52nd Lake and the last swim

August 2nd, 2010 - Today after running the girls to the dentist, I took McKenzie and we went to Willow to attempt to swim three lakes. Overcast day temperatures around 60 F. I decided to swim Lynne Lake which is next to Honeybee lake off the Nancy Lake Parkway at mile 67.3 Parks Hwy. The water temperature was 63 F in the shallow area. When you enter this lake the water is pretty shallow until you reach the island then it quickly deepens. I located a spot across the lake and I took off with no problems at least for me. Once i past the Island I had a loon flapping its wings and making a lot of noise just off my right side. It did provide me with a little entertainment as I breathed on my right side. Once reaching the other side I took a look where I needed to go and off I went. I stopped after 200 strokes to get my bearings and thought I was going in the right direction. Once I reeach the far side I was yet a gain lost. I climbed out onto shore and followed the trail to the road. 350 strokes and 26 minutes to do the swim. I was trying to find my location and just couldn't figure out where I came out in relationship to where I started. I determined that I had swam far to my right about 400 yards, thus I decided to follow the road back to the truck. 16 minutes later I reached the truck. Remember I was walking in my flippers and looking through my prescription googles to get back to the truck. McKenzie had no clue that I had got lost she was busy texting on her phone and not paying attention to the swim. A swim that should have taken 26 minutes ended up taking 48 minutes. I wonder how long I coud have been gone before McKenzie would have called someone. Thus, I was upset again for not finding my exit point. Thus I said screw it and headed home.

On the way home I determined that yes I could swim all these lakes it not a big deal I have swam 52 lakes to date. I just can't take a chance of getting lost anymore - it is not worth the effort. Plus, I can't get anyone to actually go out in a boat with me on each swim to assist in swimming the right direction. So today ends my swims and back to the pool I will go.

One plus is that I can get a couple of days fishing and take Morgan on her Dall Sheep hunt over the next two weeks before it is back to school .

For those that have been following - thanks

Take care and enjoy the rest of your summer.

No Swimming - Rainy and cloudy

July 25th - Sunday - Raining no swimming today! Off to Washington DC for a week educational workshop - grant - money!

49th, 50th and 51st lakes Point McKenzie (Lorraine,Twin Island, Carpenter)

Fireweed in full bloom along Point McKenzie Road

Lorraine Lake - Point McKenzie

July 23rd - Goal today is to get to atleast 50 lakes before my wife and her twin brother David 50th Birthday tomorrow. Before going out I stopped by ADF&G to clearify direction to some lakes and inform them of errors in the directions to past lakes. I made a good connection today with just the right person who asked me to e-mail her the correct directions to the specific lakes that had incorrect directions and she would make the changes. I had 4 lakes left to do in the Point McKenzie area thus I decided to go to the furthest one out which was Lorraine Lake. Of course the directions were incorrect the correct directions should say that the pull out area for Lorraine is located near mile marker 19 on Point McKenzie road. You will see that ADF&G put a boulder to block the trail down to the lake but several people had driven to the left of the boulder and hence the trail was open, muddy do to the recent rain so use 4 wd and you can drive right to the shore. My Garmin GPS came in real handy finding this lake. No sign was present so use the coordinates that ADF&G provide and you will find this lake, The water temperature was 68 F on the surface and few degrees cooler a couple feet deeper. The water was pretty clear and the lake was free of weeds. Total strokes there and back was 820 and the total time was 27:36. Today's swim was fueled by 2 bean buritto's from Taco Bell and a Mtn. Dew.

After drying off it was off to find Twin Island Lake. Again I used my GPS to find this lake. There was no ADF&G sign to indicate this lake. Thus, I pulled off the road mile marker 14.9 Point McKenzie roadwhen I saw a trail that I thought would lead me to this lake. After walking .25 miles the trail lead me to someone house but no one was there so I proceeded to the shore and found a wondeful deck. A little worried that when I came back my glasses, GPS and car keys would be gone, but I had to do it this was number 50. So I got ready and off I went and it was soon after that I had to swim through alot of weeds (about half of the lake). I did notice a couple of spots in the lake that must of had springs coming in to the lake, because the temperature of the water dropped a few degrees. After 497 strokes I reached the other side of the lake for a total of 994 stokes and a total time of 31 minutes 40 seconds. Once I reached the dock all my gear was still there and I quickly changed and walked back to the truck without any problems.

I still had time so I decided I would go try to find Carpenter Lake and this time ADF&G directions were correct and there was even a sign. This lake was a long skinny lake with a few zig and zags in it. I quickly got my gear on and decided my course and off I went, After about 367 strokes I found myself grounded in the middle of the lake. In fact I had to walk a few steps to get to deeper water, then it was back to swimming. I had a great house with a metal roof to use as a spot on the end of the lake to swim for. Once I reached this house I continued on to the end of the lake. After 779 strokes I was close to the end of the lake when I decided that I should turn around and head back. On the way back I must have missed the shallow area because I had clean swimming all the way back. I did have a head wind on the way back thus a few more waves than I wanted but I survived the ordeal. Total time for this swim was 54 minutes and 15 seconds and a total of 1558 strokes. Shoulders are sore so I decided I would have to save Three Mile Lake for another day. Totals lakes to date is 51. Off for the long ride home.

Hope for a clear weekend, if it is I will try swimming the remaining three lakes that I can drive to on the Glenn Highway (Ida, Knob and North Knob lake) before I have to fly to DC Sunday night for school.

