Being less than a month away from the solstice, these early start times can be especially challenging. But I’ve always made the claim that the best sunrises happen in the months of May and October. And Memorial Day morning sure lived up to this!
I arrived at L1 just before 5:00am, and the first thing I noticed was the high water level. The lake was mostly calm with just a slight ripple, but water was already surging over the sidewall and spilling out into the area where we usually set out our stuff. I’ve never seen it this high in the 12 years I’ve been coming out to swim at this site, so all that snow we had over the winter must really have topped off Lake Michigan!
The surface temperature reading came in at an amazing 58.1F – slightly lower than the in-swim temp of 58.6F due to the lower air temperature. But this was a refreshing change from the past few weeks where the lake was stubbornly clinging to the low 50Fs.
I had just returned from a very long overseas trip the day before, and I was still rather sleep deprived. So I threw on a short sleeve neoprene top to take the edge off of the lake, and I was glad I did! As such, I was able to get in a full 1/2 mile in an aquarium clear lake and take my time enjoying it!
After the swim, a few of us hung around and socialized while the intense eastern sunshine warmed us up. And while I was pretty bundled up, I didn’t have any afterdrop this time – which is a big deal after what we had to contend with over the last few months!
