Ladies of the Lake

I think I never posted last summer about the swimming that we did. Our group dwindled down to two, but we did many, many swims.

Last summer, we spent over an hour in early JUNE swimming a triangle in Nichols Pond. We did have a guest join us that day. Our guest instituted a new policy which is any survivors must write a ballad for the drowned. While none of us believe we'll drown, we have been forced into having policies to comfort various family members.

We also swam from beach to boat launch at Lake Eligo. That was not a pleasant swim- very weedy. However, we did work out the rest of our drowning policy. If the lady drowning seems likely to pull the rescuer under, the rescuer may wait for the drowning lady to pass out before saving her. The only addendum is that my partner MUST make it home, so I am the only one allowed to drown. Lake Eligo also offered a fine scream or two when the weeds attacked us; that is the closest my partner has come to drowning. She is the better swimmer, but she doesn't swim that well when she's laughing her head off after I scream. Also, after all the discussion about drowning, we discovered we were in under 5 feet of water.

The goal this year was four new lakes or ponds, and we have managed 3 already. We are also managing many more "training" swims in our most convenient, and therefore favorite, bodies of water. It has been a warm few weeks; add to that high humidity and we've had many good reasons to swim. The water is also warmer this year, which makes swimming more pleasant for my partner.

We swam Buck Lake with our "guest" swimmer again, but she is now an official Lady of the Lake. The lightening drove us from the water, but if we waited for a day with no thunderstorms, we wouldn't have swum at all this summer. Buck Lake was not new for us, as we also swam it last year.

Green River Reservoir was one of our new swims this year. We swam from the boat launch, roughly, to the big island. That was more than an hour of swimming, but we had a nice rest on the island midway through. We also swam the length of Shadow Lake; thanks to the friendly kayakers, we did not get run over by a motor boat. Although the things we cannot see cause us the most anxiety, motor boats are the only real threat on most of the lakes around here. And today, we swam across Long Pond and back which took just over an hour. For these new places, we decide which point across the lake or pond will be the turning point. At Shadow Lake, we were in the water around an hour and then walked back to the parking area.

We are inviting people for a group swim on July 27. Maybe we will get some new recruits; people definitely are interested. Many worry that they're not good enough swimmers. The trick is to just keep swimming and chatting and laughing at the moments of panic. No one wants her ballad to be about how she was drowned by a deer fly or a warm spot in the lake. Let me know if you can come and I'll give you the details!