The Lake Doesn't Give People Back

Paddlers' Place
#1

That was a quote from a mother of a drowning victim in lake michigan. And as far as I know, it’s true. Cold temps can stop decomp, so you’ll just be a submerged drifter.

I’m (was) an excellent swimmer, never feared drowning and that was put to quite a test one night. But that was warm ocean water. I don’t think people appreciate cold water, what it can do to you. You’ll go into swim failure, then drown. Your mechanics will break down, the body, the machine. Then you drown.

Body Recovered 420 Feet Deep In Jackson Lake Likely Kayaker Missing Since 2024

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#2

Sad. I remember those headlines.

Mountain lakes are not forgiving, and the water can get very rough, very fast. When the water you are on is over 4000 feet high and sometimes up to 7700 feet high, the winds don’t always give you a warning.
I have paddled that lake, and quite a few others in Wyoming Utah and Montana. Knowing how things are out here I try to always anticipate the direction the wind will come from and position myself so if I get caught, it will blow me towards land instead of away from land. I get it right most times. But not every time.
There have been several trips when the wind direction went anywhere from 60 to 180 degrees from what was expected, and when it changes it’s common for it to change in about 90 seconds.

There is no time to have a plan B.

So a PFD and a tether to the kayak are 2 things I NEVER go out without .
And I do mean never!

I learned a hard lesson 3 years ago when on a bright calm sunny spring morning at about 5:30 AM I went out, and the surface was almost dead flat. I got out about 5 miles and the wind came up from the same direction it was going when I left, but went from about 4 MPH to about 20 MPH. I decided to turn around to get back to my truck and go home to start work but before I’d gone 100 yards the wind changed about 160 degrees and jumped up to about 40 MPH. That was a very wild ride getting back to the launch point. I made it, and I never went for a swim, but I did have to do real-world braces about 25 times in that 5 miles. And when I got to my truck I had to warm my hands because they were so cold I could not unzip my PFD for about 5 minutes.

Such things do make you reflect deeply and consider the potentials dangers of relaxing too much or letting your guard down.

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#3

During the.Memorial Day holiday of 1973, I was at Ocean City, MD. Ocean water temps were 45°. Swimming was out of the question but a few of us wanted to wade in and out. Once in a lifetime was enough for me.

#4

I grew up surfing at Ocean City. As a teenager none of us had wet suits. We were in the ocean all the time. I can remember surfing in the middle of October. By 1972 I had moved to the West Coast because the waves were better.

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#5

Lake Tahoe takes some people each year near me. The water never freezes, but it rarely gets above the 60s even in late summer. The cold water kills people…

Dress for immersion and wear a life jacket.

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#6

Tahoe is no joke.
I have been there more times then I could count from the ages of about 5 to sometime in my late 20s. My parents lived in an area not all that far from Tahoe and I used to go there a lot
It’s amazingly clear and before it got overgrown all around it was one of the most scenic lakes I ever saw. Still not bad, but in the 60sd it was amazing. It’s also extremely deep and only the top few feet change temp from summer to winter. The thermocline in it is so drastic you can SEE it if you SCUBA dice. I got my NAUI certification in Lake Tahoe. It’s cold and as you descend it get a LOT colder. And because it sits so high up, and the Sierras make their own weather systems the wind there can cause waves that are frightening. It pays to be aware of the weather.
I hope to paddle my kayak on it next spring or summer, but that remains to be seen if I can make it over there, of if life interferes.
Life is that thing that always interrupts my plans.

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#7

Tahoe on her best behavior in May, 2016.

We opted to rent a tandem SOT instead of solo SINKS so my friend could shoot videos while I paddled. This was on the North shore – we are just about to cross into Nevada here, looking back towards the California side. The casino that straddles that border is above the rocky ridge we are paddling along.

Water along the shallow shore that day to about 100’ out was warm as a farm pond, but dropped off drastically just beyond that with depth. Clear as glass.

