JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Hikers descend into the bed of Mountain Lake. At nearly 4,000 feet above sea level, the lake — one of only two natural lakes in Virginia — is fed entirely by springs and groundwater from the surrounding mountaintop and basin.

JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

As the several feet of snow that remained on the mountain just weeks ago have largely melted, Mountain Lake, which began to dry up in 2006 and had drained to a small pool by the fall of 2008, has begun to refill. Shown in the photo is mud near the boathouse.

| Shawna Morrison

shawna.morrison@roanoke.com, 381-1665

PEMBROKE -- This winter's heavy snowfall may have been just what was needed at Mountain Lake.

There hasn't been enough water in the lake to get a boat off the docks in nearly four years, but at least one person believes this could be the year that changes.

"The way it's coming now, I would think we'd be able to get boats in the water this spring," said Buzz Scanland, the manager of Mountain Lake Hotel.

As the several feet of snow that remained on the mountain just weeks ago have largely melted, the lake, which began to dry up in 2006 and had drained to a small pool by the fall of 2008, is refilling.

For the first time in a few years, the water is touching the bottom side of the extended boat dock on the side of the lake opposite the hotel.

"We can see it very well from the hotel, and it looks fuller than it did at the start of the winter," said Emily Woodall, director of the Mountain Lake Conservancy.

But Woodall estimates the lake will need to rise another 20 feet to float the dock.

"I would love to see the lake refill to the brim," said Elva Douthat, who lives in Newport only a few miles from Mountain Lake.

Douthat said Mountain Lake and its hotel are special to her because her grandfather, James Dell Martin, helped build the hotel. Growing up, she said, her family visited often.

"He loved Mountain Lake, as did we all in our family," Douthat said. "It is so beautiful up there anyway, but having a lake full of water is more beautiful."

Woodall said last week that there appeared to be a channel on the left side of the lake that wasn't visible the week before, another sign that it's expanding as the snow melts.

In addition to the slow melting process, Scanland said he believes the lake's natural drain-and-fill cycle is also playing a part in its refill.

At nearly 4,000 feet above sea level, the lake -- one of only two natural lakes in Virginia -- is fed entirely by springs and groundwater from the surrounding mountaintop and basin.

However, it drains through fissures in the rock below. During drought, it can take years for the lake to refill.

The first known reference to the lake was made in 1751, when a British surveyor described it in his journals. But settlers in 1768 found no lake atop what became called Salt Pond Mountain.

Standing in front of the hotel on a recent sunny day, Scanland pointed to dark spots under the sheet of ice covering most of the lake.

"What I think is happening is the water is flowing into the lake from below," he said. He said it appeared the water was pushing the ice upward.

Supporting his theory, Scanland said, is the fact that a number of fish survived the near-complete drying out of the lake in the fall of 2008.

Dozens of fish decayed on the muddy lake bed, leaving Scanland to believe the fish population had been wiped out.

But when the water began to slowly creep back into the lake, many brim and bass returned as well. Scanland believes they survived in a water-filled cave underneath the lake. As the ground becomes more saturated, he said, the excess water in the cave is rising above ground.

With water both pushing upward from below the lake and melting into it from above, Scanland said it's just a matter of time before Mountain Lake is back to the way many remember it.

"I don't think it'll fill up this year," Scanland said, "but if it keeps going like this, it may be soon."