I am a little late with this post as usual. We actually made this hike two weekends ago. I guess it is better now that not at all. We started out at Shook Branch on Watauga Lake with the plan to hike around the end of the lake to the Watauga Dam Overlook. The hike is about a three-mile hike with most of it following the shoreline of Watauga Lake.
The participants of this hike were Misty, Jordan, Colton and I. We actually had to tie Colton up and lock him in the trunk to get him out of the house. Ok, well not really, but I did threaten him with it. It was a beautiful day to be out hiking, especially with family.
We had not gone far around the end of the lake when we came upon a very nice camping spot right along the shore of the lake. We hope to get back there soon to camp overnight and do some fishing. While at this spot, we decided to pull out our backpacking stove and cook some ramen noodles for lunch. While we hung out here eating, a couple of friends of Jordan’s came by to do some fishing. After a short while, we decided we had better head on down the trail. Jordan had to be at work later in the evening and we knew that if he were to make it we needed to make up some time.
After we had hiked about half the distance of the trail, we made it to the Watauga Lake shelter and decided to veer off trail to it for a few minutes. Just before reaching the shelter there is a small creek that crosses the trail. Jordan and Colton had already gone ahead to the shelter while Misty and I were lagging behind just a bit. In her attempt to cross the creek, Misty slipped on a wet rock and jammed her foot down between two rocks, giving her best attempt at breaking her ankle. Without a doubt, I give her an “A” for effort, although the ankle was only lightly sprained and not broken.
We rested at the shelter for a few minutes while Misty soothed her sore ankle and pride -- we did have to make fun of her a little after all. Once we were all ready, we set off down the trail again. About a mile from the end, we managed to find the geocache that was located on this trail. Jordan was the one that climbed up the side of the hill to retrieve the cache so he was given the pick of the swag and chose a carabineer with a retractable end on it for his fishing vest. We also found a track able item in this cache that we took out so that we could move it along to its destination. After returning the cache to its hidden location, we continued down the trail on our way to Watauga Lake Overlook.
With the overlook in sight, we passed over Watauga Dam. After all the years of living in this area this was the first time I had ever walked across the top of the dam. The views from atop the dam were spectacular well worth the easy hike out to see them.
From the dam, we made it up to the lookout with just enough time for us to retrieve our car from the starting point and for Jordan to get to work. Once again, we created a few memories that we will hold onto for years to come and had a great time do it.
