wolf lake

[bigdaddy]

is wolf lake still an option

[Pier]

Few of us went to Wolf lake this season.

See the thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9963&p=48000&hilit=wolf#p47988

Hope this helps

[bigdaddy]

i just read further down the post and found the answer to my question

[IVO]

Depends who you gonna ask..I got asked about that place a lot and my answer is-was always same...No its not a option..With this in mind a rode that place tree times in 3years,I kite a LOT and was always able to scored session elsewhere.


I hate that place from bottom of my heart,poop lake how I call it,,it's in complete antilogy what I love about kitesurfing,,,freedom,downwinders,vibe ect.ect.ect..There's nothing you gonna find in that place what will make it a special,remarkable,one for the book session as one with your buddies on the Big Lake..Many times I heard,,yehhh but its soooo close,,there I cant help,,for instance tmr there will be bunch of people kiting from the noon,just because they dont want to put some miles in..


Sorry for the little rant,,at the end if you dont mind riding in gusty shit,nuclaer-metal-allergen infested waters,than poop lake is your spot..




Maybe Piero gonna share the story how he got caught his foot on the fish hook while kiting there someday

[adseguy]

I remember when I first started I heard about Wolf lake and to just stay away from it. I knew it wasn't a beginner spot so I didn't go for the longest time until I could actually ride decent. One day, I didn't have much time and felt like trying a new spot. I looked up Wolf Lake as I saw the direction worked there. I ended up having a pretty good time....not the best or anything, but it worked and worked really well.

I'd agree IVO, it's NOT for everyone. You have to love more then anything to just get as much time on the water. Within 45 minutes from my front door I can be on the water and it works in anything from NW to SSE. It is gusty, but one thing I'd recommend that I see a lot of kiters do....Get away from the shore the wind is coming from!! Too often I see people hugging the shore line right where the wind hits the trees. Of course it's gusty. I try to create as much water distance as I can for the direction. Actually on a pure south wind there is nothing better to me then getting that glassy, waist/ankle deep water on the far north side. Nice smooth wind too!

No freedom? ----- What about the dock to play with/jump over? The mini hatteras on the North side? The slick on the South side with a West wind? Tons of fun options!
Downwinders? ----- You got Wolf Lake by the balls on that one. Can't beat a MI/WI/IL downwinder!
Vibe? ----- Serious?! I have a great time with the regular 6 or so regular kiters and the damn good windsurfers ripping it up. I think the hate for the kite "experience" is bringing you down
One for the books? ----- How about grabbing that stealth session? Grabbing the sunset session on a warm day? Friends and vibe and maybe a new nailed trick or two on the flatter water had made countless memories for me
Disgusting water? ----- Yeah it can smell "organic" at times, but like I've said it's actually cleaner then the lake. Even on HOT days with WARM water that beach doesn't close often due to E coli like the big lake does and yep it's tested too. I kid around with you about the water, but do be honest at least it's natural....there is chicken wire and some other steal sticking up here and there so that is a bummer when you find it, but you can avoid it in the open water.

I'm not bad mouthing your opinions IVO. You are totally entitled to your points of view and I respect them for their merits. I'd vote almost any beach on the Lake better then Wolf in terms of rideability, but when I factor in the extra 2 hours it will take to go somewhere else and that it may go offshore, I get turned off. I hope you can see that point of view. I usually only have a few hours to kite so every hour is fairly precious to me.

My recommendation to everybody is if you live around that area try it out one day. Get to know the place a little and enjoy the flat water. If you don't like it, I understand get a home spot and enjoy the crap out of it...that's the key! Every spot has it's ups and downs....it's up to you on finding which spots give you more ups

[IVO]

I see Adrien,well you didnt surprise me with your respond,,you made that spot working for you,great,so be it..

it sure doesnt work for me,not going to spend time arguing back and forth since you clearly have your opinion already made,but lets see.

