Swim Report – August 22, 2015 – Deluge

The forecast called for heavy rain – but not thunderstorms – during the early morning hours of today. So absent any lightning, the swim was still a go as of last night. Fortunately for us, the weatherman was actually spot on this time!

It took a bit longer to get down to L1 given the inclement weather, but luckily there were plenty of open parking spots on Clark Street. I trudged through the downpour on my way to the swim site and was pretty much soaked through by the time I got there. I should have read the label more closely when I bought my rain slicker – “water resistant” just isn’t the same as “water proof!”

Not surprisingly, there were very few people out at the lakefront given the rather dismal weather conditions. But despite the rain, the lake looked fairly calm, and there was no sign of any thunderstorm activity. So given that I was already soaking wet, not swimming was simply not an option!

Much to my delight, I didn’t have to swim by myself. Phil arrived along with new Lake Monster Bill, hailing all the way from the Bay Area. We hung out underneath the Chess Pavilion and got all of our gear on before heading out to L1.

I had measured the surface temperature shortly beforehand, and it came in at 62.2F. When I got in the lake, I was very pleased to see that it had indeed warmed up from last week. There were no heart-stopping thermoclines lurking below the surface, so it looks like we are back on track to more “normal” lake temperatures!

I did the out-and-back to Oak Street Beach where they were setting up for the AVP volleyball tournament. We got some curious stares from the workers who were setting up the facilities. The event managers had fenced off the entire area from outsiders – but they weren’t expecting any pedestrians to arrive via the beach!

The swim back to L1 was a tad bit more difficult as the lake became choppier the last 1/4 mile. But just like last week, the water was amazingly clear and quite a joy to swim in!

The swim site at 6:00am