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.

Homer Run

Group Photo with some of the fish

Look at the stomach and head of the Ling Cod

Yellow eyed rockfish

July 14th I decided to take advantage of my free Homer Halibut trip I won at the Mat-Su Sportmans show with Big Bear Charters. Today the rain stopped and it is a great sunny day that I should have been swimming a lake or two but I needed to do some more fishing. Big Bear Charters requires you to report by 6:30 am and finally around 7 am we took off in a 35 foot boat with 4 other guys from the Lousiana Area up here doing some church work. These guys informed me more about the affects of the oil spill in their area and its ripple affect on many businesses and how the Obama's decision not to do any more off shore drilling could kill their state. They even enlighted me about how Obama's staged photo's shots of people in white suits clean up the oil along the shore. When the day before their was no one cleaning.

After three hours we reach our spot and started fishing. This was the first halibut trip I have gone on that we didn't use bait. Instead we jigged 16 oz jigs with orange, green or brown tails (look like larger versions of a mister twister tail. It wasn't long before we started hooking fish and landing several 15 to 35 pound halibut. I landed 8 halibut and kept two 30 pounders. In addition everyone on the boat caught 2 or more ling cod. The ling cod must be larger than 35 inches in order to keep them. Most of the ones we caught we 40 plus inches. The area where we caught the must ling cod we also had to battle 5 feet waves which was a chore and put us on the edge of being sea sick. We all caught atleast one yellow eye rock fish and many black bass or black rock fish. We caught the black bass on smaller jigs about 20 feet below the boat. What a blast if we weren't drifting we could of caught many more, but we had our limit and off we went back to Homer. The two halibut, 2 ling cod, 1 yellow eye rock fish and 4 black bass netted me with 65 pounds of meat. Thus, this trip and chitna dipnetting for reds have filled my freezer for the year. The rest of the fishing I will do this year will all be catch and release. Hopefully Friday will be clear so that I can resume my swimming.

Until the next time!

Rocky Lake number 43

July 12th - Rocky Lake is part of the state recreation park system, which means that there is a fee to use the area. You will find camping areas, bathrooms and pinic tables. The area seems to be pretty clean and busy. I parked the truck got on my gear and walked down to the shore, The shore is not muddy but full of gravel. The entry point is near the end of the lake so I decided to swim across the lake and followed the shoreline down to the end of the lake. About 425 strokes it took me to reach the end of the lake. I turned around and swam back over shooting my entry point by 25 yards. I got out of the lake and had the opportunity to inhale some unusual smoke which I knew instantly was pot. These two rough guys must have decided to have a joint or two away from there kids and significant others. This is one reason we have so many kids doing drugs in the Valley, their parent do! Enough on this subject matter I could go on and on. The swim took me 28 minutes and 40 seconds to complete. After the swim I used the bathroom to get out of the wet suit and into dry clothes for the ride home.

Today was a good day 4 lakes and about 1 hour 45 minutes of swimming, not to mention the good fishing on Willow Creek.

Off to Homer tomorrow to go Halibut fishing on Wednesday. A free trip I won at the Mat-Su Sportman show. But nothing is free - gas down and back to Homer and the tip you have to give the people on the boat if fishing is good. Wish me luck. Hopefully I can swim again on Thursday or Friday!

Take care -

42nd Homestead Lake

July 12th - Homestead Lake is the smallest of the lakes that are stocked in the Big Lake area. After I found this lake I had to park by the road and walk down to the lake about 200 yards. Be careful private property is posted on your left side. When I got done to the shore it was floating weeds again and a half sheet of plywood has been placed by the edge of the lake that you can stand on. To my left there was an older guy using a pitch fork removing weeds and placing in a trailor. I got my gear on and dived into the lake. 188 strokes later I reached the far end. The far end is full of weeds so I turned around and swam back to the shore. To get back on shore I swam right up onto the plywood like a beached whale. Total time for this swim was 12 minutes 3o seconds. After doing this swim it was still nice weather (75 F outside temp) and sunny, I decided to go check out Rocky Lake.