No freedom,

yes that kinda freedom when you ride,ride,ride and there's nothing around you except never ending blue line and you,that kinda freedom that you have to force yourself to turn around and ride back towards beach because you "lose yourself" and gone toooo far... that kinda freedom

Vibe,

those "damn good windsurfers ripping it up",yes those are my buddies and thats about it why I stick up my nose to that spot time to time..I could see how folks could have a"good time there",heard that many times,but with some its only a phase and Im happy about that.


One for the books,

loving stealth session at Waukegan,classic 4people Ne crew:)Maybe someday make a trip to ST.Joe S switching to SW,thats as glassy as you can get,priceless

Disgusting water,

thats a chapter for itself,floating bodies,chicken wires,fence in the water,I could deal with that:)That I cut my foot there last time and one of those metal shrapnels end up in my foot(big thanks to Ben,since it needed two people,knife,screwdriver to take that shit out),even that didnt piss me of,since I calculate that in for riding "the spot".But If I say that pond is fully loaded with every allergenic shit from all area I wouldnt be far from the true.Knock me off for two days.


Adrien,hope you arent gonna spend whole summer there and end up somewhere on the MI side soon


To make some ending to this,if you can,leave the poop lake as a last option on the list,very last one,there are other hazardous stuff in and out of the water which many could tell long stories about


Just trying to save one soul at a time

[adseguy]

It's cool IVO, we can all have our different opinions I'll be seeing you around the lake as usual, no doubt about that.

[skysurfr]

AS the senior or second senior most Wolf Lake rider, I think Big Daddy was riding Wolf Lake before me. Maybe Tim G too.... I thought I'd toss in my comments.

Wolf Lake isn't a beginner spot. Its a bad place to body drag, there's no place to safely fly your kite on land. There are obstructions both above and below the water. Power lines, rocks, metal, trees, houses, cement walls, etc etc etc....

Many kites have been sw3allowed by Wolf Lake.

That said, you can have a nice time, beautiful sunset sessions, nukin' days in the middle.....

Also a word about the Windsurfers. It's their spot. Stay away from them. It's terrifying to have a kite fall on or around you or to even see the lines over your head.

The smell- I thin the smell actually comes from Lever Brothers which has a water treatment plant on the north side of the lake. Several years back their settling ponds went bad and really stunk the place up.

Weeds- Be alert it's almost weed season, and they can be thick as wet cement on Wolf Lake. It's the only place Ive ever scared the heck out of myself due to weeds. If Not for my kite and float vest, i'd have drown 110% for sure. I used the kite to pull myself across the top of a solid muck weed bed....

So it's a great flat water fun spot when it's all working. It's a kite eating cess pool when it's your kite in a tree or your foot stuck on some rebar or a fish hook.

110% certain... Wolf Lake is not a beginner spot. For the rest of us... who knows.

Mike

[West]

Different strokes, for different folks...

one of my favorite memories is along the same vein as this back and forth: several years back V, Greg, and I would travel out to Koshkonong with regularity and hit it with Kris. We absolutely "worshipped" the place, the times we had out there were always something else...you just never knew what would happen!!!! Well, one day several other kiters made the journey from Chicago to see what we were all raving about. Skypilot Mike made the trek, his one and only time out .... he had a terrible time: having to rig lines on the street and drag 'em out to launch, walking without booties through the muck that you could literally get stuck up to your waist in, dealing with the shifty, gusty winds that day; and finally getting his lines tangled in a mess of seaweed, and to top it all off, to come out of "the Swamp" with the stench of dead carp all over him!!!!!

while, we on the otherhand, were laughing our arse off about the day, and about Mike's deep distaste for "our spot"; we headed to the Owl, had a Spotted Cow and some lake perch and took it all in stride.....

So, I can see how one man's junk is another man's treasure.......enjoy the "gold coins" at ol Wolfey Adrien, and Ivo and I will be searching for some jewels somewhere along the Big Lake's expansive shoreline!!!! ....what you save in gas, you can now spend on beer!!!

One of these daze, maybe we can get Adrien to drag Mike back out to the Swamp for another try at the fabled Kosh!! The Cows will be on me.........and if we're lucky, we might even get a Fat Squirrel or two!!

Happy Kiting