Swimming all five Great Lakes in one day

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Left-to-right, Bill Palladino, Evan Smith, Steve Nance, and Timothy Young.

By Bill Palladino

Sun contributor

The Niagara Escarpment rises from the Earth east of Rochester, New York. It extends over 650 miles across the top of the Great Lakes basin to Lake Michigan’s western limits on Wisconsin’s shore. The escarpment’s defining feature is its dolomite limestone, dating back to the Silurian age of the Paleozoic era. It has aged well.

That’s where we, four northern Michigan men, enter the story, searching for adventure to help us age just as gracefully. Steve Nance, Evan Smith, Timothy Young, and I set off to follow the Niagara and challenge ourselves to swim in each of the five great lakes on the longest day of the year, June 20, the summer solstice.

Swimming three of the Great Lakes in a couple of hours is easy. Many of us have done it: Superior, Huron, and Michigan. Anyone can accomplish the task with barely a mile of detours off the highway. But all five is a different story, and the question inevitably gets asked, “What if we could swim in all five Great Lakes in one day?”

Evan Smith (former CEO of Cherry Capital Foods) and I have been friends for two decades. We’ve discussed this very gambit over years of storytelling and what-if scenarios. This time was different, and when I asked the question, Evan responded succinctly, “Well, let’s just do it!”

Soon, faith in the spirit of adventure paid off. Timothy Young (founder and former CEO of Food for Thought) offered himself to be our logistics manager and driver. “O.K.,” we thought and made our plans public, locking us into the effort in the eyes of the world. Soon after, Steve Nance (former CEO of Oryana Natural Foods) reached out to see if there was still room in the car. Our intrepid quartet was now complete.

The Niagara Escarpment beckoned us eastward. We’d mapped out the course to make the best use of daylight on the longest day of the year. Our goal was to enter our first lake at sunrise on June 20 (5:36 am in Toronto) and follow the Sun’s path all day until we immersed ourselves in the home waters of Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City before sunset at 9:31 PM. That provided us with precisely 15 hours and 55 minutes to navigate to each of the Great Lakes, swim, change back into dry clothes, eat, make required pit stops, get through an international border crossing, and make it home, 758 miles in total. Our Google Maps estimate set the driving time alone at 13 hours and two minutes, leaving us with a narrow margin of error of two hours and 53 minutes.

Wednesday, June 19, 10:30 am

With a challenge firmly drawn and the car fueled up, we met at Evan’s house in Traverse City and were quickly on our way. We planned to stay the night in Toronto and get up before dawn to start our trek.

Thursday, June 20 (Summer Solstice) 5:36 am Sunrise

Lake Ontario – 246′ above sea level

We crammed ourselves into the car early and headed to our first plunge. Lake Ontario is the lowest height above sea level of all the Great Lakes. The escarpment bursts up quickly, making its namesake, Niagara Falls, across the lake possible. We made it to the beach, said a few words of encouragement to each other, walked out about a hundred yards, turned back toward the city, and, on a count of three at 6:15 am, dove in like a team of synchronized swimmers who’d lost their clock.

However, we had little time to dwell on the accomplishment, as coffee and breakfast were still in the distance. We loaded the car and pointed the GPS to Lake Erie, about an hour and a half south. This route surprised us as the terrain climbed hundreds of feet to showcase the region’s rolling hills and valleys. It looks a lot like Leelanau County.

8:16 am

Lake Erie – 572′ above sea level

Port Dover is a sweet little lakeside town. The beach is pristine and features a row of real palm trees imported by a local entrepreneur. Erie is the shallowest and warmest of the Great Lakes, and this beach proves the point. We waded out a long way before we could turn around and dive in.

The daylight hours were already slipping, and a stop at the local Tim Horton’s (“Timmy’s” to locals) set us back another 30 minutes. We reset the car’s display to read kilometers and put the hammer down. Heading north around Georgian Bay, much of the roadway of Ontario 400 is carved sharply through the rock face of the Niagara Escarpment, its limestone laid bare in many stretches. Our destination was a tiny hamlet at the top of Lake Huron, six and a half hours north, with a beach close to the road.

4:28 pm

Lake Huron – 579′ above sea level

Blind River is a dot on the map where Ontario’s Highway 17 touches Lake Huron. It is another quaint town with a well-maintained beach. This was our most efficient stop, as we spent less than 10 minutes on-site and jumped into the car with wet bathing suits. Our next swim was only two hours away.

We sailed across the Canada/U.S. border at Sault Ste. Marie without a hitch, other than a suspicious look from the customs agent at the four gray-haired gents in matching T-shirts sitting in the car. “You’re doing what? Why?” I’m sure we looked like a threat to Homeland Security.

6:34 pm

Lake Superior – 602′ above sea level

Turning into Brimley State Park, now in Michigan, we were all a bit giddy, feeling close to our goal. The water was clear and surprisingly warm, but we had no time to linger. Less than three hours remained to make our last leg home to Traverse City before sunset at 9:31 pm.

9:28 pm

Lake Michigan – 579′ above sea level

Our friend Timothy drove purposefully, navigating us down I-75 and US 131 with haste and mastery. We pulled into Clinch Park with a mere three minutes to spare. It was evident we were home when we turned the corner from Grandview Parkway and pulled into the parking lot. A small crowd of friends and a TV reporter were waiting for us and cheering. There was champagne and beer, and our friends Don and M’Lou Coe cracked open an exceptional bottle of 1956 Armagnac in honor of our team’s average birth years.

Despite the reverie, there was no time to celebrate just yet! In front of our supporters, we stripped down to our suits and splashed into Grand Traverse Bay. With one last count of “one, two, three,” the four of us, curiously proud of our achievement, plunged into Lake Michigan’s waters, finishing our trek with high fives as the sun reached the horizon.

Less than 100 miles west of us in Wisconsin’s Door County, the Niagara Escarpment emerges for the last time in dramatic form; cliffs, caves, and bedrock bursting out of Lake Michigan. It beckons us all to be curious, find adventure, challenge ourselves, and say yes to friends with questions as old as the world.