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Log inThe thrills and chills of lake swimming in Maine
The thrills and chills of lake swimming in Maine
by Outspoken on Sun Jun 15, 2008 5:56 pm
The thrills and chills of lake swimming in Maine
By DEIRDRE FLEMING
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
LIBERTY — Ever turn an ankle so bad it had to get dunked in a bucket of ice water?
That's lake swimming in Maine in early June.
Yet many Mainers who live miles from the ocean relish the adventure of lake swimming, and start their season as soon as possible.
On an overcast afternoon in June, chipmunks skipped over the granite blocks along Lake St. George State Park, waves rippled noisily against massive stone steps, and the green fields full of picnic tables sat empty.
Just after noon, a loon cried across the lake. (This state park may have the clamor of Route 3 beside it, but this is still Maine.)
However, moments earlier, under gray skies, some 200 students from Erskine Academy were playing volleyball, baseball and Frisbee on the green field... and swimming.
Adriana Love and three others were brave enough to wade in and soak in Lake St. George's water.
Despite the lack of sun, they walked around in bikini tops and shorts.
"You have more freedom than in a pool," Love said. "You have the ability to go to varying depths."
The senior and lifelong lake swimmer relishes the wild, wide-open experience in a lake.
"It's pretty elitist," Love said. "Not everyone does it. It's too cold. People can get sick."
Traditionally, the first lakes to warm up are the shallow and smaller ones. But the list might surprise some.
Pleasant Pond in Richmond and Range Pond in Poland both are shallow enough to allow the water to be inviting before July.
And Damariscotta Lake State Park in Jefferson and Mount Blue State Park in Weld are warmer before other, deeper lakes.
But the second-largest lake in Maine -- Sebago Lake -- also is on the list of warm early swimming holes, with the state park in Casco offering a pleasant, shallow place for a spring dip along Sebago's eastern shores.
"It's odd. Sebago usually warms up as fast as other places around that area," said Will Harris, director of the Department of Conservation's bureau of parks and lands.
State park lakes at higher elevations, like Moosehead Lake or Rangeley Lake, will warm up much later in the summer, Harris said.
Come the end of June, Harris said most lakes in the southern half of Maine will be as warm as 70-degrees.
But right now? Pretty much ice-cold everywhere.
"Those swimming now would be the hardy swimmers," Harris said.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=193666&ac=Outdoors
Photos by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
By DEIRDRE FLEMING
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
LIBERTY — Ever turn an ankle so bad it had to get dunked in a bucket of ice water?
That's lake swimming in Maine in early June.
Yet many Mainers who live miles from the ocean relish the adventure of lake swimming, and start their season as soon as possible.
On an overcast afternoon in June, chipmunks skipped over the granite blocks along Lake St. George State Park, waves rippled noisily against massive stone steps, and the green fields full of picnic tables sat empty.
Just after noon, a loon cried across the lake. (This state park may have the clamor of Route 3 beside it, but this is still Maine.)
However, moments earlier, under gray skies, some 200 students from Erskine Academy were playing volleyball, baseball and Frisbee on the green field... and swimming.
Adriana Love and three others were brave enough to wade in and soak in Lake St. George's water.
Despite the lack of sun, they walked around in bikini tops and shorts.
"You have more freedom than in a pool," Love said. "You have the ability to go to varying depths."
The senior and lifelong lake swimmer relishes the wild, wide-open experience in a lake.
"It's pretty elitist," Love said. "Not everyone does it. It's too cold. People can get sick."
Traditionally, the first lakes to warm up are the shallow and smaller ones. But the list might surprise some.
Pleasant Pond in Richmond and Range Pond in Poland both are shallow enough to allow the water to be inviting before July.
And Damariscotta Lake State Park in Jefferson and Mount Blue State Park in Weld are warmer before other, deeper lakes.
But the second-largest lake in Maine -- Sebago Lake -- also is on the list of warm early swimming holes, with the state park in Casco offering a pleasant, shallow place for a spring dip along Sebago's eastern shores.
"It's odd. Sebago usually warms up as fast as other places around that area," said Will Harris, director of the Department of Conservation's bureau of parks and lands.
State park lakes at higher elevations, like Moosehead Lake or Rangeley Lake, will warm up much later in the summer, Harris said.
Come the end of June, Harris said most lakes in the southern half of Maine will be as warm as 70-degrees.
But right now? Pretty much ice-cold everywhere.
"Those swimming now would be the hardy swimmers," Harris said.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=193666&ac=Outdoors
Photos by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
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Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
