Crystal Lake trip

[Jon]

I know that there's something like 200 hundred different Crystal Lakes in Wisconsin,b but I'm talking about the one up in Vilas county that has a State park wrapped around it. WDNR - Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest

The family and i just spent another week up there swimming, diving, biking, and enjoying the lack of mosquito's that seem to be so prevalent down in Madison these days.

The lake itself is 70', so they say, but after a lot of swimming I had a hard time getting past 50'. The best vis, and warmer water, was all above 25'. You can see 25' down anywhere in the lake and the white sand bottom really makes it look like the ocean. Not a lot of fish in here, which is fine since you can't spearfish up here anyhow, but there's always lots of good junk to look for.

Halfway through the week I bumped into the local scuba shop owner who was putting on his annual dive picnic. I joined in to take some pictures and found all of the sunken tokens before the rest of them. :t The one I grabbed I ended up giving to some new scuba diver who was feeling pretty bad that he hadn't found any. I guess reminded me of myself about 30 years ago- he even had the same $69 Skin Diver Magazine wetsuit like I started out with!rofl

A very nice group of people and an amazing dive shop up in the middle of nowhere- puts shops around here to shame.

We have another trip planned for the same area next month- Firefly lake this time. The lakes are all connected by paved bike paths throughout he woods so you never need to take your kids on any busy roads to get from one beach to the next, or one ice cream shop to the next. :inlove

Here's a few pics from the week.

Jon

 

[Jon]

Here's a few shots of the divers.

Jon

 

[dotey]

That looks like some fun if you every want someone to ride along with ya let me know i can take pretty good pictures but looks like a real fun time

 

[Jon]

Firefly lake is only a 1/2 mile away, by bike path, from crystal lake. It is much smaller, but has fish in it- some nice ones. It's only 40' deep and has a very limited boat access- also with no motors allowed.

There are a number of fish cribs located all over the lake. The come up to within a foot or two of the surface. You can actually have your three year old stand on them while you hangout at the bottom and take pictures of fish!

The water was 72F at the surface and around 52F at depth. We all wore thin wetsuits for most of the week, but we were also in the water for long periods of time.

Since the lakes are so clear and shallow I ended doing quite a bit of FRC diving as well as no fins for most of the week. Since the best diving is above 20' this made it pretty easy- and also allowed me to dive without any wieghtbelt even though I had a 3mm full top on.

Here's a few more pics.

Jon

 

[Jon]

Off with the family for another week of camping/diving in the same area.

See you all in a week!

Jon

 

[Whopperhead]

Have a good time Jon! Can't wait to see more pics.