Thanks for the comment about the poor water quality at the PMS - Parkside Aquatic Mile swim. How about the Spring Lake Mile coming up this Saturday, May 17, in Santa Rosa, CA?
I haven't done it in several years but I recall that the water itself was nice, although at least one year it was colder than anyone expected (low 60s). Some years the lake has had a lot of plants growing in it.
To short-cut this process, here are my capsule reviews of some of the other venues on this year's PMS OW calendar:
Lake Del Valle: OK in early June, although visibility is not good. The lake gets progressively warmer and murkier as the summer goes on so that by August it is awful.
Lake Berryessa: Great for swimming. The event is huge. I will never understand why they persist in starting people in age- rather than time-based waves, but it's a big lake and there's plenty of safe swimming room on the course. If you have swimming kids, they can race too.
Lake Tahoe: It used to be clearer and the race used to be a lot cheaper. Even so, it's still a spectacular swim. I dream of having the training time I would need to solo it.
Russian River: Warm in July, and unless they have relocated the race from the place it was umpteen years ago when I did it, pretty shallow.
Santa Cruz: Cold and salty! If you wear a highneck suit or a neoprene cap with a chin strap you have to remember to put bodyglide on your neck or people will think you tried to hang yourself over the weekend. (The salt really exacerbates chafing.)
Donner Lake: Fantastic. Clear water and usually (to me) an ideal temperature, upper 60s, for a hard swim on a warm day. If the weather is windy the water can get pretty choppy for a small lake (not like Tahoe or the surf, but not flat). The event is always very smoothly organized, too. I highly recommend this swim.
Whiskeytown Lake: Also very good. Last time I did it the water was not as clear as Donner Lake, but still pretty clear. It did have some plants.
BTW, the photo in my avatar is from Elk Lake, in Oregon, home of the Cascade Lakes OW Series and this year's USMS 5K National Championship. It is a sweet place to swim and Central Oregon Masters puts on a great event.
I've never done the swim at Spring Lake but I've been there many times for fishing and paddling. It seems to me that the visibility is pretty good but the northern end of the lake can be very weedy in the summer especially where the creek comes in. Be advised, there are some HUGE bass in that lake.
www.iglou.com/.../possible-record.htm
