Geocaching Smith Mountain Lake to Alta Vista

Smith Mountain Lake Dam

Last week, I needed a geocaching fix in the worst way, and the nearest concentration left for me to claim was at Smith Mountain Lake, about an hour northeast of here. The caches resided along numerous different channels and inlets with no direct access between them, which meant a not-so-short trip. But on Friday morning, I headed out bright and early and commenced to driving and hunting and hunting and driving. I ended up at various points around the southern legs of the lake, including Smith River Dam, which I'd never seen, and it turned out to be pretty impressive. Plus there was a nice cache there. And a big honking turbine. I also found a cool little graveyard out in the middle of nowhere.

A big honking turbine

A cool little graveyard out in the middle of nowhere

Water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.

For lunch, I discovered an awesome bar & grill at Magnum Point Marina, where I had a killer BBQ sandwich, fries, and a very good beer (a local bourbon barrel brew). The almost day-long trip didn't put that many new cache finds under my belt, but I got my caching fix. Mainly, it flung a craving on me, and I still had a few caches not far away lurking on the map.

So today, I headed back up to the eastern end of Smith Mountain Lake, grabbed the lone cache in that area I needed, and then hit the road for the little town of Alta Vista, not far to the north. Here, I managed to find another handful, a couple of which turned out to be pretty challenging (one because I decided to see if I could park closer to it than the recommended location; it worked out fine, but it bumped the terrain difficulty rating up a few points). I survived it well enough, but it kinda wore this old man out.

Those two trips cleaned out another relatively nearby area, so... as is the nature of this activity... I'll be needing to travel farther and farther to get my geocaching fixes. Happily, it's worth every bit of it for the experiences and the exercise.

Lunchtime views from the Magnum Point Marina Bar & Grill

The library in downtown Alta Vista