OWS - Big Bear Lake

Well just for the record. I went to Big Bear Lake. Lovely place really nice. But not much good for swimming really. You are meant to be able to swim in the first 50 feet pretty much anywhere but mostly its boats and jet skis and you would be taking a risk. Not really what I was expecting on that front.

I wish I'd seen your post in a timelier manner. I had just returned from almost a week in Big Bear with the local high school cross-country team on their annual late summer running camp trip. I too was hoping to get a little OWS time in the lake, but had to settle for a couple of recreational swims at Boulder Bay. Unfortunately with the drought conditions we have been having in California the past couple years, the water level in the lake is way down and the swimming opportunities are greatly reduced. In Metcalf Bay where our runners were camped, some of the kids were out canoeing one afternoon. They stepped off the canoe into the water about a 100 yards from shore when they realized the water was only a little more than knee deep.

On one of my dawn bike rides (of course I brought my road bike!) around the lake, I looped around the lake to the east also. As it turns out, that lake, Baldwin Lake is completely dry. No water in it at all, just miles and miles of completely flat alpine meadow.

There is a swim-specific area called Meadow Park Swim Beach, but I never did make it over there, so I don't know the current conditions. I think it would be too small of a swim area to get in much of an open water swim workout though. Did you go there at all?

Anyway, IMO the local beaches are a much better place to do open water swims. I much prefer the ocean to the lakes.