Lake Waccamaw, NC

Lake Waccamaw is situated about 37 miles north of Shallotte.  In college, while working toward my degree in marine biology, we took a field trip there for my ecology class, drawn by its unique properties.  I've always remembered that as a fun day, stopping in a long leaf pine forest along the way to see spittle bugs and Venus Flytraps, which are only found natively in the this area.  Later, as we neared Lake Waccamaw, small gators lazed by the side of the road, unperturbed by our bus as we trundled by.  I didn't wear a bathing suit that day, so couldn't go swimming, but I remember wading around near the dock, where we stopped to picnic and gather water samples - to study the unique neutrality of the water - and pestering the small snails littering the sandy bottom.  The water was warm, like bathwater, largely due to the shallowness of the entire lake, which is only 11 feet at its deepest.  It was a nice day.  My favorite kind of day, mucking about in water under a warm sun.


I've always wanted to return to Lake Waccamaw and, nearly twenty years later, I finally did recently with Brian and my aunt Kay.  Kay had recently visited the lake with my parental units and became enamored with the idea of a bike ride through its lovely neighborhoods.  Brian and I love to bike too and were equally eager to see Lake Waccamaw, so we loaded up our bikes and made the 45 minute trek with a stop along the way to enjoy an old-fashioned general store, complete with Red Rider wagons and washboards and tubs, alongside such modern amenities as Gorilla tape.  


I watched for gators as we neared the entrance to the Lake Waccamaw State Park, especially in areas where brown, swampish water ran alongside, but the mostly grassy roadside remained empty.  After checking out the visitor's center we wandered down one of the trails and had a picnic lunch near the water, surrounded by signs telling us all about the alligators found in the area.  But the alligators were AWOL.  Then we took a walk down another part of the trail.  Kay, who is taking a plant identification course at Brunswick Community College, stopped to examine plants along the way, peppering us with Latin names.  It was like being back in college, except I'm not the one that has to take the test this time.  After a while, Kay and I began to get bored, since the promised "sandy beaches" weren't appearing and we were mostly seeing the same stuff over and over again, including swarms of gnat type things that buzzed around our heads, then Brian stopped in front of us, peering intently at a pile of leaves at the base of a tree.  Turns out he wasn't staring at the leaves so much as this fella, hiding among the leaves:

He was very pretty and we speculated that it might be a type of rattlesnake but the head wasn't triangular.  Its tail was hidden in the leaves so there was no hint there.  It mostly sat stock still, clearly as nervous about us as we were about it - well, except for maybe Kay - until Brian got a little too close with a small branch and then, rather than getting aggressive, it slithered away around the tree, vibrating its rattleless tail against the leaves as it went.  While Brian and I admired him, photographed him, and speculated about his identification, Kay burned a path back up the trail.  After we caught up with her we returned to the visitor's center, where a friendly park ranger showed us some pictures and we identified our fetching little friend as a copperhead.


We decided we were done with the trails for the day and canvassed the nearby neighborhood for a place to park and ride our bikes.  The street follows the shoreline of the lake, which is a lovely ocean blue, so we spent a splendid while pedaling, about 10 miles, admiring the scenery. There was water on the other side of the street as well.  Green, murky looking water.  Water like an alligator might like.  We kept our eyes peeled once again for anything leathery and primeval, or big, black eyeballs peeping out of the emerald muck.  And, finally, our efforts were rewarded when we spied this fine specimen:

Seems like some Lake Waccamaw citizens don't want alligator-seeking visitors to be disappointed.


After we loaded the bikes back into the truck Brian drove us to the Lake Waccamaw Sailing Club where a pale moon hung over the water and small boats.  All in all, a lovely return to Lake Waccamaw.  It certainly didn't disappoint me after all this time.

The lovely Lake Waccamaw

My lovely Aunt Kay