Saturday, July 7, 2012

Jr. Double

Austin and I about to start our journey



Find more Swim in Garden City, UT

Last night the whole family went to Bear Lake, we camped out in a tent at a site just off the shoreline.
Austin brought home "Airhead Wilson"


I woke up this morning at 5am and got Austin up.  We got ready and started our swim at 5:40am.  My goal was to do 10 miles today.  I looked at the GPS map, and since we were so far to the south end of the lake, to go across and a little north was about 5 miles.  Since it wasn't the full width at the widest point, I'm calling it a Jr. Double [Crossing].

The sunrise this morning was breathtaking!
The first mile was tough cause I was stiff, but after that was good.  I was swimming along and noticed while breathing to the side that Austin was looking at something with intent.  I looked in the same direction and saw.... Airhead Wilson!  It was a ball that looked like a soccer ball, but it was just a blow up beachball.  I yelled out "Wilson! Oh Wilson!  We found you!"  Austin was amused and put the ball in the front of the kayak. 

Austin stretching out









When we got to the other side I was surprised how fast it went.  I texted Cathi to let her know we'd be back at 11:30am.  I saw a couple of fish that were probably in the 20 inch range.  Huge! 

Mile 6-8 was fantastic.  I was feeling strong and kept thinking of what the English Channel is gonna be like.  I had lots of variety with today's feeds:  Perpetuem, Swiss Rolls, Cereal bars.  I discovered a new food item that I was REALLY craving especially during mile 9-10: Chicken Nuggets.  Something with protein!  I'm gonna get some of those for next time to try.

When we got back to the boat ramp the GPS said, 9.95 miles, so I got Austin out and Jacob and Jonas got in the boat for an additional little bit to get the route in the 10 mile range.  We swam from the boat ramp to the next available beach to the south.  It was only an additional .65 miles, but enough to get my goal for the day.

The kids had a blast playing in the water and we had a very fun Saturday together as a family and I got in a great swim at the same time!   I'm so tired, but I'm already looking forward to next week.  I'm planning on starting out at the Utah State Bear Lake Marina on the western side and am planning a legitimate double width crossing.  In order to to that however, I'm gonna pull back my yardage a bit this next week, so that I'm not quite so tired and sore. 


Total Distance 10.59 miles in 5:43

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What is water temp at Bear Lake?

Gords said...

Good point, forgot to mention that. The starting temp was 66° and when I got out it was 68°. Its weird, its coldest about a mile around the perimeter of the lake, and once you get to the middle of the lake, it warms up and not gradually. It's like you swim right into a hot tub. When you swim closer to shore, it's like a wall of cold you swim right into. It's odd.

I'm considering not even swimming Bear Lake this weekend, and am looking at even higher elevation lakes for a temp that is low 60s.