WORST LAKE TO DIVE IN MN

[Hydro]

Everyone likes to talk about the best vis and the hardest bottom in mn... we have a lot more toilet pools, so name your top 5 worst lakes to dive (more or less if you want, and why they sucked.

1. bald eagle lake (by white bear) - dove this for about 2 minutes... went to the bottom and my 1800 lumen light could only cut through about 1-2 feet of scum water... at first bottom felt like gravel then realized it was 5 inches of snail shells... punched arm thru the snail crust into endless creamy muck.... kept imagining the bottom of an unflushed toilet from all the dark brown water and scum... got out of the water and made sure i didnt smell like poo...

2. cedar lake in minneapolis - dove out from the park on the west side... got to about 20 feet never felt hard bottom, like pea soup... called it and met confused park police on the shore. maybe 3 feet of vis

3. clearwater lake north of annandale mn - went to look for a trolling motor... again pea soup dove to 50ish feet and just stopped sinking but felt no bottom like swimming in a green milkshake, never found the trolling motor maybe 2 feet of vis

4. orchard lake apple valley/lakeville - not so bad if you found hard bottom, vis was like sinking into darkness deeper then 3 feet under the ice... bright day outside, night dive underneath maybe 3 feet of vis.

5. lake nokomis minneapolis - again about a foot of vis, littered with garbage... 5 feet of water and felt like i was swimming through rubbish that was going to impale me.

[popolarbear]

ha ha ha. hydro your funny.


ok.


calhoun. water clarity has cleared up alot in the shallows. (less than 10ft).
ive seen super clear water. main lake is horrible vis..
I think city of minneapolis is about to sue some private group for long term mass pumping of water into this lake.had something to do with a new building construction cracking thru into ground water spring.

uppper lake of tonka.(probably due to farm fertilizer)

mirror lake in edina/hopkins. large long lake. pea soup grean due to medow brook golf course fertililizer run off.

[jasondbaker]

Great topic idea. I'll add a couple:

Christmas Lake: I think older divers still recall fond memories of diving this lake because its reputation as a clear lake lives on. Maybe it's okay in the winter, but I would steer clear any other time of year. The fertilizer from surrounding manicured properties has turned this lake into an algae farm. Negotiating the entry surrounded by boaters is no fun.

Stubler Mine Pit: Everyone needs to dive this little gem at least once in their life. It was highly recommended by the locals up in the Virginia area. You can forget to thank me later. Really.

[DetectorGuy]

Here is my opinion of the worst lakes to dive in MN:
1. Green Lake in Chisago County by Linwood. We did a thin ice rescue training with Linwood Fire Dept there. We dropped a 200 LBS dummy through the ice in 26' deep water and it burried it self in bottomless silt like a lawn dart. I couldnt find it on my first attempt and found it on the second attempt under about 4' of loose silt.

2. Devils Lake near Mora in Kanebec County. We searched for a guy that drown there in 12' of water. The silt was about 3' thick and very black at 12'. Viz wasn't helped by Kanebec County dragging the night before we got there. After this dive I brought my regs in to get serviced and they told me that I had wood inside the regulator from me burrowing through the silt.

3. Knife lake by Mora in Kanebec County. We dove here during that "Anchor Challenge" right over the old dam, as we heard the bottom was so tangled up with rebar, that the anchors should be snagged all over the thing. The rebar was a tangled up mess and the chance for an accident there was high, so we each tried it and called the dive earlier than normal. The vis is zero in the summer and about 2' in the winter.

4. Purgatory. The location is undisclosed, as this site IS going to kill somebody someday. A 130' deep private Granite Quarry about a half mile into the boondocks. At 50' deep there was a 10' layer of hydrogen sulfide that all the trees that ever fell into the pit were hovering in. This was like a spider web until we started diving below it and our bubbles percolated through it and dispersed this layer. After about 12 different days of diving through this hydrogen sulfide layer of trees, the water blended, and the trees dropped to the bottom and sat on all the other entanglements already on the bottom. The visibility above and below the layer of hydrogen sulfide got worse after this 'percolation'. There is also at least one overhead environment in this quarry that is a potential (probable) widowmaker... Bad, bad place to dive!

5. Un-named granite quarry pit near Purgatory. We did one ice dive here prior to the Purgatory dives based on local folklore that there was some really cool stuff on the bottom. After cutting the hole, the parasite larvae came to life. These little critters were about a half inch long and disgusting to look at, not to mention swim with. The pit ended up being only 26' deep with lawn mowers, washing machines, bikes and the like. We crossed that one off the list and later found out we were one pit away from the one with the stuff in it (Purgatory).

[arcFlash]

I disagree. Calhoun is very divable all year long. I've jumped it more than I can count. Literal because I don't log dives anymore.

My top 3 are already listed. Bald, xmas, orchard. Jason, even in ice Xmas is poor to very poor.

[Hydro]

Ill add josephine in north metro... I wont convey the conversation I had with terry during the dive... but it was all soft and brown bottom.... at one point there was a fudge monster that swam up from under the muck..... yeah I can flush lake josephine off my list of lakes to dive.

[Terry]

I wont convey the conversation I had with terry,,,,,

what do you mean Joe,,,,,"this is chit",,,,"this is chit" ,,,spoken thru a regulator? Have to agree with John, Pergatory is a widow maker, although potentially an excellent site for advanced training. There's a couple spots on the Mississippi (although not a lake) I'm not wanting to return to. That combination of very poor vis, entanglement, and overhead environment can be a lethal mix.

[popolarbear]

I disagree. Calhoun is very divable all year long. I've jumped it more than I can count. Literal because I don't log dives anymore.
[/quote]

arc im not sure what to think. you disagree and agreeing to what i said. calhoun has both high and near zero vis. if you doubt me. we can do a hole i found that has zero vis. zero. even if you use ir i get nothing.not sure why.we will do it this winter. actually there is a sail boat or two in this hole.

[arcFlash]

I disagree. Calhoun is very divable all year long. I've jumped it more than I can count. Literal because I don't log dives anymore.
[/quote]

arc im not sure what to think. you disagree and agreeing to what i said. calhoun has both high and near zero vis. if you doubt me. we can do a hole i found that has zero vis. zero. even if you use ir i get nothing.not sure why.we will do it this winter. actually there is a sail boat or two in this hole.
[/quote]

I understand now. You reported a dive site that is bad, not a lake. This topic is for entire lakes that are just so poor they don't warrant a visit regardless.

[popolarbear]

most of what little i have seen of that lake is as said. but honestly i don't have that much time in that lake.