Quote:
Originally Posted by JManc
Perhaps not right in Chicago but lakes tend to be seldom patrolled by rangers, police or whoever
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that's probably true.
last summer, we did our annual beach vacation over in grand haven, MI, and the main beach in grand haven is fully patrolled by life guards, but one of the days we drove up the shore a little ways to check out a beach at a state park. it was a "red flag" day (swimming prohibited!) because of large waves creating the lake's textbook rip current conditions, and the red flags were posted all over the beach, but because it was completely unguarded, literally hundreds of people were still swimming in the potentially dangerous water anyway, with nary an authority figure on the scene to tell them not to do so, nor to help them should they get into trouble. this is why people drown in lake michigan.
because it was state park, it was ostensibly an "alcohol-free" beach, so i didn't bring any beer
. then i saw one of our beach neighbors pop open a can of miller lite and i went over to ask him about the alcohol policy. i was like
"i thought alcohol wasn't allowed on this beach because it's state park, is that not true?" and his response was
"hell, i've been coming to this beach for years, not once have i ever seen a ranger out here". and then he gave me a beer
! and this wasn't at some weird off-season time, it was early august, the very peak of summer beach season in michigan.
as, i said earlier, lake michigan has 1,600 miles of shorline. there's no way in hell to patrol all of it.