Dorcas Bay, Ontario, June 27

My first official Lake swim of the year in a somewhat unusual place. Dorcas Bay is actually in Lake Huron which,

as I have mentioned before, is actually a section of Lake Michigan distinguished by politics rather than geology. Dorcas Bay is up on the Bruce Peninsula, which separates the main lake from Georgian bay which is the section of the Lake pictured at the upper right. I am presently vacationing with my family in Tobermory which is at the northern point of the peninsula. There are lots of cliffs and interesting rock formations caused by centuries of attempts by the lake to wash this peninsula away.

A typical beach on the Georgian Bay side of the peninsula looks like this, not real easy to get in the water.

However Dorcas bay, also known as the "Singing Sands" is on the Lake Huron side of the peninsula so has a sandy beach and is mostly distinguished by being very shallow. So first there is a 500 yard hike from the parking lot followed by another 500 yard hike through ankle deep water to waist deep water where one can begin a swim. Another 200 yards out gets one into water slightly over my head where one can do real swimming. There is then a large area where one can swim in a still fairly protected area. I ended up doing about 500 yards only because my wife was waiting impatiently in the parking lot and the long walk to and from swimmable water ate into my swimming time. Air was mostly cloudy and about 68 and the water was about 66 F (or should I say 18 C?). Not a bad start to the season.