Swimming in all Five Great Lakes in the same day

Five Great Lakes – 2026  The Hotels and Breweries version. 

Note: The spots we are stopping have street addresses, GPS coordinates, and what3words.com links.

14 July 2026 Leave home, head for Simcoe, Ontario.

Good stops I Intend to do on the way: (Three hours from GR) Lunch at Refined Fool Brewery in Sarnia. 1326 London Rd. In 2023 we found a great beer called Van Full of Weirdos. https://what3words.com/thudded.lame.streaks  Seemed appropriate. (179 Miles from GR)

Point Lands Park in Sarnia. 99 Seaway Rd. https://what3words.com/scales.shell.promise  There’s a scale model of the Great Lakes. It looks much cooler on a satellite zoom in than it does in person. If you have a few minutes. Otherwise, skip it. (We stopped here in 2024. While kind of cool, it’s better to see on Google Maps than in person.)

At 5PM, meet at the Blue Elephant Artisan Brewery  96 Norfolk St S, Simcoe, ON N3Y 2W2, Canada https://what3words.com/commercially.unless.triplet  (122 miles) (The night before)  Awesome place. Nice people. We can reserve a room there. Call 519 428 2886 and tell them how many people you have coming. Pretty cool place, decent food and beer. When we figure out how many of us there are, we’ll let them know.

Stay in Simcoe for the night. We stayed at Travelodge but there are other possibilities too. About 15 minutes to Port Dover Beach.

LAKE ERIE Port Dover Beach 2 Walker St, Port Dover, ON N0A 1N0  https://w3w.co/drone.rinks.respectively42.78326° N, 80.20304° W  (9 miles)

Plan to be there at 5am. You’ll start in the dark but use the green blinking light on the lighthouse to the left to sight. Then turn around and use one of the lights on the shore to the right. It’ll be light soon. Done swimming and on the road well before 7am.

stop at Tim Horton for a bathroom break and breakfast on the way out of Port Dover (2 blocks from the swim site). Just over an hour to…

LAKE ONTARIO Confederation Beach Park 580 Van Wagners Beach Rd, Hamilton, ON L8E 3L8    https://w3w.co/repeats.bolt.waving 43.25373° N, 79.75881° W    (45 miles) (Just before you get there, right after Barton Street, there’s a Tim Horton’s on the left if  you need a bathroom break. There’s not much for restrooms at the swim site.) Swimming before 8am. Nice benches there we can sit on to change. Leave town by 8:45. A little over 2 hours to…

LAKE HURON Canatara Park, Lake Chipican Drive, Sarnia,ON    https://w3w.co/wisdom.oldest.airbag  43.00631° N, 82.40193° W (150 miles)

Beautiful beach. Swim from 11:30 to noon. Decent washrooms if we want to change there. Note—swim to the right first. The current definitely pushes us west toward the river. We walked to the right (east) to the end of the beach and then swam to the right for a few minutes then made a U-turn to swim back west to the washroom building where our cars were parked. Head back to the USA. Take the first off ramp when you get across. Grab some lunch at …

Black and Blue Brewery, 330 Quay St.  Port Huron, MI. 48060. https://what3words.com/claps.accent.skill (7 miles) (Some of us went there in 2023. All of us did in 2025. If you want to go, don’t miss the FIRST exit after you get off the Bluewater Bridge after entering the USA. Otherwise, you’re headed the wrong direction and it’s a while before you can get off) Keep it short. We’ll try and get on the road by 1:30. (Skip this stop and get fast food along the way if you want to save a little time.) About 4 hours to Biere de Mac Brew Works in Mackinaw City. 14277 Mackinaw Hwy, Mackinaw City, MI   https://what3words.com/putting.info.politics (290 Miles) Regroup here. Have a quick, short beer, then over to

LAKE MICHIGAN Mackinaw City First Beach. E Wilderness Park Dr, Mackinaw City, MI 49701 https://w3w.co/iron.exhibitors.hormones  (3 Miles) Turn left out of Biere de Mac, then turn left at the first road, Trails End Rd and follow it all the way to Lake Michigan. , We’ll try to be swimming shortly after 6pm and get on the road by 7. (last year it was more like 7:30). Cross the bridge. It’s less than an hour to

LAKE SUPERIOR

Brimley State Park 9200 West 6 Mile Road, Brimley, Michigan 49715 46.41661° N, 84.55833° W. https://w3w.co/clapper.beast.insurer (54 Miles) Swimming by 8:30, done before sunset. If there’s a problem with Brimley State Park (they had a no-swim warning due to e-coli July 2024) go about 7 miles west to Point Iroquois Lighthouse. https://w3w.co/ruining.snacks.competition

(Since leaving home—859 miles, plus whatever incidental extra miles we did. So 900. And we’re still up north and have to go home. So add another 300 for that.) (Lisa clocked 1209 miles for the whole trip from GR--from home back to home)

Afterglow at the Casino Back Bar (at the west end of the Casino) about 3 miles west of Brimley State Park.  Food was good and inexpensive. In 2023, some of the guys got them to heat up some frozen pizza at the Cozy Inn, 11204 W Lakeshore Dr. Casino is probably the best bet.

Stay in Sault Ste Marie for the night—lots of chain hotel/motels on the southwest end of town.

If you’re staying up north for the Mackinac Bridge Swim, enjoy a couple days.

NOTE: This is a free event. Everyone books their own hotel and figures out their own transportation. 

NOTE: If you click on the What3Words link for any of the location, you can click on their Navigate button and it will use your Apple or Google maps on your phone to take you to where you want to go. Pretty freaking cool.

NOTES FROM PAST TRIPS: In 2023, we started swimming in Erie at 5:23am. Ontario 7:49am. Huron 11:24am. Michigan 6:48pm. Superior 8:45pm.  Finished with sun still up.

In 2024 Erie at 5:10. Ontario 7:29. Huron 11:30. Michigan 6:02. Superior 8:15pm.

2025—Erie at 5:07. Water temp avg 70. Ontario 7:36. Temp 68. Huron 11:29am Temp 69. Michigan 6:25. Temp 72. Superior 8:29pm Temp 65. Five lakes in 16 hours.