McHenry County Blog

This photo is from a 2009 heat toward the West End of Crystal Lake. It was a windy day.

The annual Greater Chicago Junior Rowing Championships will be held on Crystal Lake Saturday.  If you haven’t seen such a regatta, it might be worth your time.

If it was a windy day as in 2009, taking the skiff out of the water can get one wet, as you can see below.

A dozen teams are expected this year.  One would expect that New Trier, Woodlands Academy, North Suburban, the Lincoln Park Juniors and St. Ignatius would come again.

During the race, this crew's skiff took on a good deal of water.

One year, crews from Upper Arlington, Ohio, north of Columbus, competed, so this is truly a regional event.  In 2009, West Park, Canada, participated, as did St. Louis.  There was also a Mendota crew from Madison, Wisconsin.

In 2009, this banner announced the event.

The event is sponsored by the Crystal Lake Rowing Club.

The 2009 race course.

Most of the folks who come with the teams watch the races from the Main Beach., but there are places to watch more than the end of the race from the south shore.

Family and friends lined Crystal Lake Main Beach shoreline for the 2009 regatta.

The best spot to watch the action, in my opinion, is Gate 3′s beach.

Two houses to the west of Main Beach is CCAPOA's Gate 3 beach. The willow tree in the background is on its edge.

While only those with Country Club Additions Property Owners Association car stickers can utilize the small number of parking spaces, the beach is a short walk from the Main Beach.  It can be reached from the first street in Lakewood (look for the Gate 3 sign), which is just to the west of the Beach.

Here's a view of a close four-way race from Gate 3.

There are three other CCAPOA beaches, also with permit parking only, along South Shore Drive.  Each are within walking distance of the Main Beach, since Crystal Lake is only a bit over a mile long.

Watching people get ready for the races is an event in itself.

Not that there are not things to see at the Main Beach.

Launching the skiffs takes real skill, especially if it is a windy day.

Especially for those who have never watched such races.

This is the view from Gate 21, the fartherest south shore beach from Main Beach, from which race starts can be seen.

There is a Regatta Playground, one of two Leathers playgrounds in Crystal Lake, to occupy the younger siblings.

Appropriate for a rowing regatta is the Crystal Lake Park District's Regatta Playgound. Besides being a place for kids to play, it offers a high view of races.

And, there is always the beach on which kids can play.

Crystal Lake will be too cold to swim in, but brave young ones have been known to dash in and out the water.

Participating this Saturday will be

• Camp Randall RC (Madison WI)
• Chicago Training Center (also include UNO charter school)
• Crystal Lake Rowing Club
• Ignatius Chicago
• Lincoln Park Juniors
• Loyola Academy
• New Trier HS
• North Suburban Crew (Woodlands Academy)
• Rochester RC (MN)

Poster from one of the many supporters of the Raue Center grant.

I’m sitting in Crystal Lake City Council Chambers waiting for the passage of the resolution asking McHenry County government to recognize the importance of the city watershed protection ordinance and what should occupy the minds of most in the audience, but distribution of proceeds from the Hotel/Motel Tax.

Mayor Aaron Shepley had a staffer put up a spreadsheet on the overhead projector. It contained last year’s allocations and a row for this year.

$302,000 in the till, it appeared.

Final Crystal Lake Hotel/Motel Tax Distribution (click to enlarge)

Then he started filling in numbers.

• $15,000 for the Independence Day fireworks which the Crystal Lake Gala used to finance after the Crystal Lake Jaycees stopped sponsoring them when a youth found an unexploded one and severely injured his hand. (The Jaycees collected donations at Veterans Acres in bags.)
• $2,000 to the Crystal Lake Babe Ruth League
• $10,000 to the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce for the 4th of July Parade.
• $6,000 for the Chamber’s Shopping and Dining Guide.
• $35,000 for Historic Downtown Crystal Lake
• $3,600 for the Music Center
• $50,000 for Youth Sports (the baseball tournament)
• $150,000 for the Raue Center for the Performing Arts
• Volleyball – zero
• McHenry County Convention Bureau – zero at Shepley’s guidance, suggesting the money could be found elsewhere in the city budget
• $25,000 for Lakeside Center with Councilwoman Ellen Brady Mueller pointing out whatever was allocated was in addition to $8,000 in donated police services
• $2,500 for the Crystal Lake Rowing Club

The total awarded was $299,100.

Audience files out of the council chambers after the cutting up of the Hotel/Motel Tax pie. Most were supporters of the Raue Center's application.

