Walden Pond

no info from Waldon, but the puddle also known as Silver Lake in Wilmington was 48 last Thursday. Unless we get some sun on the water, it will take awhile to see temps in the low 50's any time soon I would guess

Jorge - go and give us a report ;-)

I have a colleague (not a competitor, just a crazy hungarian lady that likes to swim) who swims there every day there is a big enough hole in the ice to swim in. One day she was swimming while the fire dept was there rescuing some other silly person that fell through the ice. They tried to save her too but she talked them out of it. Oh and she doesn't wear a wetsuit. I have one and I'll be in sometime in the next two weeks (waiting for a sinus infection to clear up) I grew up swimming in the gulf of maine...cold is all about timing. keep it under 20 minutes and you will come home alive.

see you in the pond...I'll be the slow one.

Edited by waltor 2009-04-07 9:34 PM

Walden looks like one of my best lake options for training - how far is it across? Any Loch Ness monsters?

Here's a map with distances as it depend which way you swim.

Walden is great for swimming but since it is deep it takes a long time to warm up. Early season it is warmer to find a smaller pond/lake that isn't as deep as it can be 5-8 degrees warmer and the difference between 52 and 58 is pretty significant.

Pond where Cranberry is held is shallow and warms up sooner than most.

Thanks! That map is excellent.

I am surprised MA does not report historical averages for Walden Pond. That info must be burried somewhere in the web. Raul

Some rather large turtes will surprise you every now and then.

At 4:00 on 4/10/09 the tempaure of walden pond at the boat landing was 56.2F at a depth of 6".

I'm new to this and should figure out places to do OWS... does anyone know of other places a little north of Boston? I believe I've seen people swim at Mystic Lake in Winchester, does that sound right? Or does anyone know if you can swim at Breakheart in Saugus - at least outside of the small life guarded area, and when no lifeguard is around? Or Spot Pond in Stoneham?

Were you out there to read the temp, or did you find a site that reports it?

I did the reading. I went over to get my parking pass and ran down and chucked my thermometer in.


As for where you can swim in MA? I have found that signs prohibiting swimming are more to absolve the municipalities from liability than to actually suggest you will be prosecuted for swimming there. The police tend to break up late night high schooler bashes, but I haven't heard of any athletes getting cited. My general rule is this: I there is any swimming at the body of water you can swim anywhere you want. If there is no swimming then the local people have some misguided notion that it is a reservior and swimmers will make it "yucky" forget about the fact that the petroleum run off from local roads is far more poisionous and unhealthful.

Walden water temp 53.1 F at 4:45pm today.

I swim in Mystic (yes, in Winchester) in the summer - it's great. We start at Sandy Beach (parking lot off of Mystic Valley Parkway).

So, I got out into Walden today. It was 51° along the beach and got 5 or 6 degrees colder where the water was more than 5 feet deep or so. So I stuck to the shallows and went for about 20 minutes. I swam in May last year at 58° in a shorty, amazing the difference a few degrees make.

Ah Walden, how I missed you so!

I had a great swim tonight - lots of spectators around the pond and one super swimmer was coming out as I was going in.

Drum roll please: it was a wonderful 59*

Now that you've read this get out there and swim it!

Yeah, It's nice! I did what I call "the full Henry" this afternoon start at the beach and swim around the pond staying with 20 feet of the shore. It seems safer and is a bout a mile and a half. (but I got out at the boat landing to be fisherman friendly) Nice way to unwind after work.

Anyone heading over to Walden tonight?  Trying to decide if I should do an OWS or a pool swim.  Let me know!

I am asumming the water is now around mid 50s?

2 days ago RedSoxChick went and it was 59*!

We'll be pushing bath water soon enough

If you want bath water, go to Mystic Lake.  I didn't have a thermometer, but could have swam without a wetsuit on Wednesday night!

nice! time to take the cobwebs off my wetsuit and start hitting the pond on the weekends!

Really???? That is GREAT news!!! That's my OWS location - I've been putting off going assuming it would be too cold. Time to get in there!