Summary
Distance: 12.2 miles round trip
Put in: Paved lot, parking fee credit card only (map)
AllTrails map: (here)
I’ve wanted to paddle on Carters Lake for quite a while and finally made time to go. We had beautiful fall weather that made a perfect day on the water. Anne paddled her NDK Sportive, a 16 foot boat, and I paddled a 17 foot Necky Chatham. The wind kicked up late in the day so we were happy to have longer boats to handle the waves. We were pleasantly surprised at how few boats were on the lake, and all the boats we did see were fairly small fishing boats that did not have large wakes.
We weren’t quite sure what to expect as we hadn’t done this trip before; our goal was to paddle to where the Coosawattee flows into the lake. The scenery was absolutely beautiful with the hills displaying fall colors. There were quite a few small beaches on the lake shore. We found a small waterfall that was one of the highlights of the day. It’s located on “river right” just before we got to the flowing water.
We navigated with a combination of Google Maps on my phone and a photo Anne took of a map at the boat ramp. We only made one small error. It’s always surprising how difficult it can be to discern the shape of the land from a kayak at water level.
It was a great fall day on the lake and we’re already thinking about exploring other parts of the lake.
Steve's Outdoor Life 