Laurel River Lake kayak trip

I just got home from an overnight kayak trip on Laurel River Lake. My put in was ar Craig's Creek boat ramp. I started the paddle around 1 pm (the drive took 3 hours, and packing the yak took awhile). I paddled towards Craig's Creek where they have a goose management area. On the way, I was looking for a suitable place to camp. The lake was probably 20 feet low, which was very visible by the inclines with no vegetation. Everywhere I went were sites that you had to pay $10-16 per night. I saw 2 other people on the lake that day, none of which camped like me. They probably had a couple hundred pay sites around the lake. Everywhere I looked, though, there was no place to camp for free that would be suitable for a tent. Went to the goose management area.....saw no geese. Lots of ducks on the way, but no geese. Found a spot to camp, which was a climb up a stteep hill, but ended up worth it. My space had a clearing enough for a tent and a stone ring to make a fire in with a half log bench beside. I put up my tent around 4:30 pm and then made a fire. It was dark by 5 pm. I sat by the fire till about 8 pm, and was bored enough to go to sleep. It gets dark early these days. Hard to do outdoorsy things when it gets dark so quick. I woke up at 2 am to blood curdling screams of some animal that continued to 3:30 ish. I then woke again at 7 am, ready to start out again. I spent an hour or so sitting out on a point near my tent eating breakfast enjoying the 300 degree view of the lake. I packed up and paddled toward the dam where there were supposed nesting bald eagles. Got relatively close to the dam and no eagles seen. Decided that I would head toward the car. I stopped at a pretty lookout and had lunch. Then I paddled back to the car and was out by noonish. It was very pretty paddle, but lake paddling is difficult and tiring. It was fun.

Hit-Skip OVI Outcome

Just in case anyone wonders what kind of penalty comes with the offenses such as described before, I just had court on one of the hit-skip OVI arrests. This particular subject got 60 days of incarceration and a 3 year license suspension (even though he has no license). Went to court on another OVI case from much further back that I was involved in as well. It was this guys 6th OVI (he was 32 years old. He got 2 years incarceration and a lifetime license suspension (he can never have a license again). These are pretty good outcomes for cases such as these. Some of the best sentences that I've been able to get on such cases. Just goes to show....DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!!!