Having received $150,000 the Raue Center supports left satisfied, even though they didn’t get the $44,000 they sought for repairs to the old movie theater.

The money collected from the Hotel/Motel Tax could be spent for any purpose.

Crystal Lake’s Main Beach is the place to be this afternoon.

I saw this banner tied to the gate of Main Beach as I was coming home from church.

The man at the parking lot said that the Crystal Lake Rowing Club is going to be introducing people to the sport this afternoon.

I don’t know if that means verbal introduction or actual sitting in a skiff.

A tent is already up way down by toward the outlet.

I stopped and asked what time and heard,
Three

So, if you are interested, drop by.

It’s a lot calmer than when the interstate high school tournament.

One of the things I accomplished while separated from the internet was scheduling our vacation.

This year, with my son being the age I was when we moved to Salt Lake City from Easton, Maryland, I thought it might be appropriate to show him things I saw while I was his age.

It’s been fifty years since my sisters and I were taken to South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore. I remember eating buffalo meat at a restaurant overlooking the presidential busts and that the meat was chewy. I liked it. Since then, there’s a light show we’ll have to take in.

And, Wyoming’s Yellowstone. I still remember my mother’s saying she wondered if my father would have a heart attack while he was frantically searching for me after I wondered off from the family. He figured I’d end up in some boiling water.

A woman I met at Home Depot after my computer died was wearing a Yellowstone sweat shirt, so I asked her for advice. She told me she and a cousin were the only ones at Old Faithful on the June 20th the year they visited who were wearing winter coats. That was appropriate because it was snowing.

So, it was thoughts like that which entered my head as I took a picture of this out of place Wyoming license plate at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach parking lot.

The Greater Chicago Junior Championships were taking place last Saturday.

Eleven teams were competing from as far away as Ontario, but none from Wyoming.

The owner of Wyoming plate number 1 15082 must be one dedicated parent.

The night before the longest day of the year there was finally a perfect day for a cruise on Crystal Lake.

No flooding like on the Fox River and Chain of Lakes.

No stress.

Just pure enjoyment.

A day a boat owner lives for.

My wife was like the cleaner bot of Buzz Lightyear during the day.

If there was dirt, she attacked it.

As evening approached, she bought a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, invited some friends over, including some for our son to play with, and we left the dock.

“Why did you bring your camera?” I was asked.

“I need a ‘Message of the Day’ for tomorrow,” I replied.

After I downloaded the 80 or so photos I took, I saw lines.

There were verticle lines–reflections of the setting sun in the glass in the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach House.

There was the line of rowers about to get in some practice at Naoki Kamijima Park on the West End of Crystal Lake.

More vertical lines showed up in the water from both the windows and the wall between the windows from the Lakewood Village Hall.

Then, there were fishing lines from the floating docks at West Beach in Lakewood. And, a bonus. Vertical lines from the guard rail posts and their reflections.

There were the horizontal lines of the side of an aluminum pier reflecting the setting sun, plus its reflections on the lake surface.

Next, there was a line of kids trailing behind a pontoon boat. When the captain told them someone was taking pictures of them, most waved.

As we passed the CCAPOA pier at Gate 15 in Lakewood, there were more lines from fishing rods and a woman showed us the size of the one that I assume got away.

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

The night before the longest day of the year there was finally a perfect day for a cruise on Crystal Lake.

No flooding like on the Fox River and Chain of Lakes.

No stress.

Just pure enjoyment.

A day a boat owner lives for.

My wife was like the cleaner bot of Buzz Lightyear during the day.

If there was dirt, she attacked it.

As evening approached, she bought a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, invited some friends over, including some for our son to play with, and we left the dock.

“Why did you bring your camera?” I was asked.

“I need a ‘Message of the Day’ for tomorrow,” I replied.

After I downloaded the 80 or so photos I took, I saw lines.

There were verticle lines–reflections of the setting sun in the glass in the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach House.

There was the line of rowers about to get in some practice at Naoki Kamijima Park on the West End of Crystal Lake.

More vertical lines showed up in the water from both the windows and the wall between the windows from the Lakewood Village Hall.

Then, there were fishing lines from the floating docks at West Beach in Lakewood. And, a bonus. Vertical lines from the guard rail posts and their reflections.

There were the horizontal lines of the side of an aluminum pier reflecting the setting sun, plus its reflections on the lake surface.

Next, there was a line of kids trailing behind a pontoon boat. When the captain told them someone was taking pictures of them, most waved.

As we passed the CCAPOA pier at Gate 15 in Lakewood, there were more lines from fishing rods and a woman showed us the size of the one that I assume got away.

