Jim, me, Nathan, Karl, Joelle, Josh, Gary, and Kaitlin at the start of our adventure at Causey. Goody joined us after Echo. |
Pineview Reservoir: My regular training spot during the summer months. It's great if you get there before the boats. Even then, there is a large section where boats can only go at no-wake speeds. Today we did the "Buoy Route" which is a .98 mile round trip, but I typically add some "frosting" to the route to get it rounded up properly to that 1 mile. Swimming Scale: 8.5
First swim in East Canyon. Pretty cool place. |
Total distance: 1.00 miles. Swimming Scale: 7.5
Checkout Josh's muddy feet in the back ground. I'm not a big fan of mud. |
Photo of Josh's feet after Echo - photo by Josh Green |
Until that water level rises to where it should be, I won't be going there again. Total distance 0.95 miles. Swimming Scale: 3.0
Rockport Lake: When we drove past the dam and saw all the boat traffic a few of us said in unison: "Holy crap!" The water here is nice. It's fairly clear, but the boat traffic was awful. There were jetskis and boaters and they were relentless on that lake. We stayed right along the shoreline, but they even were going along the shoreline and I wouldn't swim there. It's just too crowded. Total swim: 1.01 miles Swimming Scale: 5.0
Jordanelle Reservoir: This was a much bigger reservoir than I remember. It seemed the biggest reservoir of the day. This is Josh's typical training place. He told of us his route and we did it. I felt extra juiced at this point and took it faster than normal. Even though there were a ton of boats out there, there is a buoy line that stretches along the beach which was great for sighting and keeping boats at a slow speed when coming near us. Enjoyed this swim! It was probably my third favorite of the day, just after Causey and Deer Creek. Total distance: 1.01 miles Swimming Scale: 8.5
Deer Creek Reservoir: The water level was quite a bit lower than the past couple years. But that didn't result in lower water quality. It was quite clear and nice. Joelle and I swam together on this one. We were stroke for stroke down to the end of Walsburg Bay. I kept going past the 15 minute turnaround, because
Deer Creek is always a HIT. |
Utah Lake: I knew this one would be rough for me. James Jonsson swam the length of this and the pics from his swim and from what I've read in the paper about this lake didn't leave a good impression. Still, I try to be open minded about where a good swim can be done. It was very choppy and the waves were pretty bad. I don't mind them if I can see underwater, but the visibility here was as bad as Echo. Except instead of it being brown it was chalky. A little better than brown. But after swimming half a mile out, Josh, Joelle and I regathered and Josh challenged me to do a surface dive. I did so, and man was that creepy. It went from chalky color, to instant blackness. It was freaky. The walk out to a swimmable depth was nearly as long as Echo, and it was nearly as muddy under the lake. On the way back Goody was still swimming towards us. Josh and Joelle continued back while I stayed with Goody. It was so choppy and I wasn't very visible not wearing a cap nor having the orange SSD. My Swimmer Buddy board isn't very visible without the noodle or flag. So I stuck with him, also so that we can use the buddy system to be safe. I would freak out just a little being out there in the middle of that lake all by myself. There was a boat that was speeding past us and around us. I was glad I stuck with Goody. We got to where we could stand up and it read .96, so we swam a little further till the GPS read 1.00 mile exactly. I saw a floating catfish and took a picture. I was going to get a picture holding it, but as I gripped it, the little fish kicked quickly out of my hands. I assumed it was dead and it startled me a bit. It was nice talking to Goody on this one. We had a good chat.
Talking with one of my favorite people in the whole world. |
Anyway, after today, the idea of swimming the entire length of Utah Lake is OFF the table. Doesn't sound fun at all to swim that far in water of that quality. Sorry Nathan and Karl, I won't bad mouth it, but there are other options I'd rather pursue. Swimming Scale: 3.5
The whole gang after swimming the Tour of Lakes! |
The full tour according to SpotGPS |
Some suggestions for next year, although I'm not sure they're legally swimmable or not:
- Lost Creek Reservoir
- Smith and Moorhouse Reservoir
- Little Dell Reservoir (Can't swim there)
Mountain Dell Reservoir(Can't swim there)- Silver Lake Flat Reservoir (after Deer Creek, instead of Utah Lake)
All the photos of this trip, can be found here.
And here is a video of the trip which I tried to put into a documentary short type thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment