We got to take the inflatable stand up paddle (ISUP) boards out. 

If your going to go to Fontana Village you’ve got to either ride or hike the trails or get on the water.  The easiest and quickest way to do that is to head down to the marina.  The Fontana Marina is only a couple of miles away in between the village and the Fontana Dam.

The water is pretty low this time of year and the marina itself is a floating store so the long dock and marina was almost hidden behind the hill down to the water.  The marina has a full store with plenty of supplies and your source of water entertainment. They also rent pontoons, kayaks and offer lake cruises.

The day was getting late and all we wanted to was get on the water.  So I unrolled the boards on the dock and spent about 15 minutes airing up our two inflatable paddle boards. Torie and the kids checked out marina while I got the gear ready.

We got our paddle boards this past spring after a lot of research comparing the different brands and the pros and cons of a hard board vs an inflatable. We didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg for one, but we didn’t want to waste money on poor quality either.

We finally decided on Ten Toes and were actually able to get 2 of them, since the price was affordable and 2 were less than the price of some we looked at. We wanted to take our boards on the road with us, and these deflate and roll up easy. They also come with a bad, and a paddle and a pump that makes it easy to air them up on the go.

Once the boards were ready to go we paddled from the marina straight out to the other side.  Looks like some of the year there would have been an island, but the water was so low the island was connected to the main land and exposed a nice beach.

Torie and Bella were jamming on the water, and staked their claim to the shore before we arrived.

The cove was lined with large house boats anchored in the water. Some were very nice, two stories, nice deck with a matching boat and some of the them looked like they had seen better days.

We didn’t remember a dry bag, so we left our phones in the car just to be safe. 🙁

As we neared the cove where the beach was we saw the craziest thing.

They looked like Jelly Fish! We couldn’t believe it!  Not just a few jelly fish, but a whole swarm of them. They made us quit uneasy about taking a mid-lake dip like we’re used to doing. It was funny that Torie saw them first, then yelled out to me from the shore when she thought I might have reached them. I didn’t hear her, but it wasn’t a minute later that we paddled into the swarm and I yelled out to Torie on the shore.

Both of us were so bummed that we left our phones in the car (after a soggy phone after our last rafting trip). It would have been great to capture these unique creatures ourself. It was unbelievable.

Our paddling looked like it was well over a mile, not a bad little paddle on a Saturday afternoon!

When we returned to the marina I asked the guy working if he knew about the jellyfish and he said they show for about two weeks and then die.  They stay in the calmer areas of the lake.  From what I’ve found they are an invasive species from China and no one really knows much about them.

We asked around back at Fontana Village too, and no one had every heard about the amazing Chinese Jelly Fish!

I found this news story about fresh water jelly fish in a Wisconsin lake.

Pretty neat experience to see fresh water jelly fish in Fontana Lake!

Want to know how to get to the Fontana Village Marina?

Our Life Goal is to get out and Live!

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