[IronJack]

The water in the lake was probably barely above freezing. I think its median annual temperature is around 38 degrees. And it seldom gets above 40.

[libstripper]

This reminds me of an old, and true, Explorer Scout story. In the summer of 1960 (that's right, 1960) my Explorer post and I went on a late August trip to Isle Royale National Park, located at the NW end of Lake Superior. We were all pretty good swimmers and some of us, myself not included, decided to go for a swim in the lake. The swimmers ran out to the end of a pier, jumped in, immediately almost froze to death, screamed in pain, and shot out of the water like so many handballs bouncing off a wall. The rest of us just about died laughing.

[driftless2]

I remember the summer of ‘63 when on a trip to Michigan and back, our family stopped by the shores of the lake. My older brother and I waded out quite a distance. It was August, and the water close to the shore was not too bad. We must have caught it at the peak high water temperature.