Turns out there is something more challenging than a swim in the lake on January 1, and that is a swim in the lake the day after the ice drifts off. I figure it deserves a post for posterity.
Sean arrived at the lake first, on Thursday of the long Easter weekend, and it was covered entirely in ice. We arrived next on Friday afternoon, after a healthy spring wind and rain overnight had swept the ice northwards on the water, but didn't much impact the foot or so of snow still on the ground in places around the cabin. Jamie and Noah arrived Friday night, and so you know what had to happen on Saturday morning.
Not much more than 24 hours after the lake had been completely covered in ice, the gents proceeded to the shore for the morning ritual. Noah opted to swim to the buoy and back, nearly wrecking himself for the day...or at least it left him feeling suitably unwell enough to abstain from Sunday's swim. As we watched the others, I asked him if a January 1 swim is called a polar bear swim what an Easter Sunday swim might be called, and his to-the-point reply? "A bad idea." However, he recovered sufficiently enough by Monday morning to rejoin the group, knowing enough not to attempt the buoy and back.
Here follows the 'for proof not pretty' pictures.
(those ripples? not ripples so much as slushy ice.)
(he wins the award for first in, for multiple dips each session, and for having ridiculously good humour about the whole endeavour.)
(being the son of jamie, of course he's going for the buoy.)
(no heart attacks happened. and yes, i worried one might. think this might also have been the point at which noah felt the early signs of hypothermia settling in.)
(the 'i did it and i can't feel my face' face.)
(because, it was easter after all.)