cooperated and I was ready to try someplace new. I decided to head up to Wolf Creek Lake near Cullowhee, North Carolina.
Wolf Creek Lake is one of the “four gems” of the East Fork of the Tuckaseegee River. In the mid 1950s Nantahala Power and Light built four “vest pocket dams” to provide additional power to the area. Bear Creek Lake is the largest, followed by Wolf Creek, Lake, Cedar Cliff and Tanassee Creek Lake. I had paddled Bear Creek Lake (and lost a GoPro to its depths), but I’d not paddled any of the others.
Of course, I had to find out what this area was like before the lakes were built. I pulled up the Historical Topo Map Explorer and found some maps from before the lakes were build. It seems there was a church and a school in the area now under the lake.
“Wolf Creek” seems to be a popular name. I’d love to dig further into the history of Wolf Creek School and Church, but on a precursory search I didn’t find much. There is a Wolf Creek Baptist Church further north on Highway 281, but I’m not sure if this was the one at the location now under the lake. The church didn’t have a website so I couldn’t easily find its history.
Find-a-Grave had some better insight, and I really wish I’d done this research BEFORE I headed out. Wolf Creek Cemetery is located on a point on the lake. Had I known earlier I could have explored it with no problem.
According to the website, burials continued through the 20th Century, and the latest was in 2007. One of the earliest graves was from 1899, and was for Rev. Josiah A. Galloway. Rev. Galloway’s obituary identifies him as the pastor of Wolf Creek Baptist Church, so it’s possible that the church moved when the lake was built, and that the Baptist church up the road was a continuation of this one.
But, on to the trip…
It was a Saturday. More importantly, it was the first Saturday of summer vacation and the first nice day we’d had in awhile. I expected the lakes to be crazy. That’s one reason I opted for smaller Wolf Creek over Jocassee or one of the nearer lakes. Even with that choice, I knew I’d need an early start. It was a two-hour drive.
The drive itself was on good roads, but was twisting and turning through mountain farmland. Highway 281 first took me over Tanasee Creek Lake, which looked very intriguing. There was a small boat ramp at the upper end of this lake near the bridge. About a mile from there 281 takes a sharp turn to the right and goes of the dam for Wolf Creek Lake. The topography dropped off steeply to the left. Lake access was just past the dam on the right.
It was a good thing I left early. After unloaded the kayak I took the last parking spot at the boat ramp. The place was busy. I’ve found boat ramps to be places of chaos and tempers on edge as boats jockey for ramp space and parking space. This time everyone was polite, and I even struck up some conversations as the only kayaker there today.
The guy launching his boat right after me expressed concern about the wind. There had been gusts, but nothing more than I’d encountered before. I headed on out onto the lake and admired the mountain scenery.
It was chillier out on the water than I had anticipated. Air temps were in the mid 50s, and with the wind chill it felt even colder. I was glad I was wearing several layers, including my paddling jacket.
There were lots of little coves to explore. I had downloaded a set of GPS waypoints from The Casual Kayaker. On a 2011 trip he had mentioned a couple of very small waterfalls. I found both of these fairly quickly, and they were tiny – just trickles of water from a small tributary. I only photographed one of them.
The banks were lined with mountain laurel and some wild flame azaleas.
There were a few houses, but most of these were set back from the banks of the lake. There didn’t seem to be the huge imposing mansions that line Keowee and other SC lakes. There were mostly pontoon boats at the docks. As for boats out on the lake, most of these were smaller fishing boats.
As I paddled I took out my fish finder. The lake was surprisingly deep, dropping off to 25-40 feet just a few feet from the banks, even in narrow channels. The middle of the channel reached 70-80 feet, with it hitting over 100 out on the main body. The finder kept pinging with large schools of fish. I can see why fishermen like coming here.
Eventually I reached the northern end of the lake, where Wolf Creek enters. There was no waterfall, but the creek flowing over the rocks did make a soothing sound. I lingered a bit.
My plan was to paddle up the west side of the lake and return via the east side. There were several deep coves on that side I thought might be worth exploring.
As the wind picked up I found myself bypassing some of the coves, especially if they appeared to end without heading back further. I found one boat pulled up in an unlikely spot and saw a tent set up on the bank. In talking with another boater at the ramp as I was leaving, I learned that most of this was national forest land and that there were designated boat-in campsites. That explains why there aren’t many houses.
Further down I saw a large, exposed rock wall, so I paddled down to check it out. There was a fishing boat that I didn’t want to disturb, so I didn’t get as close to it as I might. The wall didn’t quite look natural, as if it had been carved during construction of the lake.
To the right of the wall was some sort of crane structure. Wolf Creek Lake and Tanassee Creek Lake are connected by an underground tunnel which regulates water levels in both lakes. I wondered if this was the location of the tunnel and if this crane had something to do with level control. I hadn’t seen any other obvious evidence of tunnel or lake control, apart from the dam itself.
There was one more cove with a dock beyond this, then the dam. I paddled past the dam back toward the boat ramp, warily eyeing the spillway.
Back at the ramp there was even more boat traffic, so I waited patiently until I could pull out. The same guy that launched when I did was back, and we chatted about campsites and windy conditions. I secured my gear and relinquished my space for another boater. As I left, there was a pullout on 281 just past the spillway. I had to pull over and take a peek.
In all I had paddled only five miles and had pretty much covered the entire lake. I had launched sometime around 8:30 and was off the water before noon.
Two hours drive up, three hours on the water, and two hours back. The scenery is nice, but the lake is small, so the drive-to-paddle time ratio isn’t great. Even so, I’d love to come back to explore the old cemetery and perhaps find out more about the Wolf Creek and Canada Community in this area.
I did make a time-lapse video of the trip.
Since I was off the water early I drove on up 281 toward Bear Creek Lake. I’d only been on it once and I want to go there again. I was tempted to launch the boat and do a twofer, but it was just as crowded at this ramp as at Wolf Creek, plus, the wind was really starting to pick up.
I drove on through the Tuckaseegee Community then headed south toward Glenville. When I got to Lake Glenville there were actually whitecaps on the water. I think I finished in time. As I get back down toward the South Carolina lakes I was really glad of the choice I’d made for today’s venue. On Highway 11 as you approach the Devil’s Fork turnoff there was a sign saying that the park was closed because it was full – no parking available. I’m glad I didn’t do Jocassee. I’ll leave that for a weekday trip.