First Open Water Swim

I have never swum in a lake.  Nor have I swum in the ocean. Or a river.  I've waded and floated, but those endeavors have only lasted a few minutes and then I'm back on a boat or on a tube.  I've never actually swum, arm over arm, not being able to see the bottom, through the murky water.  Well, until now, of course.

Meet the Lake:

Located immediately outside the back door of the Bemidji house,  I've watched it for awhile, wondering how cold it is, wondering how many leeches it has, wondering how hard it is to swim in open water.  Today, it was warm and humid, a perfect lake day. So I thought, here we go.

Josh, Cam, Kory, Thomas and Nick joined me in the water.  Everyone stood there at first -with lake water up the their knees- trying to adjust to the water temperature.   I stood there too and splashed myself.  Then, I realized I was just prolonging agony and I jumped in.  The cold shock went away quickly as I stroked out to deeper water.  Near the beach, the water is realitively shallow and you can see the sandy bottom.  As I passed the dock,  the shore suddenly dropped away and I could no longer see what I was swimming over.  I stayed by the dock.

I swam back and forth between our dock and the neighbors, which I say was close to 50 meters.  I stroked in tight turns, trying not to touch any of the neighboring seaweed and praying that no fish touched me.  These worries may of made me swim a little faster, but I found that I am definitely uneasy in open water.  Josh talks about taking the GPS into the canoe with us, dropping me off 750 meters (the sprint tri swim distance) from shore, and having me swim in.  I should do it. Why not take advantage of an awesome lake?