1st document swim rash

July 22nd - After swimming Big Beaver Lake and Marion Lake a swim rash appeared on my right shoulder and left arm pit. See the photo above! I forgot to rise off before we went to the next lake. Usually I bring a gallon of water to rinse off if I know it will be a while to the next lake. Hopefully the rashes will disappear soon. Good news is that this is the first thing I got while swimming the 48 lakes and with any luck the last thing.

Summer is quickly disappearing so get out while you can and enjoy the outdoors.

Clear weather - 46th, 47th and 48th Lakes

July 22nd - Hamming it up to cheer up my daughter Morgan before I enter Marion Lake. Marion Lake is pretty weed free just becareful of the trees that are in the water. While swimming I could see the bottom is some areas. Total of 752 strokes to swim across and back. Total time 24 minutes and 1o seconds. No problems and todays swim was fueled by a 5 inch italian sub from Krazy Moose Subs and a Mtn. Dew.

A female Spruce Grouse with two chicks and Susitna Parkway between Diamond and Crooked Lakes. Diamond Lake was the coldest of the three lakes today probably 62 F . WARNING if you follow ADF&G directions you will not find this lake. Correct directions are Mile 52.3 Parks Hwy. West on Big LAke Rd. 3.6 miles to "Y" . Left at "Y" on South Big Lake Rd. 5.3 miles to 4 way stop. Right at stop on W. Susitna Parkway 3.2 miles to Raines Drive. Left on Raines Dr. 1.2 miles to end of road. Sign posted showing trail down to the lake shore. Since there was no boat access I had to swim to the end of the lake and back a total of 1, 067 strokes in a time of 35 minutes and 40 seconds. Some weeds in the shallow area but scattered and presented no problems for me. Water pretty clear.

We decided to check out Crooked Lake and as we got close to the lake we noticed Mr. or Mrs. Beaver trying to cut this tree up. As we stopped to take his picture he/she decided to leave but couldn't quite his job so he came back to finish cutting up this log. What dedication and commitment this beaver had. We decided not to swim this lake today and will save it for another day in the future.

Big Beaver Lake - Morgan is ready to take me across the lake so that I can swim back. By the number of boats, jet skies and other toys it appears that this lake can get busy on a hot summer day. According to my GPS this lake is a mile long and it took me 26 minutes and 803 strokes to make it back.

Total distance today is estimated at 3.25 miles. Unfortunately we ran out of time today and didn't get time to swim the last stocked lake (Crooked Lake) in the BIg Lake Area. I will come back and swim Crooked Lake before I go to Nancy Lake area to swimming those lakes.

Hope for some more clear and sunny days.

44th - Little Beaver Lake and 45th - West Beaver Lake

Saturday July 17th - Bright and Sunny day. Today I took Morgan done to Palmer Hay Flats to run a 5k race. The race was very interesting following the scout ridge trail system. Morgan finished fourth overall and the second female runner. The times were horribly slow, we all think the course was long. Several runners that was going to run the 5K ended up running the 10K race nobaody told them were to turn around. To say the least the race was not organized well from the course to the awards. The run is to support the Palmer Hay Flats which is a great cause but the need to work out the bugs if they want to continue with this race nexst year. Finally about 11 am we left and decided to go swim a few more lake in the Big Lake area. There are 8 lakes in the area that have been stocked. The last swim I swam two in the area and was hoping to swim 3 or 4 today. We decided to go to Little Beaver first since I have fished this lake and it was easy to find the public access point. The access point is right in the middle of the lake and since this lake is small I decided to swim a triangle. I am using my new precription goggles so hopefully I don't over shot by exit point. No problems with the goggles they worked great. Total strokes 579 to complete the triangle and a total time of 19 minutes and 8 seconds. One note on this lake their are weeds located at both ends and a few weeds around the shore. After swimming this lake we decided to drive over the hill to West Beaver Lake. We couldn't find the public access point to this lake we think it is at the end of the lake according to the map. Looking at this lake we noticed that the shallow end of the lake was full of lily pads and I had no interest of swimming through them. So we were driving along the lake and decided to stop at a house that was near the middle of the lake, but no one was home. We drove back up the road and next house we notice a lady working in her yard and we pulled into her driveway and asked her if we can have access to the lake through her property. Of course I told her what we were doing and typical response why and I reply why not nobody that I know has ever tried swimming all the lakes. She gave us permission and told us to watch out for the big rainbows (I already know this lake had large rainbows since it had been stocked with triploids) and leeches. Since the enter point was near the middle of the lake I decided to swim another triangle. I got my gear on and Morgan sat by the shore and watched me take off. 425 strokes later I reach the end of the lake and I swam another 425 strokes along the shore line passing my exit point which I can see because of the new goggles then it took me 96 more stokes to cross the lake to reach my original entry point. Thus, total of 946 strokes and 30 minutes 16 seconds to swim West Beaver Lake. We decided to drive over to Big Beaver Lake to see if i could swim that lake today as well. I have fished this lake before and knew it was a large lake. Once we arrived at the lake I knew that it had to be around 1 to 1.25 miles long. Thus, I decided that we should bring the boat the make the swim quicker since thenI would only have to swim one direction. In addition, the other remaining lakes are similar in size and would require the boat. So we headed home in hopes that Sunday would be like today.