A Weekend at the Lake

Raystown Lake is the largest lake totally within Pennsylvania— an S-shaped, man-made reservoir in Huntingdon County that’s just far enough away from home for the denizens of Lancaster County to make it an ideal vacation spot. Well, for the some of the denizens, anyway. Until this summer, I had never been there. In fact, I couldn’t say I’d ever spent more a few hours at a lake.

So when my friend Regina invited me along with friends to go camping and boating at Raystown Lake, I was happy to sign up just to finally see the place.

And it didn’t disappoint! Raystown Lake is beautiful, with miles of trails and scenic lake views. We tented on a peninsula, and went biking and hiking. But the biggest highlight of the weekend was spending a day on the lake with a rented pontoon boat.

Several members of the group went to get the boat at the marina, then brought it close to our campsite so the rest of us could get on. “They told us they had a drowning yesterday,” Ivan said after we all got on the boat.

“They might say that everyday, just so people are careful,” said Tim.

Recent drowning or not, the big lake made me uneasy and I kept my lifejacket within reach. (A google search showed the drowning story was true.)

With almost thirteen square miles, we had plenty of space to do whatever activity we wanted to.

A few tried fishing.

But the real attraction of the lake for this group was water sports. I learned a lot about aquatic fun just listening to the others talk.

In case there’s any readers, who, like me, are unaware of the particularities of water sports, here’s a handy guide in layman terms.

Tubing: A big, inflated tube with a cover over it (so you don’t fall in the hole?) is attached by rope to the back of the boat. One person sprawls over the tube and hangs on to the handles for dear life while the boat driver goes faster and faster and moves back and forth until the person on the tube is either thrown off or lets go.

Waterskiing: A person straps skis on their feet, and hangs on to a rope being pulled behind the boat. They have to carefully pull themselves up (the smaller you are, the easier this step is) so that their skis skim the surface of the water as they are pulled along. One of the guys with our group told us that in his teenage days he and his friends would form human pyramids while waterskiing.

Wakeboarding: We didn’t have a wakeboard along, so no one actually did this, but it’s like waterskiing with just a board. Sort of like surfing on a leash.

Waterboarding: NOT a water sport, even if it sounds like it belongs on this list. If anyone asks you to go waterboarding, cut off all contact with them.

I didn’t want to go back to shore without even getting wet, so I did give the tube thing a try. It took a lot of courage, but really wasn’t too bad. Once the ride started getting rough, I simply let go, then bobbed around in the water like a cork until the boat turned around to pick me up.

We ate kebabs and peanuts and as the day wore on, we stopped at a small island where other boaters were diving off a cliff. I hiked to the top of the island and got some photos.

Later in the afternoon, it started getting chilly so we pointed the pontoon back to the campsite. We had to pack up and drive home, but it had been a great weekend at the lake.

Please enjoy the video of Regina learning to waterski!