41st - Morvro Lake

July 12th - Morvro Lake - doesn't have an area that allows you to drive to the shore. Access for this like you make your own trail to the lake via the power easement. Once I bushed whacked to the shore there wasn't really any where for me to enter the water without getting into mud and bushes. So I followed the shore until I reach someone property. dropped my towel and gear by a canoe and entered the water to my surprise it was hard and only had a little mud. This access point was toward one end so I swam to my right until I reached the end of the lake. I turned around and followed the shore back until I found my access point than swim across. Once I reached my entry point they was an older women mowing and she had moved my stuff and placed them on top of the canoe. She politely asked me where I came and what I was doing. I gave her the story and she had mentioned that if I came to her house and asked to have access to the lake she would have given it to me. I told her I was sorry that I came onto her property and asked if I could cross her property instead of bush whacking back to the truck and she gave me the okay. Total time for this swim was 34: 30 seconds and I lost track of the number of strokes it took me to cross the lake. Total distance 1.4 to 1.5 miles for this swim. Overall not to bad of lake.

Off to Homestead Lake in the Big Lake area.

Loon Lake - 40th

July 12th - I decided to go fishing today on the upper Willow. The weather was great and the fishing was okay. I caught 4 graylings a couple of them were 13 inches not bad for the Willow. They all took a small fly that look like a fry. I also caught a nice rainbow around 20 inches on the same fly and missed a couple of others. On advice from a friend I put on a white fly and hooked up with two differnt kings and had the opportunity to fight them on 10 lb test and my 6-7 weight fly pole but they came off without braking my line. After the second king salmon I put the small fly on that resembled the fry. Also, had the opportunity to watch a mink swim cross the river through a log jam with a small fish in its mouth. After 3 hours I decided to walk back to the trunk and drive to Loon lake for a swim.

Loon lake has a nice path that you can drive right to the shore. I got my gear on and entered the water. The enter area is free of mud and has a gravel bottom. Since the enter point is near the middle I decided to swim a triangle. The water had to be around 64 F with the bright sun warmer the top few inches. Once you reach the end of the lake you will run into weeds about 50 yards from the shore. The swim was refreshing after fishing. Total time 28:40.

Off to Morvro Lake

Finger Lake 39 and counting

July 11th - The sun finally came out and temperature rose to 60F so I decided to grab Morgan load up the boat and we left for Finger Lake around 4 pm. Finger lake is in a state recreation park and there is a charge for daily use, camping and for launching a boat. Lucky no one checked us and we were able to unload the raft, inflate and hook up the electric motor and launched the boat. First thing I noticed about Finger Lake is that it looked like a southern swamp. The water was still and turbidity was terrible. Several people were in boats finishing and a couple of jet skies were flying across the lake and around us. To reach the end of the lake we stayed on the left side of the first and second island and then we went right around the last cove. The straight until we reached the end of the lake. According to the GPS it was 1.85 miles from the boat launch. Once we turned the boat around I got on my gear and entered the water and Morgan guided the boat back to the launch site. Again the clearity of the lake was poor and I just looked for the boat. Since I prefer to breath on my right side I had Morgan position the boat just infront and to my right. This way I can see the boat and watch the shore line giving me an ideal of where we are. The swim was pretty uneventful, Morgan got a kick seeing the expressions on the face of a boat full of fisherman and on a female jet skier as she slowed down so she could watch me swim by and smoke a cigerette.

1367 strokes later and 44 minutes we reach the boat launch.

Ravin Lake number 38

July 9th - Ravin Lake is the first lake you come to. If you drive past Ravin you will come to Bonnie Lake. Bonnie Lake is a large lake similar to Long Lake but it isn't on the ADF&G stocking list thus I will only need to swim Ravin. Back we drove to Ravin Lake. There was to easy way to get the boat down to the lake so I decided to leave the boat in the truck and let John be my spotter. We both agreed that Ravin Lake was very similar in size to Weiner Lake. Thus I got ready and follwed the trail down to the lake shore and off I went. 356 strokes later I reached the shore swimming pretyy straight. On the way back I stayed close to the right side of the lake and got surprized by the number of large boulder on the bottom of this lake. Like the other lakes the turbidity or clearity is great. Water temperature very similar to Weiner. There are lily pads near the ends of this lake that you have to swim through. Total time for this swim 23:20. Overall another nice lake to swim. Half way is getting closer. If we had more sunny days like today I could swim alot more lakes.

Thanks again to John for assisting today in my quest to swim 80 lakes.

We did check out Ida Lake on the way home but no gas motors are allowed and we didn't think we had enough left on the battery to complete this lake. Thus, I will have to do this one on another day.

Until next time - enjoy your Alaskan summer we won't have many more days like today!

