Tim, Fred, and I met out at L1 on a morning that looked nothing like mid-December. With the dense fog, 50F air temperature, and 44.2F lake reading, Saturday morning was more akin to early Spring than late Autumn. But we certainly weren’t complaining!
Because of the unseasonably warm conditions, I decided to channel Marton and Nick and forego the wetsuit for this swim. I still wore my neoprene gloves, boots, shorts, and hood. But my chest, arms, and legs were at the mercy of Mother Nature.
Fortunately, it wasn’t as extreme as I was expecting!
I stepped down the ladder to let the water over lap my legs, and it wasn’t as shocking as the previous week. So I waded out into the open water, go acclimated pretty quickly, and started heading south.
I swam down to the 1/4 mile mark where Fred and Tim were waiting. I am a much slower swimmer than they are, so they had quickly overtaken and passed me early on. We chatted very briefly, and I turned around to head back while I was still in “aerobic mode.”
The return part of the swim seemed to take a bit longer as there was a slight southbound current we had to swim through in order to get back to L1. So the last 100 meters seemed to take an agonizingly long time in the frigid lake!
We didn’t waste any time once we got out of the water. I doffed my neoprene, got into some warm layers, and started pounding down hot cups of coffee from my thermos – just in time for the arrival of the good ole’ afterdrop!
We got a surprise visit from Danny whom we haven’t seen out at the lakefront for quite some time. We also saw some of the other summer “regulars” out on the bike path.
Again, if I hadn’t checked my calendar, I could have sworn it was early Spring!
“Spring fog” out at L1
