Safety is paramount for open swimming on the Monongahela River or anywhere else. When I meet Judy Caves in the parking lot of the Duck Hollow recreation area in Pittsburgh on Labor Day, she is blowing up what looks like a small pillow.
“I have a tow float, which is bright neon so that jet skiers and other people in boats can see me,” she says. “When you’re in the water face down, you’re not very easily seen.”
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Caves wears it around her waist, and it floats along with her as she swims. She also wears a bright yellow swimming cap for visibility, emblazoned with the words “Mon’ster Swimmer.” But her biggest safety precaution is her husband, Norman Caves, who accompanies her on river swims in a kayak.
“I just float along next to her at her swimming speed, which is about two miles an hour,” he said.
Justin Aaron Dutta arrives for the late afternoon swim, and like Caves, he wears just a bathing suit. They allow themselves only swimsuits, goggles and swimming caps to train and compete.
“It’s like the English Channel or New York Manhattan Island Marathon swim, and any other open water swimming, you’re not allowed to wear a wetsuit,” Dutta said.
Dutta, Caves and two other swimmers recently did a charity swim for the organization Cancer Bridges in Pittsburgh, which supports people who have cancer, their families, and anybody affected by cancer. They raised over $11,000.
A third swimmer of this informal group joining the swim today, Jennifer Petyk, was already an experienced swimmer, but said Judy Caves got her into open swimming.
“During COVID, there was nowhere to go but into the rivers,” Petyk said. “I thought, why not? I’ll give it a try.”
She said open water is much different than pool swimming, and it’s exciting because every time is different.
What else is in the water?
In early September, the water temperature is in the low 80s because of August’s hot weather. In April, it’s in the 60s. Caves says they have been swimming at Duck Hollow as late as Thanksgiving. But the water temperature isn’t the only factor the swimmers need to worry about.
“One thing to consider in open water in our city and a lot of older cities is the overflow effect when it rains really hard,” Caves said.
In Pittsburgh, the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, or ALCOSAN, has combined sewage overflows along the river that dump storm water runoff mixed with sewage. However, it is working on reducing those overflows.
“I have an alert on my phone that’s connected to ALCOSAN, and they will tell us when it’s compromised,” Caves said.
She said typically, four hours after a rainfall, she will receive an all clear.
“People think of the city rivers and they think garbage and sewage and all the nasties, but it’s really not. It’s really quite clean,” Petyk said.
She said normally they just encounter storm debris like sticks and logs. In the fall, there are leaves on the water.
“In the spring, there’s a lot of pollen, so it looks like it has snowed on the river,” Petyk said. “It’s kind of neat.”
They also see plenty of fish, which are typically afraid of the swimmers.
As the group heads down a path towards the water, Norman Caves pulls the kayak on wheels. Judy Caves says on today’s swim, they will stick to the shoreline, avoiding barges and other boat traffic in the channel in the middle.
“We’ll swim a ways and point out ahead a landmark. Like, oh, that birch tree with a white trunk, let’s pop up there,” Caves aid. “Or if it’s really cold, we’ll say, okay, let’s do 10 strokes and pop up and see how far we want to go again.”
Caves said the Mon is a little warmer and shallower than the Allegheny River. It’s slower, too, even though they call swimming away from Downtown Pittsburgh a slog, because it’s against the current.
Why swim in the Mon?
So why swim in the Mon? Judy Caves said it changes your perspective, even after a rough day, when you are not sure you want to bother getting to the river or getting wet.
“And you get here, and you get in, and you’re like, thank God I did that,” Caves said. “It’s much easier to do this when you have others counting on you and to share the experience. But also, being in the open air, it just feels good.”
Justin Dutta said swimming in the Mon makes it feel like you are part of nature.
“Also in the water, you have like sense deprivation. You’re only hearing the water. You’re blowing out bubbles as you’re taking strokes and everything,” he said. “I do a lot of thinking. It’s very meditative.”
He said they look forward to more people giving open swimming in the rivers a try.
“We’re in a new time and era, and we have clean rivers to swim in,” Dutta said.
Just a safety note here, the Mon’ster Swimmers are experienced swimmers who also train indoors. Swimming on the Mon might not be for the average swimmer. They say don’t go alone on an open swim. Take an experienced partner, and bring a spotter in a kayak if you can.
The three swimmers wade out into the shallow water at the Mon’s shore and adjust their goggles as the sun gets lower on the horizon. Norman Caves, on the river in the kayak, blows a whistle, and they begin their swim towards a train trestle that’s about a mile away. Typically, in good conditions, it takes them about an hour to get there and back.
