The Great Lakes are fresh water.
Except for a shallow layer of warm water they are frigged too. The cold will shut you down quick.
I would disagree, at least as applies to the western shore of Lake Michigan. An undertow which pulls a person out into deeper water is rare there. Mostly the current pushes you in to shore, or at least parallel to it.
One must be cautious near the mouths of rivers, and if it has recently rained heavily, even small creeks can be dangerous. These will push you out.
What did the little girl whom I was unable to rescue in was not current, which was rather negligible near shore that day, but the wind.
It depends on the spot, I guess. The place where most people drown here is a spot with a bad undertow. People panic and can’t stay above water.
And of course, the problem with parallel-running winds/currents is that many people will try to fight that force and swim against it intending to get back to their friends. Doing this, they’re tiring themselves out. Swimming perpendicular to it to the shore would be much easier but it’s not always something that people think about.
Drownings even happen on our little recreational lake Teen drowns in Lake Saint Louis
The spot was just outside the little marina at lower left of Google Maps
Water’s all fun and games until somebody puts an eye out. Or something like that.
They’re fresh water, yep. Many many communities get their drinking water from them.
A few years ago I went out in Lake Superior ,near the Lake of the Clouds for a dip. It was August and the water was extremely cold. I would not want to spend any time in it.
Sorry to bump the thread if it’s gone stale, I was out of town and missed this.
The big difference with these waves and similar ocean waves is:
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Freshwater, not saltwater. The buoyancy difference is actually significant when you’re tired and in trouble.
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The Great Lakes can be so cold that your testes crawl up to snuggle with your spleen. I personally find Georgian Bay way worse in that respect.
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Yes, inexperience with big waves and currents certainly contribute.
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As mentioned before, the wind on some of the Great Lakes can be brutal. I don’t have much ocean experience so I don’t know how it compares. But on Lake Michigan, you can be totally fine and not feel a breeze, but then move over 20 feet an you’re being blown to Oz.
Stay away from Marquette.
This landlubber just wants to say - holy shit!
We just went to visit theGreat Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories this summer - those huge lakes are endlessly fascinating to me. Just - so big!
People need to know the body of water they’re going to swim in before they take the plunge.
Lake Michigan can be a real pussycat, when it wants to be.
Last night, the Mrs. and I took a late dip, because the water was in the 70’s, as was the air. There was a warm wind blowing, the stars were out, the moon was rising redly on the horizon, and it was glorious.
The lake hasn’t tried to kill me in nearly 3 months, because I don’t give it the opportunity. Unless I have to.
I never mess around while out on the water. If I have to delay my return date by a day or so on canoe camping trip so be it. I have a rule, if I see white caps no canoeing. I survived one trip where I tipped in a large lake in rough weather with all my gear.
Learned a hell of alot from that trip.
It’s what you learn when you think maybe you’re going to die that really, really stays with you.
We had another drowning over the weekend, in the same spot where the Wisconsin guy drowned earlier this year. This wasn’t two weeks after the city put up no less than 3 big flagpoles within about a mile of city beach, each with a color-coded flag system that indicates whether or not it’s safe to swim. The beach in question had two big huge red flags saying “this beach is NOT safe to swim at!” the night the kid drowned.
It was an 18-year-old, just came up to start his freshman year of school.
Two days later the coast guard fished two girls out of the water in the same place, once again, swimming when the two big red flags were up. At this point, it’s starting to be Darwinism. Sad, but WTF? We have flags, and a big sign saying it’s not safe to swim there yet people just keep going in.
Go, Lemmings!
:rolleyes:
Yeah, I know - Insensitive, but c’mon folks! Read the bloody signs.
Submitted without further comment.
Do you get tourists from the coasts, who apparently think, “it’s only a lake, how bad can it be?”, and dive right in?
I’d think the impossibly verdant woods or other greenery coming right down to the shoreline would be enough to remind anyone they’re not in Santa Monica anymore.
Come to think of it the sight of all this greenery next to a lake that looks like an ocean is probably the thing that has made the biggest visual impression on me, during my visits to Chicago.
Maybe that’s it - from my landlocked perspective, if someone puts up a sign telling me not to swim, I’m damned well not swimming! Okay, you know this lake better than I do.
Back about 8 years ago or so, in Ontario we had a long drawn out fall. As a result, there was a particular lake that hadn’t frozen over the way it usually does and some snowmobiles dropped through the ice. Huge media frenzy about the families’ anguish, the difficulty and danger in recovery efforts etc. It dominated the local news.
Then some more snowmobiles went through the ice, then some more, and in one case, it wasn’t too far from where recovery efforts were going on to fish out the frozen bodies. Still the snowmobilers came!
Eventually, the police had to basically say that the next batch of dumbfucks to even try to go out on that lake were going to be arrested.