This weekend I went on a trip to Laurel River Lake and thought I would post a trip report.
We arrived Friday night and setup camp at Holly Bay Campground. Camping there is 14 for non-electric water and 24 for electric and water. The place is OK, and there is hot showers and flushable toilets. There is a marina where you can buy food.
Saturday morning we arrived and met Ed Gabe, an instructor from New Horizons in Lexington. He was taking two students through an open water certification class and I had two buddies with me.
You must park above the damn and carry all your stuff down about 3 flights of stairs to the beach. There is no one out there at that time, so we basically had the beach to ourselves.
The surface temperature was 75 and it slowly dropped to down right freezing. The lowest temperature I clocked was at 53 feet at 49f. I know it was colder because I was only there for about 1 minute and started shaking and had to ascend.
This lake, near the beach at least, is dead. Over 6 dives I saw 50 fish and none were bigger than 5 inches. We did see one turtle. I never really saw any plant life and mainly just some algae on rocks. Visibility Saturday morning was about 10 feet above the thermocline. The thermocline was at about 27-30 feet. Below the thermocline, viz was about 25 feet. Sunday the visibility above 30 ft was 3-10 ft.
There is basically one attraction. If you swim left of the beach, and follow it around toward the damn, about half way across the damn you will find a steel skeleton and a muffler dog. The steel figures are at 21 and 25 feet. When looking at the damn, you will see one yellow sign, I guesstimate it is right under that sign. Elevation is 800 feet.
Day 2, Ed and I did some buoyancy and ascent training and then did the PADI specialty DPV.
On a side note, if you want a good instructor, check out Ed. He has helped me with a lot of things.
Here is my computer data.
Saturday Sept 22
Total Dive Time Max Depth Dive start time Avg. Temp
47 33 9:54 am 66
19 53 11:00 am 57
53 42 1:51 pm 53
17 24 3:45 pm 73
23 28 4:13 pm 71
Sunday Sept 23
Total Dive Time Max Depth Dive start time Avg. Temp
49 42 10:29 am 57
11 33 12:44 pm 69
10 31 1:05 pm 73
9 29 1:24 pm 73
19 41 1:50 pm 59
5 34 2:20 pm 68
39 33 3:01 pm 68
To sum it up, the place was cold with limited viz, and damn near no sea life. But it was still a fun filled weekend with lots of learning. I have heard other places in the lake are nice. Maybe the river or creeks that feed the lake are far away and there is no sea life?
Hope this helps.
We arrived Friday night and setup camp at Holly Bay Campground. Camping there is 14 for non-electric water and 24 for electric and water. The place is OK, and there is hot showers and flushable toilets. There is a marina where you can buy food.
Saturday morning we arrived and met Ed Gabe, an instructor from New Horizons in Lexington. He was taking two students through an open water certification class and I had two buddies with me.
You must park above the damn and carry all your stuff down about 3 flights of stairs to the beach. There is no one out there at that time, so we basically had the beach to ourselves.
The surface temperature was 75 and it slowly dropped to down right freezing. The lowest temperature I clocked was at 53 feet at 49f. I know it was colder because I was only there for about 1 minute and started shaking and had to ascend.
This lake, near the beach at least, is dead. Over 6 dives I saw 50 fish and none were bigger than 5 inches. We did see one turtle. I never really saw any plant life and mainly just some algae on rocks. Visibility Saturday morning was about 10 feet above the thermocline. The thermocline was at about 27-30 feet. Below the thermocline, viz was about 25 feet. Sunday the visibility above 30 ft was 3-10 ft.
There is basically one attraction. If you swim left of the beach, and follow it around toward the damn, about half way across the damn you will find a steel skeleton and a muffler dog. The steel figures are at 21 and 25 feet. When looking at the damn, you will see one yellow sign, I guesstimate it is right under that sign. Elevation is 800 feet.
Day 2, Ed and I did some buoyancy and ascent training and then did the PADI specialty DPV.
On a side note, if you want a good instructor, check out Ed. He has helped me with a lot of things.
Here is my computer data.
Saturday Sept 22
Total Dive Time Max Depth Dive start time Avg. Temp
47 33 9:54 am 66
19 53 11:00 am 57
53 42 1:51 pm 53
17 24 3:45 pm 73
23 28 4:13 pm 71
Sunday Sept 23
Total Dive Time Max Depth Dive start time Avg. Temp
49 42 10:29 am 57
11 33 12:44 pm 69
10 31 1:05 pm 73
9 29 1:24 pm 73
19 41 1:50 pm 59
5 34 2:20 pm 68
39 33 3:01 pm 68
To sum it up, the place was cold with limited viz, and damn near no sea life. But it was still a fun filled weekend with lots of learning. I have heard other places in the lake are nice. Maybe the river or creeks that feed the lake are far away and there is no sea life?
Hope this helps.
