The best thing about these late winter swims is when you first notice that the water on your exposed skin is no longer painful – only somewhat uncomfortable. This is a sure sign that Spring is within striking distance…
Two of us met out at L1 at 7:00am where the air temperature was a biting 24F. The L1 area was crisscrossed with fishing lines from some coho salmon fishermen, so we relocated down to L5 where we weren’t in any danger of running into any stray hooks.
The official lake temp came in at 39F – much higher than I was expecting. And since we had lots of sunshine and a relatively calm lake, I decided to go with my thermo rashguard, shorts, and short sleeve top versus a fullsuit.
I stayed close to the wall for the entirety of the swim and did about 1/3 in total. I was quite comfortable in the water, and my hands and feet actually warmed up once no longer subjected to the frigid air temperature.
Post-swim was the usual mad scramble to get out of the wet swim gear and into dry clothes. And because the air temperature was so much colder, I ended up with a much more vigorous afterdrop that started on the way back to my car and only ended when I finally got my omelette at Elly’s.
Hope to see you all out there real soon!
L1 at dawn
Reeling one in!
A frozen L5
Sunrise
Our own private ice skating ribbon
Sunrise video