We are heading to Smith Mountain Lake located in Virginia for a charity home tour October 2-4. We went to this event 2 years ago and enjoyed the time viewing nice homes and boating on a terrific lake.

We stayed and are staying at the SML State Park where we will be camping. The state park is not on the water so you will need to launch and retrieve each day.

Two years ago we went by boat on Saturday and by car on Sunday as one of the houses was located in shallow waters. If this is the case this year, we will just skip that house as boating was the best means of transportation.

When boating you dock and there are dock hands to help you and everyone is very friendly. While touring the houses, they will list of a bunch of sponsors for each house and they direct you around the house.

The event runs Friday to Sunday but you can easily do 4 houses in one day or possibly all 8 but that will be pushing it.
Usual disclaimers as I receive no benefit from the charities being supported.

Maybe next year...should be a nice time of year to cruise the lake. Hope you enjoy and have nice weather. I've read about the event but never done the tour. We are actually heading up to SML in 2 weeks to stay on the lake as guests of some friends. Just for 1 night but are really looking forward to it as I boated there quite a bit as a kid. My parents had an undeveloped lake lot they bought in the early 70s with retirement in mind that they sold waaaaay too early when plans changed. It's been a good while since I've boated there and hope it lives up to my memories.

I have heard that the lake is beautiful and have wanted to go boating there for many years...

I have tried searching for rental houses but never seem not find what we are looking for....

I have also searched on Cumberland Lake,, Their it seems like house boats are the way to go...

Raystown Lake is another one that house boats are very popular...

I like the idea of house boating however we vacation mostly with in laws and I think it may get very small very quick,,,

challenger, there are also houseboats on SML!

My brother's family rented one there and had a great time. I am not sure how large of one you can rent, but you can always rent two if you need additional space.

The home tour sounds like fun, and one of my friends who lives at the lake is helping out. If business picks up a lot in the next few weeks, maybe we can make it too?

Let us know Way if you can make it. We enjoyed the time spending with my A&U who we don't see much of and they live in Woodbridge, VA.

Since we will have our first mate on board and you have to be 12 to go inside the houses we are only buying one ticket and I will alternate looking at the houses with my wife. We are not so much going down to look at houses we can't afford but rather to go down and boat on SML and camp with my A&U.

If it works out that we can go, it will be a homecoming for Waywego. We bought her from a dealer on SML, and she had been on the lake most of her life.

You must do it for Waywego's sake.

Waywego is not feeling very well right now. I need to dig into the outdrive and see why the clutches were slipping...

Doesn't look like we are going to make -- too many family activites this weekend...

And I still have to re-assemble the outdrive to test it.

I have been slowly packing the last couple of days and will be getting the boat prepped tonight as I want to be on the road by 8AM (rush hour is nothing in my neck of the woods). We should be arriving at the campground by 2 or 3 PM and my aunt and uncle will be arriving around 9PM with their pop-up (we will be in our tent).

Friday's has a 30% chance of precip and Saturday's is 40% with temps in the low 70's. Sunday when we leave it is 0% (Frantically Relaxing, are you going to be at the lake too?).

We are looking forward to our last weekend of boating for the season before winter comes.

This year the houses are relatively close to each other so we may not explore as much of the lake as we can. My A&U have a piece of land on the lake so we will stop by it to check on how high the grass is as well as look for some deals of the century.

Regardless of how the weather is, I will be off work for a couple of days and will be on the water with my family enjoying the surroundings.

Pictures to follow on my return.

Have a great time and post pictures!

Thought I'd throw some pictures in here for anyone curious about what SML looks like. We had a really nice family trip up there a few weeks back. Our neighbors invited us to come along for a visit to their parents' place. They are a family of 5 as well and their kids match up almost perfectly with ours. We all stayed busy swimming, fishing, boating, kayaking, paddle boating, jet-skiing and eating down by the water. Incredible weather though the water is a bit cooler than Lake Norman. We even got to cruise by my parents' old lot for a walk down memory lane.

Brace yourselves dial-up users...this is only 19 out of the 121 we took! Ahhh, the beauty of digital cameras and no film/developing costs.

Home base...double dock w/ fridge and tables



My son post jumping



The boys paddle boat fishing



Waverunner



Peaks of Otter



Smith Mountain Dock



Feeding the Carp



Heading to the dam



The dam...over 200 feet deep here!



Heading back



Wait...there's more!

Smith Mountain



SML State Park Beach



SML State Park fishing pier




Quite a few sailboats out and about



Duck/goose blind on a nearby island we paddled to



Kayaking w/ my daughter



We had a pretty spectacular evening dinner on the dock



...and sunset



Our "room with a view"



Good times, great hosts and excellent scenery.

Those are some great pics AT!
Looking forward to Holiday's

Very nice. Pretty hard not to have fun at a place like that. Great pics.

Nice, reminds me of Raystown.

We are back now with pictures to follow.

Wednesday night we packed the truck and hooked up the boat
Thursday we finished packing the cooler and were on the road by 8 only to drive 1/4 mile for boat gas. Why everyone needs to get gas, coffee etc. before going to work is beyond me. We got gas and then realized that we left all of our son's sippy cups back home so we went back.

The direct route to SML via 81 is up and over the mountain and driving on parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This makes the hill to Raystown Lake seem like a small incline. We were set for the adventure so we took it. What a view we had driving on the BRP. I am glad it was daylight and the weather cooperated.

After the mountain pass I thought I should get some gas since it was relatively cheap. I am pumping and thinking that I could go use the restroom to save time but decided to stay . The tank is full but the gas never shuts off so I spilled a little on the ground and down the side of the truck . I later read a sign on the pump that says something about the gas tank may overfill and not responsible blah, blah... Why couldn't they put it on orange paper instead of the size of a business card.