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#8

aka “Dress for UnSuccess”

#9

pruuuuudy

#10

I had a sailboat at Tahoe Keys for 6 years. The lake is big and nasty with no where to hide. I have sailed all over it and had my butt kicked so many times I finally gave up and sold the boat.

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#11

Doesn’t even take cold water to take your life. Lost two family members in 1993 to Lake Michigan, my first cousin’s husband and teen son, who ignored the CG warning flags of increasing winds and surf on their local beach as one of the Lake’s rogue quickie storms was building off shore and moving in. They think the dad may have become exhausted trying to rescue his son caught in a rip current and then was smashed onto the breakwater rocks by the violent waves. The son’s body was found more than 2 miles out 6 days later.

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/its-just-not-worth-it-family-of-drowning-victims-asks-people-to-obey-the-warning-flags/

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#12

Mother Nature always wins, eventually. It’s just how much we will/can tolerate before we give up. We give up, surrender, and leave. And she’s still there as she always has been. And always will be. We aren’t even a speck of sand in that timeline.

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#13

that’s the great lake that eats the most humans. It’s very, very deceptive, decieving. Locals aren’t going out, don’t go out.
On a rough day, I went out in a 15’ motorboat, 30HP tiller. It was fun as I needed to learn the boat, the capabilities, characteristics. Waves were about 3-6’ and had to be on my A game, riding the wave fronts, sort of surfing. Boat handles very very well, very responsive. Then as I approached the crest of one wave, I saw the wave behind it…after what looked like an 8 ft drop/trough. I pushed the motor hard to one side and cranked it, to get out of there. Made it back to shore, but learned a huge lesson about that lake.

Lessons: I believe in the Three Sisters. When it starts become/has been rough, there will be a group of waves come up that you won’t see, but they are very very big. They don’t tower above all others. They are higher, but what makes them so dangerous is the troughs between them. They are far deeper than the rest. And unless you’re experienced w/them, you don’t know it until your bow is almost at the crest.
Then you gun it and try to bridge the trough. You can see this in boats taking off in rougher weather. Soon they reach deeper water and you’ll see the bow spray difference when they face plant into the second wave. If they’re going slow enough and the boat is small enough, you’ll see the boat sink down, sometimes just see the top of the boat.

I think what’s happening is these are the waves that come from across the lake, due to action there. Then when the get here, they mix in with the waves of the more localized weather. They go in the same direction, so they blend in, but they are a lot different and dangerous.

IMH 21ft boats are the min for [somewhat] safe[er] boating on lake michigan. The killer is how close together those waves are. 21’ allows you to get a good attempt at bridging those troughs. Bigger is of course better, but for the ability to trailer them, 21’ would be my min. And pay great attention to the weather…especially wind direction…then wind speed.

Last trip, as we put in, a guy and son pulled up to the dock, sort of early I thought. He said “it ain’t worth dying for”. he had a boston whaler, square bow. good boat, but not for that. won’t sink, but you’ll be sitting in a flooded boat until rescued.

#14

Big lakes have big fetch and big waves.
They are like the ocean, never turn your back on them.
Thunderstorms make it worse. We had a microburst this summer at Lake Tahoe they capsized a 30 foot boat. All but 2 drowned.

Nobody ever died on a portage. And nobody dies sitting on shore watching the storm waves.

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#15

It was a microburst that killed my cousins.

The eastern shore of Lake Michigan is pretty much all fine white sand, a remnant of the state having been ground down in the last continental glaciation (when you walk around the shores of the Great Lakes you are on ground stripped by ice from the Canadian Shield).

There are shallow sand reefs and bars that extend far out from the beaches – as a kid my Michigan cousins and I used to walk way way out and still have our upper bodies above the surface. Shallow margins like that boost near-shore wave action (just like they do tsunamis as they approach from sub sea earthquakes), so even staying “near shore” when weather or wind are rapidly approaching is not going to be easy to escape if you unwisely venture out.

Michigan is known for treacherous rip currents too – our dad taught us early what to do when caught out swimming in one.

