Resort Hotel Will Celebrate ‘National Trails Day’ On June 6 With Hikes, More
PEMBROKE, Va. – Right now, Mountain Lake is on the rise – thanks to the watery runoff of several springs and a healthy amount of recent rainfall.
This waterhole, sitting at an elevation of about 3,850 feet atop Salt Pond Mountain near Pembroke, Va., is one of only two natural freshwater lakes in the state.
And its water level fluctuates – possibly due to earthquakes shifting plates beneath its surface.
When it rains, the lake fills.
And when there’s a drought? Mountain Lake begins to disappear.
Still, activities abound at the Mountain Lake Resort Hotel, a facility that overlooks the lake from a grassy hillside with various amenities, including 22 miles of multi-use trails.
This weekend, on June 6, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the hotel is hosting a celebration in honor of “National Trails Day.”
Events include a family camping clinic, guided mountain bike rides and a guided family hike with members of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to Bald Knob, a natural lookout.
‘LOWEST POINT’
As for the actual lake, it’s been going up and down since 1999, said H.M. “Buzz” Scanland Jr., the hotel’s general manager.
Last year, Scanland said, “It was the lowest point that it’s been in 100 years.”
Treasures like old boats and beer cans emerged in the muddy lakebed.
Some visitors, meanwhile, carted along metal detectors and shovels looking for souvenirs but had to be turned away, said Emily Woodall, the managing director of the Mountain Lake Conservancy.
By October 2008, what had once been a 55-acre lake became nothing more than a tiny pond of dark, muddy water, measuring about the size of a large living room.
“It was pretty exciting with the lake being low,” Woodall said. “We saw something that nobody had ever seen before.”
And so did the birds, circling above the lakebed.
One great blue heron seemingly came to the area, looking for the lake, Woodall said. “And, finally, he landed in the mud flats.”
‘DIDN’T CHECK OUT’
Simply put, Mountain Lake had practically disappeared.
“But nature takes care of itself,” Scanland said. “There was mud and silt. And when it got down to the end, the fish were dead. And it started to smell. And then all that mud engulfed all the fish.”
About that time, some guests discovered a pair of shoes caked in mud plus coins, a belt buckle and bones – all once belonging to 37-year-old Samuel Ira Felder.
A guest at the hotel, Felder had mysteriously fallen from a rowboat and drowned on July 23, 1921 at about 10:30 p.m.
Felder’s plight was mentioned in newspaper accounts of the day, and the director of the hotel, T.G. Porterfield, helped divers search for Felder’s body.
In 2008, Scanland said, a modern investigation of Felder’s remains was handled by the Giles County Sheriff’s Department.
Pulling out a file of papers, Scanland uncovered the guest ledger from 1921, showing how Felder “checked in, but he didn’t check out.”
Until 87 years later.
IF YOU GO
What: "National Trails Day" at Mountain Lake
When: June 6, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Mountain Lake Resort Hotel, 115 Hotel Circle, Pembroke, Va. The hotel is about seven miles from U.S. 460, between Blacksburg and Pearisburg.
Info: (800) 346-3334
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