12th Irene Lake

Sunday June 5th we moved on from Canoe Lake to Irene Lake another lake within the Kepler-Bradley Recreation area. You can park right at the end of Irene and it is a short walk on a nice trail to reach the lake. The wind is picking up and I will have to swim into the wind to reach the other side, but will have the wind coming back across the lake. Since these three lakes that I did today are small, we choose not to bring the boat and have Morgan just watch me conduct the swims. This lake is larger than Echo but smaller than Canoe. The lake is pretty clean, but lots of weeds as you reach the far side. Total time 18:50 to swim cross the lake and back and 278 freestyle strokes to cross the lake in one direction. This lake is alot better than Canoe which has a terrible odor when near the weeds, but more subject to winds. One lake left in this lake system called Long Lake, but that one will have to wait until another day. I would imagine that the total distance to swim across and back Echo, Canoe and Irene lakes is around 2 miles and total time of approx. 50 minutes. One note after swimming these three lakes it took me a couple of hours to warm back up even after a hot shower.

For more info visit http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/Statewide/LakeData/index.cfm/FA/main.lakeDetail/LakeID/464

Take care and get out and enjoy the outdoors!