John and Rebecca Wass spent much of last summer building a deck at their Millcreek Township home. This year, they want to spend more time at the beach.
They grabbed an early start Tuesday, enjoying the warm sun and a gentle breeze at Presque Isle State Park’s Beach 8, along with nearly 40 other lunchtime visitors.
“We didn’t get here once last year, even though we live so close,” said John Wass, 64.
“We just like to sit here and relax,” added Rebecca Wass, 63.
Summerlike temperatures reaching 86, two degrees below the all-time record for the date, encouraged hundreds of people to visit the park’s beaches Tuesday, even though swimming isn’t allowed until Saturday at noon.
Instead, people sunbathed, grilled hot dogs, read books and helped their children build sand castles. Some of the more adventurous waded into the cold Lake Erie water, which was only 52 frigid degrees Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
“The (Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) sets our swim dates in advance regardless of the weather, so the beaches won’t be guarded until noon Saturday,” said Steve Dunsmore, one of the park’s Lake Erie lifeguard managers. “If you’re at an unguarded beach, you can wade up to your knees, with a maximum of being 10 feet from shore.”
Hannah West and Carolyn Mankey were more interested in reading than swimming during their visit to Beach 8. The two friends had traveled to Erie from their homes in southwestern Pennsylvania for an impromptu vacation.
West, 20, works as a certified nurse’s assistant, while Mankey, 21, just graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
“We just wanted to get out of Washington (Pennsylvania),” West said. “We played volleyball last night and I like the history of Presque Isle. I’ve been to the lighthouse and I like going to Misery Bay.”
Park lifeguards prepare for swim season
Not everyone was at the beach to relax. Erich Fuhrman, Luca Hokaj and Garrett Thayer were hauling lifeguard chairs onto Beach 6 as the park prepared for swim season.
Another park lifeguard was patrolling the beaches in an all-terrain vehicle, educating people about the various park rules.
“To give you some idea of how many people visited the park on Monday, our ATV lifeguard made 175 public contacts that day on the various beaches,” Dunsmore said. “That’s just the number of people who they talked with. We had many more visit the beaches.”
When will Presque Isle beaches be open for swimming?
Once swim season starts on Saturday, swimming will be allowed seven days a week, weather permitting, from noon until 7:30 p.m. The following beaches are expected to be open for swimming:
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Weekdays — Beaches 3, 6, 8 and 11
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Weekends — Beaches 3, 6, 8, 10 and 11
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Contact David Bruce at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNBruce.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Warm Erie weather leads people to Presque Isle State Park beaches
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