Lake Norman Memorial Day Weekend 2022

[BlkGS]

I think that's why Lake Gaston is starting to get so dang busy. Restaurants and fuel on the water, clean/clear lake with consistent lake levels, and what used to be affordable land/houses. Three years ago you could get an awesome lake front house with deep water and really nice boat house for high 300-low 400's. Now those same houses are over $1 mill.

Lake Hickory has gotten expensive too. Nice houses have gone up in a few years quite a lot of money. Real estate in general has gone up a lot, but desirable property has gone up even more.

 

[Shookie]

Yeah, it's the wrong time to be thinking about buying that 2nd home on a lake.....

I want to get up to Gaston and Kerr this summer. More so Kerr since it's less busy and there's more tubing space for the kids. That was the other thing about Norman. You couldn't just find a small cove area to give the kids a ride. With houses and docks everywhere and narrow coves, you just can't do it. As much as I don't like the brown water in Jordan Lake, there's no homes to worry about and there are plenty of areas to tube.

 

[Joshua Miller]

People wake board and waterski pretty regularly there. Tubing is popular too. It's not a giant lake, so you'll end up kinda going down the lake. We always launched at Whitten burg access when we weren't in the marina. It was pretty easy.

Lake Wylie also go a lot of praise in the area, it's further south of Charlotte vs hickory that's northwest. Never been on it, but people seemed to like it.

I ended up going to Lake Hickory and it was a blast! Busy for a small lake but not so much that I couldn’t have fun. Ramps were never busy. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Joshua Miller]

Hey Josh, great to see you got a new toy!

im actually renting a house on Norman Memorial Day weekend. Have had it booked for months now.... it’s in the Sherrils Ford area on the west side of the lake. I know it will be busy, but screw it. got a nice house with plenty of space..... I’ll need it! Each of my 3 kids is bringing a couple friends so I’m looking at 11-12 people total.

Yea bro it’s a beast. Sorry your Lake Norman experience wasn’t great.

 

[Shookie]

Yea bro it’s a beast. Sorry your Lake Norman experience wasn’t great.

It was a good time, just stressful dodging boats and wakes while pulling kids on a tube in heavy waves.... a big difference compared to Jordan Lake

 

[Ohio]

Spent last week on Lake Norman. There were 5 couples, had a great time. The weekend was busy, but during the week was strikingly quiet. Hardly any boats at all. We didn't ski or board, but perfect conditions for that every day. Ate at Eddie's, Hello Sailor, Toucan's, and Waterside bar and grill. Spent time at "cocktail cove" and "sand bar island", also up in a quiet cove in the state park. Water temps were 85-87. Hired a fishign guide one day and the wife caught a 24" striper, excellent fish to eat. Great lake, great area to visit.

 

[Weeb]

Spent last week on Lake Norman. There were 5 couples, had a great time. The weekend was busy, but during the week was strikingly quiet. Hardly any boats at all. We didn't ski or board, but perfect conditions for that every day. Ate at Eddie's, Hello Sailor, Toucan's, and Waterside bar and grill. Spent time at "cocktail cove" and "sand bar island", also up in a quiet cove in the state park. Water temps were 85-87. Hired a fishign guide one day and the wife caught a 24" striper, excellent fish to eat. Great lake, great area to visit.

How was Waterside I haven’t been there yet to eat. It’s crazy shallow in front of there.

 

[Ohio]

How was Waterside I haven’t been there yet to eat. It’s crazy shallow in front of there.

lol, funny you should mention the depth. We came in from the south and crossed under the bridge on the east side (right side) met up with a pontoon boat that was floating on the east side of the channel. I crossed the channel and found out just how shallow it was. There are some buoys there, one indicated rocks (I think, it was the orange diamond) closer to the bridge, but the other ones were unmarked. We somehow got through with no damage to our our out drive, as it was just soft mud. Both my depth gauge and the pontoon's showed it at 1.5' I spoke to the lady running the gas dock, but all she knew was that she had only ever seen jet skis cross the channel through the middle. When we left I just stayed to the right, and crossed under the bridge on the west side. It was 5' deep minimum from their slips and 10' at least under the bridge.

As for the food, it was just ok, I doubt we would go back, given the other options to the south. The reviews I saw on Yelp for them seemed higher than they should be.

 

[Weeb]

lol, funny you should mention the depth. We came in from the south and crossed under the bridge on the east side (right side) met up with a pontoon boat that was floating on the east side of the channel. I crossed the channel and found out just how shallow it was. There are some buoys there, one indicated rocks (I think, it was the orange diamond) closer to the bridge, but the other ones were unmarked. We somehow got through with no damage to our our out drive, as it was just soft mud. Both my depth gauge and the pontoon's showed it at 1.5' I spoke to the lady running the gas dock, but all she knew was that she had only ever seen jet skis cross the channel through the middle. When we left I just stayed to the right, and crossed under the bridge on the west side. It was 5' deep minimum from their slips and 10' at least under the bridge.

As for the food, it was just ok, I doubt we would go back, given the other options to the south. The reviews I saw on Yelp for them seemed higher than they should be.

We were coming from the north after my daughters tritoon engine trim got stuck up and she was getting low on fuel so I went in there to see if the gas station was open and barely made it to the dock. I had to back out and get closer to the bridge and even that was sketchy. They were closed so we just tied her up at the marina where she bought the boat a couple miles south So they could fix it.