Weiner or Wiener Lake 37th

July 9th - After swimming Long I knew this lake regardless of the temperature would be easier. We unloaded the boats and off we went to the end of the lake. After .5 mile we reach the end of the lake. Both of us sure thought this lake would be longer. John educated me on on the mtn climbing routes around Long and Weiner Lake and all the cool features of his I-phone on the way over. Again we removed the gas motor and hooked up the trolling motor. We did have a spectator (fisherman) watch me go over board and start simming. I would like to know what he was thinking when he saw me swimming. I had swam almost half way by the time John caught up with me. Since this lake is shallower than Long the water temperature was a little warmer. Some trash in the water near the enter area and lily pads. 346 strokes and 11 minutes 30 seconds later I reached the end of the lake. Again a pretty good swim. We loaded up the boat and off to the next lake.

Long Lake number 36

July 9th - Great Day - Sunny decided to go down the Glenn Highway to swim a few lakes with John. We took the raft, trolling motor and John's small gas motor. Our first lake was Long Lake. Once we arrived the wind was blowing across the lake so we decided to hook the motor on the boat and run across the lake. Once we arrived we took off the motor and hooked up the electric trolling motor. I got prepared and over board I went and the water was extremely cold. I didn't have my thermometer today but the water had to be 55 F. For the first time this year my arms never got warm even with the sun blazing down on the water. Instant head freeze similar to eating ice cream to fast, but slowly it went away. After 1050 strokes and 34 minutes 25 seconds I reach the end of the lake. Total distance on the GPS was 1.41 miles. Swimming in the lakes is so much better than swimming at Palmer Pool where the water temperature is 87F and it seems like a bath tub every time I go back. I am not moving terribly quick but I relate it to a LSD run (long slow run). Overall pretty nice lake. Off to Weiner or Wiener LAke depending on which sign you look at.

one down two more to go!

35th Lake Prator

July 6th - After checking out the lake Idecided to go ahead and swim it. Off I went! Note you better be careful the water is shallow, in fact it was about 50 t0 75 yards from shore before I could really swim. Once you get past this point the lake deepens and it was a pleasant swim across the lake. 325 strokes later I reached the other side and swam back. I tired swimming all the way back but I ended up putting my hands in two feet of mud and cutting my hand on a broken beer bottle. Nothing serious but something to be aware of. Total time was 25 minutes 30 seconds for this swim. After almost two hours of swimming I called it a day and headed home to celebrate my 19th wedding anniversery.

Until next time get out and catch a salmon.

BearPaw Lake - 34th

July 6th - I moved from Dawn Lake to Bearpaw lake thinking that this might be the last lake I would swim today. Once I found the lake after awhile - note the sign for Magic Avenue is missing and no sign was present by or near this lake. I was able to drive to within 20 yards of the shoreline. Once I got out of my FJ cruiser there was trash - fireworks, old fire, beach bowl and other trash in the water. I got my gear on and off I went - 225 strokes later I reached the other side. On my way back I pulled to the right of my exit point by about 200 yards. Total time for this lake was 18 minutes. I was feeling pretty good, but a little tired. i decided to go check out Prator Lake since it was only mile down the road. Off I go!

33rd Lake - Dawn

July 6th - Dawn Lake is located off of Parks Highway at mile point 51.6. Dawn is a small little lake that you will need to walk about 100 yards on old broken wooden pallets to get to the shore line. The water at the shore was about 2 feet deep with several lily pads and weeds located in the shallow area, It took 170 strokes to cross this lake. Total time to swim across and back was 11 minutes 11 seconds. The water temperature felt warmer - estimated temp around 64 F. No problems off to the next lake.

32nd Lake -Visnaw

July 6th, 2010 - Finally back swimming - Went to Chitina last week, then we had rain and wind, so it has been a week since I have been in a lake. I went to Visnaw today the last lake in the Meadow Lakes area. Water temperature was a chilly 60 F. Since I was by myself again I swam the length of the lake and back. For the first 400 strokes the water was very shallow with my hand almost or hitting the mud bottom. No weed or this could have been a night mare. The last 400 strokes I was in deeper water and just cruised to the end of the lake. There is a bunch of lily pads the last 25 yards to the shore and shallow. I turned around and headed back but since I can't see worth a damn I over shot my exit point and the water was getting very shallow. I decided to to get out on a dock. I knew I over shot the exit point but I decided to walk through the property and sure enough I ran into the owner. I told him I couldn't see very good and asked him where the public landing area was and he mentioned that it was four houses down, I thanked him and casually walk through his property to the road and down the road wearing my zoomers and wet suit. The whole swim took 56 minutes (not counting the walking) and 1600 strokes or 4,000 yards around trip. I rinsed off with tap water that I brought and off to the next lake.