Lake Washington - Seattle morning swimmers?

Triathlon Forum
1

So over the last couple of weeks i’ve noticed a group of swimmers swimming along the I90 bridge escorted by a kayaker in the morning. who are you!?!?!? where do you start, how far are you swimming?? i’m jealous

2

Maybe these guys?

http://tourdemercer.freehostia.com/

3

Maybe these guys?

http://tourdemercer.freehostia.com/

Now I’m jealous! I had no idea this existed. I was trying to set up something similar to this with my swim crew. It’s safe to say I won’t miss it next year.

It’s hard to say whether those are the same swimmers doing I-90. I’ve done the I-90 out and back a couple times without a kayak. An early start is essential though to avoid the police.

4

I am not one of this group, but it is 1.5 miles one way. We usually swim to Mercer Island and back. There is a parking lot just to the north of the I-90 bridge along Lakeside Ave S (on the Seattle side). There has been construction on the Mercer Island side for a pump station, so you may or may not be able to exit there. I haven’t been down there recently though. We’ve done this swim a few times over the last several years starting around 5:40am. It is sort of a boring swim in my opinion, but cool to do it once or twice. I prefer swimming around Seward Park lately. It’s worth trying if you haven’t done it. I’d say it’s around 2.8 miles based on time.

5

If you go just don’t leave anything valuable in your car. Swimmers cars have been broken into multiple times next the i-90 bridge.

6

is it “illegal” to swim either across the lake or around seward park? is the swim around seward pretty low traffic? i’d love get some other open water options other than back and forth at the deep side of the swim area at lake sammamish state park.

thanks

7

I wish I could reference the ordinance, but I recall it being that if you are more than 50ft from shore you need access to a life preserver while swimming. Hence, a kayaker must accompany you and have life preservers on board for each person in the water. So, yes it is illegal to swim adjacent to I-90 without kayak support because the bridge isn’t considered shore. A friend of mine was picked up by harbor patrol/police swimming next to the bridge two years ago. I don’t recall whether he was cited or given a warning. I haven’t had a problem with it yet. I see no problem swimming around Seward Park regarding the rule. Granted, there are times when we’re probably more like 200 feet from shore, but it’s in the spirit of the rule. There are also quite a lot of people swimming from Madison Park down to Denny Blaine Park and back these days (which is also adjacent to shore). It’s about 2.4 miles roundtrip. Maybe that’s why it’s so popular.

8

ok great. it’s good to know that ordinance. thanks for that info!

9

The friendly police boat patrolling Lake Sammamish on July 4th did stop by to make sure I got back to within 50 ft of shore. Now I 1/ don’t swim so late in the day, especially on festive occasions where I should be drinking anyways, and 2/ hug the docks lines when swimming in the morning. Now the danger has been displaced from being cited by police to being chased in the water by those big dogs that are barking at me from their mansion’s private beaches…

I’ll be there tomorrow, and many other days by the way, if someone wants to join. Idylwood Park, PM me.