group of people looking down on us from the RV Park above. They were in jackets and hats and huddled around a campfire. I admit, sitting around a campfire sounded pretty nice as I stood out in the cool air with just a swimsuit on, trying to motivate to get in the even colder water – boy, they must’ve thought we were nuts. Todd grabbed a quick temp to gauge the brisk factor. Thermometer read about 57 F at the edge of the shore, we found that it was closer to 55/56 F as we waded into the mud. Yep, mud. But we were not deterred, we set out to best our 40 minutes at Lake of the Woods the previous week.
We attempted to push off but found ourselves slogging through the mud until it started to drop off and it was just easier to swim. We headed for the ‘no wake’ buoy in an effort to avoid “something in the water” that we spotted before pushing off, then rounded the corner to the left, below the campground, toward the dam. The water was sorta cloudy, but it did not taste muddy like it does in August. It was refreshing and well… murky. A few times Todd started looking around and I asked if he was doing okay – a common ask when you’re swimming in sub 60 degree water – only for him to call out, “yeah, I’m fine, just hit the bottom. It was right there, but I couldn’t see it.” As we got closer to the dam, rocks lined the walls and the water seemed deeper, so I went from being concerned about hitting the dirt bottom, to being concerned about hitting a sneaky rock. I tried to relax and enjoy. Once the initial shock of the cold water passed, I’m reminded of how much I love the open water – no lanelines, no flipturns, nothing stopping me – which scares me sometimes too. “Maybe we should just go back”, “surely, we’ve been out here for an hour” – as much as I live for and thrive on open water swimming, I admit that there are times when I’m training that I have to rally myself to go any significant distance.
It’s always trippy looking up, way up, at various rocks, trees, and landmarks when the water is this low. Todd checked before we got in and the lake was reported at 6% full – yes, SIX percent. Even though it happens every year – the water goes up, the water goes down – it always gives me an apocalyptic feeling to see it, nonetheless swim in it – gah! We have no water, what are we going to do? I try to embrace the fact that we have a little bit and swim on.
We decide to head back to our starting point after about 25 minutes, but didn’t retrace our strokes. We cut across the inlet to the dam and stayed a little off shore to avoid the shallows. Coming back around to the boat ramp Todd stopped and waited for me. I peeked my head up and stopped as well. Next thing I know Todd is standing in thigh high water. So much for avoiding the shallows! We zig zagged across the boat launch area, enjoying the freedom of not having to worry about boats actually launching, and arrived back to our the muddy shore where we left our belongings at about 55 minutes. Even without the sun shining on our backs, we both felt good. Our skin was so used to the cold water that we hardly noticed that cold wind whipping up.
The walk back to Todd’s hous
e provided a nice way to warm up, but my poor choice in footwear will not be forgotten anytime soon. I thought, hey, I’m going swimming, I’ll wear my flipflops, of course. Somehow, these nondescript bumps in my swimoutlet.com clearance sale flipflops, which usually provide nice traction and a pseudo foot massage, on frozen feet flet like I was walking on rocks, pins, needles, glass, all the sharp things! It was only an 8 min walk back to his house, but boy did it feel like forever! If you’ve ever walked on rocks with frozen feet you know how excruciating that is! Come swim with us!
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