Lake Ontario is NOT named after the province Ontario. In fact, it is the other way around. This lake has been home to the Iroquois for thousands of years. This lake is the smallest in terms of surface area but not in terms of volume. It actually hold about 4 times as much water as Lake Erie. More than 1/4 of Canada's population live within the Lake Ontario watershed, which provides drinking water for over 9 million people.
Apparently, the first ever professional home run that was hit by baseball legend, Babe Ruth, landed in Lake Ontario just off of Toronto Island. It was never recovered. Speaking of recoveries, the 'HMS Ontario', a warship, is considered by many to be the oldest Great Lakes shipwreck that has been found. It sank in 1780.
Lake Ontario doesn't usually freeze over completely in the winter. It has done so a handful of times in the modern age but not since 1934. There are over 100 beaches scattered along the shoreline, which makes it a popular destination for beach-goers and water recreation enthusiasts. However, Lake Ontario is also the most polluted of the Great Lakes. Part of the reason for this is that all of the other lakes flow into Lake Ontario and some of the pollution from each of these lakes also flows into Lake Ontario.
Did you know that there is a lake on Saturn's moon that was named after Lake Ontario? It is called Ontario Lacus.
There have been about 50 people that have swum across Lake Ontario, which is 311km long and 85km across. For this month, if you choose the voyage, you will be challenged to run across Lake Ontario AND THEN BACK! This will be a total of 170km (92 nautical miles), which is an average of about 5.5km per day for the duration of the month.
You will earn the following race medals:
