Today was another reminder of how this daily swim challenge connects me with great people, along with beautiful places to swim. Through the Oregon Open Water Swimming group on Facebook, I found Patrick, who swims regularly at Fallen Leaf Lake in Camas, Washington, just over the river from Portland. He kindly worked with my schedule and gathered a gang together to swim with me there this morning. 

It was beautiful. We arrived early to a misty, magical lake surrounded by pines. Quiet and green. The weather was gray and chillyish; the perfect kind of weather to motivate you to get into the water because the water is warmer than the air. That might have been the case this morning or it might have been a wash; I didn’t check the air temperature. But the lake was 55 degrees and it felt fantastic. Like yesterday in Lake Siskiyou, I was reminded of all that I love about cold water swimming: the tingling aliveness when I first get in, the little warm fire inside that builds soon after.

I thoroughly enjoyed my swim this morning, but I’m writing this a long time later— after Hazel and I went on a tour of Reed college, had a yummy lunch in Portland, and then went on a long mountain bike ride (her) and hike (me)— and I’m so tired that I’ve been struggling to write this post all evening long and now it’s time to go to bed. Luckily I’ll be swimming with them at Fallen Leaf Lake again tomorrow and maybe I’ll have the brain capacity to describe it better then.