I’ve been looking for a place to swim in the open water in and around Toronto without any luck. Lake Kelso in Milton (Where the June 1 Race is held) can only be swum in if you’re a member of an Open Water Swim Club. Does anybody else have suggestions for places I can swim without these type of clubs?
You don’t need to be a member of any club to swim there. You just have to pay the $6.75 fee to park you car. I went swimming there today and the water was pretty nice, it would have been fine even without a wetsuit.
I am not sure when they fully open the beach with lifeguards and buoys but once they do the lifeguards don’t let you swim outside the buoys, which sucks. Until that happens swim wherever you want. I usually just swim back and forth across the lake a couple times.
The guy at the gate told me I’d be ticketed if I went swimming (especially with the dragon boat racers today). Which area did you go swimming in? The beach area? If thats the case I’ll go back there tomorrow and ride the rout and swim the lake as I had planned to today.
i swam at lake wilcox a few times last year but then i heard the quality was pretty low . . . and once the summer gets going the water is really hot which is probably a factor. early season i imagine it would be ok but best to check with whoever monitors the quality first.
i hear there are swims at cherry beach on sunday mornings as well. not sure if they started up yet.
I never asked about swimming there but nobody said anything to me either. We went swimming from the beach area and swam across the lake to a large willow tree and back which didn’t go near the dragon boat races. The distance across was about 450m. There were 3 other people swimming when we were there but they just swam along the beach line where the buoys usually would be.
Swimming in lake Ontario will toughen you up.
Cherry Beach on the Toronto waterfront and Musselman’s Lake (north-east of the city, near Stouffville)
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It used to be that you could swim in Musselman’s Lake north of Markham but it looks like they have closed down too and are now “residents only”.
Mussel mans works. Ignore signs. I personally swim in lake scugog but have a hard bottom accross from my house. A little skunks late in the season. If you travel south there is great swimming in welland in the old canal. Ontario is doable but I would definitely go with a group and watch water quality. If you can get buddy buddy with the Durham Tri club they swim in chalk lake off lake ridge north of Whitby.
I swim woodbine beach. It is cold but I use a wetsuit. Water quality after a big rain can be an issue, but I think the beach was closed only a few times last year. I usually go by myself, but it is a shallow entry so if you follow the shore, you can swim a long way in five feet of water.
Swimming in lake Ontario will toughen you up.
+1
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C3 / Personal Best hold a great swim at a Quarry in Caledon. Depending where you’re located, it’s a bit of a drive, but the workouts are worth the drive!
Depending on how far you want to travel, the provincial parks on Lake Simcoe are always an option, and tend not to have that ‘post-swim algae’ feeling you get from Lake Ontario.