Stone House Lake - August 2008

Stone House Lake is a fishing lake in Amherst County, VA of about 50 acres or so. This is my second time visiting this small, secluded lake. I arrived on a Wednesday afternoon with my 17' Heritage Expedition, which is, admittedly, overkill for this sized lake, and I had the water to myself. This lake has a concrete boat ramp and wooden dock, allowing for easy water access. 

I purchased this kayak last month, and this is my fourth time using it. It's quite a bit larger than my 14' Heritage Sea Dart and sports three rod holders and a rudder. I find it to be much faster than the 14-footer and only marginally harder to turn. In fact, I don't need to use the rudder much at all. I'm looking forward to taking the 17-footer into the ocean and doing some kayak sailing - the rudder will no doubt come in handy while sailing, something I've missed when sailing with the 14-footer.

Stone House Lake makes for a nice, quiet, hour-long cruise. There is a farm on one end of the lake, and that's about it. The rest of the lake is surrounded by woods and hills. I spotted numerous turtles sunning themselves on logs and one young spotted deer.

I've been experimenting with using the forward rod holder as an anchor for my sailing rig, a Spirit Sail. The rig is designed to attach to the hull via screws or suction cups. I've been hesitant to drill into the hull to use the sailing rig, and the suction cups do not attach themselves well to the plastic hull. Up until now, I've been using bungees and chains to hold the rig in the wind. With the rod holder, however, I've decided to experiment with 1" PVC tubing (see the pic above). So far, so good. It works well and holds the rig. Now if only I can find a really windy day and put it through a real test. View this location in Google Maps by clicking here.