We get to the state park around 3:30 and set up our camp, I am in shorts and a t-shirt, we eat dinner and I am in pants and a sweatshirt. We sit by the fire and I am in pants, a light jacket and my son on my lap with blankets over him and me. The sky was clear and the temps were falling.

My aunt and uncle arrive around 9PM and were able to set up next to us (no reserved sites, first come first serve but you do have a reserved spot)

Inside the tent we have a nice 1500 watt ceramic heater that takes the chill away so we can be comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt.

Friday morning we eat heat up the left over steak and potatoes from last night, cook some eggs and have a nice hearty breakfast, we were on the water by 10:00 AM to head towards the first house.

We toured the houses all by boat as it is faster and more enjoyable than by car. When you arrive at the house, people are there to assist you in docking, everyone is very friendly.

My aunt and uncle have some land near the dam so we went to see it from the water. They have a dock and wanted to know the depth so I was able help them out.

They wanted to look at PWC so we headed back to the bridge that goes over the lake which is where the marinas are. They also wanted to look at pontoons so we got a tour of a 25' Bennington. After some looking we made our way back home to the state park.

What is nice about boating this time of year is that the boats that are on the water, especially on Friday, are for the home tour. The water was quite flat and made for some great cruising. The air was crisp and the sky was clear. I could do that all day. Since the air was crisp, I left the bow cover on and the windshield closed to block the wind in the cockpit.

Sunday we get up and my son is not feeling well, by about 9AM he got sick on me 3 times. It made for a late departure as we finally pulled out of the campground about 12:30 but thankfully he fell asleep before we left the campsite and slept for the next 3 hours. He wakes up and the first words were boating daddy?

It was a long trip home, we took another route so we didn't have to go up and over the mountain. This added about a half hour but it was an easy tow.

Tonight I will be cleaning the boat and getting it ready for its winter's nap.

Sorry for being too long above..

Quick story, you must be 12 to walk through the houses and you can't carry babies etc. so we only bought one ticket and my wife and I shared it while the other stayed on the boat with our son. The second day we decided that we would take our son to the house so he can get up and walk around etc. but not go in the house.

So at the first house I am sitting on a bench with him and one of the volunteers at the house was an young lady at least in her upper 70's. Inside the garage is a bunch of food for the volunteers so she comes over and says that if your son would like a snack we may help ourselves. My son is a social eater at 23 months so we get some fruit and go back to the bench, my wife comes out to see his mouth full of cantelope.

We enjoyed ourselves cruising around Smith Mountain Lake for our last boating excursion of the year. As I said before, pictures to follow real soon.

Not too long at all...good write-up. I was curious how you would like towing through the mountains on the way. Always nice when the weather cooperates in the mountains...towing or not.

So the little one got some bad cantelope, eh?...just kidding...hope he's better. Glad the tour went well and looking forward to pics.

Really enjoyed the report Holiday – thanks for posting it.
Sounds like a small adventure to a beautiful area.
Look forward to pics (please save any pics of your son getting sick )

Who had time to take pictures of that LL, I already had my hands full in more way than one.

Finally have some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Packing some firewood for the camping trip


Arrival at the state park that we will be calling home for the next couple of days


The first day was overcast and chilly so we had jackets on
This is my aunt and uncle and my son. My uncle enjoys being the navigator and only got us lost once.


This is a picture of my A&U's property. Their boat house is the one on the right and is the empty lot in between the two houses you see.

There were 8 houses total on the tour, each house had an orange ball that indicated the house from the water

I was trying to figure out the length of this Sea Ray, the posts at the boat house are 12' apart. They often sat idling until a big enough space was available for them to dock.


Some of the boats that were part of the tour. I suppose the owner of this boat doesn't really know what he wants.

You needed to be 12 in order to take part viewing the houses, since my FM has 10 more years to go he spent most of the day in the boat. That was fine with him as he had plenty of food to snack on. As I mentioned earlier, we got smart on the last day and had him walk around and little old ladies made sure he had plenty to eat and drink.


Saturday was the better of the two days out on the water. I am pretty sure I am up on plane in this picture.


The concrete wall that holds back the water is where the "V" in the mountain is.


A shot of the concrete wall that holds back water

The captain


The cove my A&U have property

Fall colors just starting to show


After 2 full days of boating and my son constantly asking to go to the playground we enjoyed some time there. Actually my wife played with him while I cleaned up the boat and took some pictures


After we got home my son enjoyed looking at the map of the state park and showing where we camped, launched the boat, and the infamous playground

I didn't take many pictures of the houses as you couldn't take pictures inside and the house pictures are on the tour website. Just google Smith Mountain Lake Charity tour and that should get you to the spot.

We enjoy this trip mainly as the lake is beautiful and we're 2 for 2 on having great weather. Heck, maybe next year we will forgo actually going on the tour and just cruise around to the different houses. The tour is for many charities in the SML community and they make sure each sponsor is well advertised while going through the houses. I like to be nosey and see wonderful houses on a wonderful lake. Heck, one house we went to I made the comment that I wouldn't mind being the family dog as it gets treated pretty nice.

Some houses had before and after pictures of the renovations they did. One house was built in the early 70's, had 7 acres of land and just redid the house a few years ago. You couldn't even tell it was the same house from the pictures.

Nice shots!...glad you had a good trip and the weather cooperated. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing -- it looks like you had a wonderful time!

Love the pics Holiday!
Especially like pics with your aunt and uncle – what boating and family are about

Thanks for the (vicarious) trip. It was fun! The boat looks familiar, and I could almost feel the crisp air. Great pics and descriptions.

I have more and will post maybe tonight.