What a crazy beautiful swim I had today. Hazel and I set off on a road trip that will ultimately take us to Vancouver, but today we were destined for Portland. It’s a long slog and I knew from doing it in the opposite direction a couple of months ago, that the very best thing is to break it up with a swim in Lake Siskiyou.

Funnily enough, I made that journey exactly two months ago on February 1^st and today, April 1^st, was so much warmer. Two months ago there was still snow on the ground when I trekked down to the water’s edge and the water was so cold my bones ached from the beginning. Needless to say, it was a short dip. 

Today was better in every way. First, I had Hazel with me, which makes everything more fun. And the weather was warm, the wind light (last time it was howling). I had read online that the temperature was 44 and so I made my way in with some trepidation, but it was so much warmer.

My thermometer said 51, which I think may be a perfect cold water temperature: cold enough to feel all of the wonderful benefits of cold water immersion, but not so cold that swimming is challenging. It was also clear and clean and the view of Shasta, glistening with bright snow was something to behold. 

Hazel and I agreed it was the perfect way to break up the (very) long journey. That half-hour in nature was a complete reset; when we got back in the car we felt like we were just starting out instead of 4.5 hours into our journey.