There are some 30,000 lakes present in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, and not one of them is naturally occurring. Every single one has been made by man. This past Monday, a few students including myself decided to camp at Lake Santeelah. It is located about 6 miles northwest from a little town called Robinsville, NC and borders Nantahala National Forest.
I've been here before.
This campsite was shown to me by high school friends years ago. I have many beautiful memories of swimming in its clear waters during hot summer months, jumping off the rock at the end of our tiny island's pennensula, and log riding...
Log riding is a sport of sorts during which you and your friends see how far our into the lake you can boat your log. Once you're out far enough, you can jump off the log, play king of the log, etc. My favorite activity was log launching where everyone ran to one side of the log to see how far we could submerge it. Then everyone runs back, save one person, who gets catapulted a good distance up into the air as the log rises back to the surface.
I have seen the sun rise and set above the mountains that surround the lake. I've seen storms roll in, lightning striking and thunder booming while the rain chases us over the lake to finally flood our campsite.
The last time I was here I spotted a pair of bald eagles nesting across the lake from where I was camping. They were flying around a stand of short-leaf and pitch pines, a unique community of trees that I always love to see when I'm there. The birds were darting in and out of the low lying clouds, making noises kin to strikes of lightning. I remember thinking if lightning could speak, he would sound like the peal of a bald eagle.
This time around, the lake was very cold, but we thought it would be a good idea to go camping in December so... There we were in the freezing cold having a wonderful time. One good thing about the weather was that we didn't see a single other person, boat, or paddleboard on the water while we were there. It was just us and the lake.
A few of us brave (or stupid) souls decided to do a polar plunge. As the temperature outside was dropping into the 30s, we doughed our layers of jackets and hoodies, did a couple push-ups and jumped in the water. Zach stayed in the longest, totaling 4 minutes submerged in the frigid water.
For the rest of the night we huddled up together around the fire and watched the sun set. The wind carried our fire's smoke out onto the lake where it danced with an invisible partner.
Although I was making memories to last my lifetime, I couldn't quite shake the sorrowful reality of the lake's creation and existence. The Santeelah dam flooded the Cheoah River, submerging acres of terrestial habitats and completely altering the river's ecosystem. As I appreciated the undenyable beauty that lay before me, I mourned the ecosystem we destoyed to create it. When you spend time in your favorite places outside, make sure to look around and remind yourself what humans have done to alter it, because there is no place on Earth that humans have not influenced.
Nicole Barrett
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