Ohio Street, September 9

Lake conditions have not been favorable for last minute practices for the upcoming Big Shoulders swim and outdoor pools have all closed for the season. I was even forced to swim in an indoor pool this week, something I should not have to do between June and September. Ken is now working downtown and even has a view of the Ohio St swim area from his building. So we agreed to meet after he got off of work at 2 this afternoon to go for a last practice swim. I parked at the free lot by the bike path at Irving Park and rode down on my bike. The northeast wind was much worse on the Lake than predicted, I practically did not need to pedal. The waves on the north were breaking over the groins just north of the North Ave. beach while the water on the south side of the groins was calm. The sky was overcast with air about 67 degrees. The more protected Ohio St area was just huge chop, a giant washing machine. Swimming from the Ohio St. beach northward was very difficult and slow going, we decided to stop at the poles which are about 100 meters or so north of Chicago Ave. The trip back was fast. By the time we finished I was finally beginning to feel warm in the water. The trip back north on my bike was like riding uphill, it took twice as long to return as coming.

The good news is that the well mixed water was a uniform 65.4 degrees. Several other swimmers, there were only a hardy few at that time of the afternoon, who swim daily reported the water much warmer today than it was yesterday. The posted temperature had been 64 as opposed to 66 today so we wonder what it must have actually been yesterday. With more east winds the next few days perhaps we can expect even warmer water this weekend?