I'm not much of a swimmer...don't care much for water. I've never been a 'recreational' swimmer in fact, and save the requisite shower to keep the funk down, I try to avoid contact with the stuff altogether.

I DID however, dip my skinny in the lake off Bayfield last summer when Tamara and I spent the weekend at her mom's house out there. We had walked down about a quarter mile or so down the beach where it wasn't so populated and just went in knee deep...after a few minutes, I threw caution to the wind and tossed the remainder of my clothing onto the shore...

felt wierd...liberating, but wierd.

I was in this year during that first warm snap we had before the rains...was that end of april?? I hurt like hammers ball peening my legs by the time (2 minutes...or was it :20 sec?) Actullay the water was "warm" as the wind was blowing off the lake and rolling the days top water up on the shore.

1979

Well, I've sailed on the Lake as early as March when my family would sail our boat from Superior (where we wintered it) to Bayfield (where we summered it) or as late as November when we made the return trip. Not much recreational swimming at that time, but I think I remember falling off into the water at one point.

Not quite on topic, but I do remember swimming out at Cat Island when I was about 11 or so and getting a very nice case of hypothermia. Mom and Dad had given me new goggles and flippers and there were all sorts of neato-speato gigantic rocks underwater to look at, so I swam for a half-hour or so... yup. That was a pleasant sail back to Bayfield. I don't remember much after getting back in the boat other than curling up in the corner of the boat in the sun...

I remember being very drunk on margaritas from Tommy's Burned Down and beer from Bud's Beer Bar on Madeline and jumping off the pier into the water whilst waiting for the ferry to pick us up last August...

not this year, but in times past, it's been May 1 (Beltane) or May 15 (Northern-it'stoofuckingcold-Beltane).

those times usually were night, with requisite roaring bonfire, nekkid, and fueled strongly by witchy substances. painful, rather than pleasant, but certainly makes ya feel part of the great cosmic something-or-other.

i hereby declare that i have never swum in this lake with a swimsuit on. on principle.

what's a swimsuit???

Mickey jumped in on March 17th

New Years Eve 1980...argh. Combination of youth, malt liquor, tequila, and cheap champagne. We had a huge bonfire going and lots of blankies ready, but some of us still ended up puking. Had to be the cold. It couldn't possibly have been the ridiculous combination of crappy booze. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone...nature generally does weed out the stupid. For some reason we survived.

April 6th!!!! There was still ice out there...the cold stayed in my bones for a week.