ski lakes,vacations lakes

[Whitetail15]

i live in eastern pa and vacation every year at deep creek lake maryland for the past 30 years. we have watched that lake go from enjoyable to a place that you can not even drive on unless it is the first 30 min of light. we just had enough and were gonna throw in the towel.

can anybody help with suggestions on a place to go within 500 miles that we can rent a home or cottage lakeside with dock on water that we can enjoy monday threw fridays. i understand that fri sat and sun will all be busy, but you can not do anything but tube at deep creek unless you get the kids up at 5 am everyday.

thanks for the help

[SkiTower]

not sure about the 500 mile radius, but Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia is nice now (but developing quickly) and there are several lakes in Tennessee people are raving about (Dale Hollow being one of them).

Also, I'm dying to try Lake James in NC and Keowee in SC. That is probably more than 500 miles, though.

[MikeC]

I second everything that skitower said - all of those lakes are great with plenty of rental houses. Have you looked at going north into New York? There are a lot of nice lakes in the Adirondacks, they're cold but not too busy during the week. I have a friend on a lake up there, if you want any information on those lakes let me know and I'll get the low-down from him.

[ClemsonDave]

What type of skiing do you do? Lake Anna is a good spot. Cold side (public) is large and many marina's. Warm side (private) is a good size and way less crowded. I'm sure you can find rental houses on both sides.

[srock]

I was on both lake James and Keowee in mid September during a 10 day vacation and both were awesome. I assume the lakes get much busier when the kids are in school so perhaps I was lucky. I can see that development will continue to crowd these lakes in the future. I am spoiled with good water at home so that comes from someone who is very picky.

Would love to hear more comments on both lakes as I would like to buy something for the future.

[Latonkaboarder]

I couldn't agree with you more about Deep Creek. I went there this past summer and it was the busiest lake I have been on before. I have been to Smith Mountain before and loved it. There are plenty of coves and good water to easily find during the week. Also there are some activities around the lake to enjoy in the evenings. I have also spent a lot of time at Lake Gaston in NC. Gaston is a great place to find good water during the week as well. There is also a pro wakeboarder (Adam Fields) located there incase you wanted to take any lessons while vacationing. We rented a house three doors down from his about 6 years ago. It was great and had a private boat launch in the yard so I could pull the boat out every night. As Clemson Dave mentioned Lake Anna is very enjoyable. I have been to it on both the public and private sides. Out of those three I would have to say Smith Mountain is my favorite. It is the most scenic also with crystal clear water and very is deep. The only bad thing is that there is no easy way to get to it since it is surrounded by the blue ridge mountains. Have you ever been to Raystown lake in PA. I have heard it is very nice also and may not be as far of a drive for you.

http://www.raystownlake.com/
http://smith-mountain-lake.com/
http://www.lake-gaston-properties.com/
http://www.lakeanna-va.com/

[dip]

I live in Eastern Pa too, and we've been to Smith Mountain a number of times.
The lake is big with nice deep protected coves and it's not at all crowded during the week. Its also an easy tow from PA, about 7 hours for me.
We used CB Rentals to find our houses and they were a good company with good service.

[NautiqueOasis]

If you would be interested in Dale Hollow Lake in TN, I can provide all the detail you need. We own a houseboat on the lake and know all the marinas, cabins, etc. Just send me a PM.

[TString211]

Ditto if you have an interest in Norris. Big lake, I can always find calm water. Own a condo there, can give you some of the more out of the way places.

[Whitetail15]

thanks for help guys. its gonna be hard to pick

[Whitetail15]

vacation lakes

any sugestions on vacation lake other than ones listed. gonna try to keep it less 10 hours from pgh pa and in warm weather and water.

[nautique210]

Vacation lakes

You can't go wrong with Smith Mountain Lake. We live in Western Pennsylvania and have vacationed there 3 times. We have used CB Rentals, but have found VRBO.com to offer a better selection of homes to choose from. We like the Moneta area and try to stay no more that a 10 minute boat ride to the Hales Ford bridge area. We've been to Deep Creek to look around at homes for rent, Deep Creek would save us 4-5 hours of travel time each way, but there was just to much boat traffic on the lake. We decided it's well worth the drive time to vacation at Smith Mountain Lake, the warm, deep, clear water is hard to beat.