#16

Lac La Croix and Saganaga in the BWCA leap to mind as lakes that deserve a lot of respect as well. Of course Mr. Lightfoot reminds us “Superior 'tis said never gives up her dead when the Gales of November come early”. Its mid-September folks - heads up.
I think I’ll just go up to the Namekagon River tomorrow, paddle to the memory of DuluthMoose, and let those big lakes be for now.

#17

microbursts are a terror on land too. They smash passenger jets into the ground, as happened in CO.

One time I came in on w lake mich and another boat flew by me before I got all the way into the harbor. Hmmm. Put my boat on my trailer, took it out, tied it down, then as was leaving the marina, all hell broke loose. It was like we were in the jet blast of something, as everything was going sideways, awnings being ripped from framing/buildings, signs and trees toppled, etc.

I just sat there, unsure where to go to get out of the assault from this. Drove about 1/4 mile, couldn’t see much other than a blur of the road and things flying by, but made it to a big parking lot, away from falling over/flying things.

It appeared, then was goine in about 5 minutes. I to this day don’t know what it was, but it was announced on the weather radio, which I missed. I have a 21’ boat, wide beam, and after the storm left, I parked it on an incline and opened the drain plug in back. It was just a continual stream, so I turned on the bilge pump. That sped it up, but they must have empied my boat for a few minutes before stopping.

Power was out in a lot of places as utility crews came driving into town. Power lines were down. It appeared, blew everything up, fiercly, then left.
And after all of that, I saw a boat come chugging in from the lake. It was about a 30 footer, enclosed bridge, so they just rode it out…like they could do anything else. Boat looked like it went through a washing machine, but it brought them back.

No idea what it was or where it came from.

On most lakes, I’ve always found the eastern side to have the sandy beaches and the western side, dirt/grass. I think prevailing winds have something to do with that. These are spring fed lakes, flat, no steep terrain features.

#18

This thread has me thinking of Stan Rogers’ “White Squall”
“They can go from calm to 100 knots so fast they seem enchanted”

#19

Those storms have been variously tagged “straight line tornadoes” and “derechos” when they’ve blown through areas I was living.

There was one that came across Lake Michigan in the Spring of 1999 when I was living in Grand Rapids that caused crazy damage. Entire groves of huge trees were blown over with root balls towering – the loose sandy soil couldn’t anchor them. Thousands of houses with roofs and walls crashed through by trees and collapsed chimneys – entire strip malls stripped of roofing and with collapsed awnings. Most of the city had their power out for nearly a week. Anyone who owned a chain saw, extension ladder and a pick up truck could make thousands a day by driving around and knocking on the doors of afflicted houses. The storm itself lasted less than an hour.

We had one blow through here in Pittsburgh last Spring with similar impact – that one only about 30 minutes duration. I was driving across town when it hit and pulled into a mall lot to wait it out, while watching trash cans hurtle across the lanes. By the time I reached home the sky was blue and the streets in my hilly neighborhood had standing waves in the wide runoff in the gutters – I could have kayaked down them. Everything on my brick covered side porch (furniture, rugs, gardening tools and the large branches of the maple tree in front of it that the wind had stripped off) had been blown against the back half wall in a huge soaked mass. My power was down – as was the power of 600,000 other residents of greater Pittsburgh, more than half the households. My friend Paul’s neighborhood got the worst of it – a rather plush few square blocks which were line with giant sycamores, many so old they had begun to rot from the inside out. In falling they ripped out sidewalks and pavement , crashed through large homes and took out all the power and communication for many square blocks. Snapped off power poles like they were toothpicks and there were so many live wires on the ground that the utility had to kill all power to entire grid sectors. it was over a week before most of the services were restored and now there is a big hassle about the municipalities wanting to cull these huge old trees and residents objecting. This house got the worst of it – only a block from my friend’s place. We watched the crew with their cool remote controlled robotic chain saw arm and claw gradually remove the huge tree from what was left of the house. Second shot shows what happened to many of the sidewalks.

Treefall B
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sidewalk break
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