The dog days of summer always seem to bring out larger crowds – including Lake Monsters who we haven’t seen in a while. And this was most certainly the case on Saturday!
The heat wave from earlier in the week brought the lake temperature up to 74.5F. While this was quite comfortable to swim in, it also came with a trade off – namely higher algae levels. In fact, I am sure that this is what has been causing my post-swim congestion symptoms over the past month or so. Personally, I’d rather have colder water and no allergens – so give me a 55F lake any time over what we get this time of year!
For this swim, I decided to do a 1/2 mile breaststroke to the beach in order to spare my shoulder the stress of an overhead freestyle stroke. This seemed to work out very well, although I was surprised at how much more I used my legs with this stroke (something they reminded me of several hours later)!
We had some 1-3 foot swells that seemed to intensify closer to the beach – especially at “Hell’s Corner.” So the lake was a bit more of a challenge than the mirror flat conditions we had mid-week. But we sure had a great morning out at the old swim site!
Sunrise
Lake Monster gathering
Heading south
At the beach!
Pat, Lake Monster 420 (with returning veteran Heidi, LM 201)