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

In the meetings where the watershed ordinance was discussed, Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley makes clear his concern about the lake.

But, I wonder how sincere he is.

I just chanced upon the following January 29, 2006, article about lengthening Crystal Lake so it could be the rowing venue for the Olympics.

Below is what Shepley told the Northwest Herald when the Crystal Lake Rowing Club proposed the lake for Olympic consideration, pointing out

• The West End would have to be dredged to 3 meters—about the depth when I was the only early morning fisherman on the lake the summer of 1958, which is doable–and
• The lake would have to be lengthened about 100 meters.

So, I would pose this question:

If Mayor Shepley would even briefly consider such drastic physical changes to Crystal Lake for, what, a ten-day sporting event, how much does he care about the lake’s preservation?

This is as good a place as any to remind you that you can call your city council members, including the mayor, about McHenry County College’s baseball stadium zoning vote scheduled for the Tuesday night meeting that starts at 5:30. The phone numbers are here.

In the meetings where the watershed ordinance was discussed, Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley makes clear his concern about the lake.

But, I wonder how sincere he is.

I just chanced upon the following January 29, 2006, article about lengthening Crystal Lake so it could be the rowing venue for the Olympics.

Below is what Shepley told the Northwest Herald when the Crystal Lake Rowing Club proposed the lake for Olympic consideration, pointing out

• The West End would have to be dredged to 3 meters—about the depth when I was the only early morning fisherman on the lake the summer of 1958, which is doable–and
• The lake would have to be lengthened about 100 meters.

So, I would pose this question:

If Mayor Shepley would even briefly consider such drastic physical changes to Crystal Lake for, what, a ten-day sporting event, how much does he care about the lake’s preservation?

This is as good a place as any to remind you that you can call your city council members, including the mayor, about McHenry County College’s baseball stadium zoning vote scheduled for the Tuesday night meeting that starts at 5:30. The phone numbers are here.

I thought Crystal Lake was too short for Olympic rowing.

That’s what Crystal Lake Rowing Club member Walt Gary said last year.

He said the lake would have to be lengthened about 100 meters.

Even so, the Northwest Herald thought it worth running a front page story.

Mayor Aaron Shepley’s comment at the time was

If it even became remotely possible, I’d be tickled to tackle that one. That sounds like the closest thing to reality.

Now, NW Herald reporter Timothy Wolfmeyer has elicited a comment from Libby Scarlatos, identified as a champion member of the 2003 Elite Women’s 4’s and Crystal Lake Rowing Club coach, that Crystal Lake has

a home course that could host an Olympic competition.

Count me among the doubters.

Especially after the Chicago Olympic committee announced another location.

But only about the Olympic competition.

I agree with Scarlatos that rowing could develop into a high school sport locally.

There certainly are few enough people using Crystal Lake during non-wake times and sometime in the future, Vulcan Lake could be used for shorter races, if there are any.

If Wonder Lake can produce national water ski champs, why couldn’t McHenry County produce contenders in rowing?

And, by the way,here you can see see what one of the Saturday races looked like. Not at all like standing on the Main Beach, wouldn’t you agree?

= = = = =
As usual, the photograph can be enlarged by clicking on it. It was taken May 5 from Lakewood’s Gate 13.

I thought Crystal Lake was too short for Olympic rowing.

That’s what Crystal Lake Rowing Club member Walt Gary said last year.

He said the lake would have to be lengthened about 100 meters.

Even so, the Northwest Herald thought it worth running a front page story.

Mayor Aaron Shepley’s comment at the time was

If it even became remotely possible, I’d be tickled to tackle that one. That sounds like the closest thing to reality.

Now, NW Herald reporter Timothy Wolfmeyer has elicited a comment from Libby Scarlatos, identified as a champion member of the 2003 Elite Women’s 4’s and Crystal Lake Rowing Club coach, that Crystal Lake has

a home course that could host an Olympic competition.

Count me among the doubters.

Especially after the Chicago Olympic committee announced another location.

But only about the Olympic competition.

I agree with Scarlatos that rowing could develop into a high school sport locally.

There certainly are few enough people using Crystal Lake during non-wake times and sometime in the future, Vulcan Lake could be used for shorter races, if there are any.

If Wonder Lake can produce national water ski champs, why couldn’t McHenry County produce contenders in rowing?

And, by the way,here you can see see what one of the Saturday races looked like. Not at all like standing on the Main Beach, wouldn’t you agree?

= = = = =
As usual, the photograph can be enlarged by clicking on it. It was taken May 5 from Lakewood’s Gate 13.