Tuesday, September 9th, 2025
Hello Kal Lake Swimmers:
The threatened thunderstorms stayed clear and the seven of us who showed up last evening enjoyed sunshine and pleasant 25 degree air with only a thin smokey haze. The water temperature was only three degrees less so three swimmers were officially wearing wuss suits. With one pair of floatie pants and one set of fins ("f's" because neither were Phred) only Kylie and I were purists.
Kylie kept getting harassed by a bee at the picnic table to everyone's amusement. She tried telling it that she didn't have any beer but it didn't work the same way as with the ducks.
Once we departed we had slightly choppy water but it calmed right down on the Cosens Bay side on our way to the Painted Rocks (just like I said). It was a bit of a slog through the chop on the final leg in Juniper Bay. We all arrived back at the beach in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset with nary a thunderhead in sight.
We will do this again on Thursday at 5:30pm. Thursday and Sunday, weather and smoke permitting, will be our final swims in the lake before the pool opens and we get back to doing the back and forth thing over the black lines. That's when we'll find out how much faster the pace clocks have gotten over the summer! After this Sunday there will be pool swims on Sundays. However, a few of us may continue through September in the lake on Sundays as long as the weather and water temperature allows.
To celebrate the end of the lake swim season and the passing of the sun back across the equator, we will be doing our annual Night Swim on Saturday, Sept 20th. Instead of Kal Beach to the Pumphouse, we are changing the venue to Sovereign Park Beach. This is much more of social event than a hard swim. With that in mind, Kara has generously offered to host us for an informal pre-swim meal at her place at 11509 Priest Valley Drive (off Coldstream Creek Road not far from the park). She will provide Pulled Pork on a bun with Coleslaw and asks that you bring an appie and a beverage. We should get to her place by 5:15 and leave by 7:15 so that we are ready to swim by 7:45 when it will be good and dark. After the swim there will be the traditional hot chocolate with and without Bailey's served in the Sovereign upper parking lot.
With the dark water, there are a number of safety precautions that we must follow. First, everyone is to bring a flashlight (phlashlight for Phred) to guide the way through the unlit park to the beach. This flashlight can then be inserted into your swim buddy for extra visibility during the swim. Also, each swimmer must wear at least two lightsticks (glowsticks) or the equivalent thereof. The lightsticks are typically inserted through the goggle straps on each side of the head. Feel free to get creative with extra lighting but it is imperative that lights be worn around the head. Lightsticks are available at Surplus Herby's in their camping area. I will bring a few extra lightsticks for anyone who fails to obtain them.
At Sovereign, the course will be in water that is much deeper than at Kal Beach and we will not have area lights to guide us. We will be running an inverted triangle course that will be 800 to 1000 metres in total length. The apex of the triangle will be at the start/finish point on the beach. We will need two stationary kayaks with bright lights at the turning points out in the lake and another bright light on the beach at the start/finish spot. We will also need at least one more kayaker/paddler to follow the trailing swimmers along the course. Kurt has volunteered to operate one kayak (great excuse to get out of swimming!) at one of the turning points. Kurt and Robynne have another kayak that needs a volunteer to sit at the other stationary point. We have a couple of paddlers already to follow the swimmers.
It will be important to leave at the same time so that we have an accurate count of the participants. We then need to count the arrivals to make sure that it approximates the number departing.
This is always a fun event and a great chance to get an entirely different swimming experience. I hope to see several of you out trying it for the first time, along with all of you who enjoyed it so much in the past. If you have any questions whatsoever about the swim, don't hesitate to ask.
Cheers,
Mike
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