Swimming in the Rockies

In the spirit of my post series on cold showering, I thought that it would be appropriate to share with you a little bit on my experiences swimming in Rocky Mountain lakes and creeks.  If you are not familiar with my posts on the subject of cold showering, I would like to bring you up to date on a few quirks that make up cackle881's relationship with things cold:

• I almost never get cold.
• I hate hot weather and am not much of a fan of summer.
• I love adventures, the wilder the better.
• I like challenges

Coming from Minnesota, I grew up in the cold and I never minded it.  I secretly liked when we had white-out blizzards followed by ice storms followed by -60 windchills because it meant that it wasn't hot outside.  Back home, in order to escape the heat, I would go swimming with my friends during the dog days of summer.  Here in Colorado, it's nice to escape to the mountains for a day and enjoy some cooler temperatures.  It's fun to research new places to visit and go for day hikes with friends.

It's even more fun if that place includes a body of glacial-fed mountain water!

Bluebird Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park
Click here for the Pro Trails description of this hike

Bluebird Lake, elev. 10,978'

Bluebird Lake is located in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park.  The area is very rugged and scenic and the hike is moderate in difficulty with the last leg past Ouzel Lake being a little more strenuous than the rest of the trail.  I actually had to cross a few snowfields on my way up there, and that was during the month of July!  Up around the treeline, an abundance of alpine wildflowers in an array of beautiful colors can be observed.  Marmots can be seen moving about in the krumholz.

It was cloudy with periods of sunshine the day that I hiked up to Bluebird.  In the far distance I heard rumblings of thunder, but I didn't see any need to worry about the weather.  As I got to the lake, the wind began to pick up a little; this I attributed to its alpine location.  The sky got a little grey, too, but I totally disregarded the fact that the weather might be changing, and possibly for the worse.  I was just too excited to have made it all the way to the end of the trail and to give Bluebird Lake a try at a little high-altitude (almost 11,000') swimming and see how it was.  I learned later that at one time, Bluebird Lake was dammed up for water supply purposes, but I could see no evidence a dam on the shore at trail's ends.

Upon arriving at the lake, I quickly kicked off my boots and got ready to dive in.  The air up that high is pretty chilly, but I took a deep breath and plunged into Bluebird Lake, thrusting my entire body into its cold blue waters, which sent a sudden shiver all the way down the the bones.  This very well may have been the first time that I have ever felt cold in my entire life!  My core temperature must have dropped at least two degrees as I went from sweaty to nearly hyporthermic.  As I broke the surface of the water I saw a flash of lightning and instantly heard a crash of thunder!  This was too good to be true- a mountain thunderstorm while swimming in an alpine lake! 

Exposed as I was, I quickly dried off, changed back into my hiking clothes, stomped into my boots, and got the heck beneath the treeline, and just in time, too.  A torrent of water came rushing out of the sky and completely drenched the balsams and firs.  It was absolutely beautiful in its terror and violence, beating sheets of water down onto the rocky earth.  I stood fairly sheltered beneath a thick canopy of conifer boughs and watched in utter amazement this ancient act of nature being played before my eyes.  It was a grey sky on grey stone, enshrouded in a haze of rain that beat the rugged earth unceasingly.  I had no rain gear and I was chilled to the bone from my brief sojourn into Bluebird Lake, but I could not have cared less.  This storm was so beautifully orchestrated that I could not help but admire.  Eventually, the downpour began to lessen and I ventured on along the trail.

While I didn't have a whole lot of time to enjoy the swim, I do recall this adventure with a great fondness and I will endeavor to make it back to Bluebird for another attempt some day.


Lake Nanita, Rocky Mountain National Park
Click here for the Pro Trails description of this hike


Lake Nanita, elev. 10,780'

I had the great pleasure of hiking to Lake Nanita with Kevin, a good friend of mine.  Both of our families were out of town, so we decided to make a guys' weekend of it and took on a hike to Lake Nanita, possibly the most pristine lake in all of Rocky Mountain National Park.  The story of the hiking/camping trip is wonderful in itself.  I will only highlight one, very important feature of that part of our weekend here:

Being a guys' weekend, the the first question on our mind was what we were going to drink.  We stopped at the bottle shop the night before for some bourbon and a 12-pack of Coors Light (most appropriate for a Colorado hiking adventure).  Nevermind the weight of all of that, plus camping gear, plus water; that was the most important cargo!  Kevin had a bunch of camping stuff so I hardly had to pack anything.  After choosing our drinks, we stopped for a few groceries.  Kevin actually had some buffalo steaks that he was saving for a special occasion and this was definitely it.

When we arrived at the park (at 6:00 am, after leaving Denver at 4:00), we donned our packs and made our way to where we would be setting up camp for the night.  We found our camp, staked out a site for our tents, and then tended to the most important part of the campsite set-up: chilling the beer.  And what would be more appropriate for Coors Light than to have it chilled in an ice-cold Rocky Mountain stream?  We hiked a couple hundred yards upstream from camp and found a suitable location off the beaten path; there, we put all of our cans into a plastic bag, weighted it down with a few rocks, and sunk the entire unit beneath the water.  After stashing the bourbon nearby, we went back to camp, hoisted the bear bag, and got a move on up the trail to Lake Nanita.

The hike is breathtaking.  If you ever have the chance to hike this side of the park, take it!  The area is accessed through the North Inlet trail in Grand Lake, much further off the beaten path than the ever-popular Estes Park.  We hardly saw a soul on the way up.  When we made it all the way up to Lake Nanita, Kevin did a little fly fishing and I went to explore the lake's beautiful shores with the goal of a swim in mind.  I checked out the dramatic views of Andrew's Peak and the Ptarmigan Towers as I made my way along the margins of the lake until I found a nice, secluded point.  It was shielded from view on all sides except for the lake, so I thought this would be perfect for a quick skinny-dip.  I dove into the lake (frigid), came up gasping for air, and swam out a good 50 yards or so to get my blood moving.  It felt great!  I was thrilled to be out in the middle of nowhere with the warm sun showering down on me in this cold little lake. 

That was until I glanced at the shore and saw that another hiking party had arrived at my little swimming area.  I had lain my clothes neatly folded on the shore next to my towel for a quick dry-off and change when I got out of the water.  Now, I saw that it would take a little tactic to get these folks out of the way so I could get out of the water.  Not so easy, I discovered, as I slowly treaded back towards shore and noticed that they were not speaking English, but French.  Now, this was an older couple and I did not want to offend them, but I discovered quickly that they spoke no English whatsoever and I was still in this super cold water freezing my tuckus off.  I tried chatting with them to see if I could explain my predicament.  After a lot of confused communication that was going nowhere, I pointed at my pile of clothes and they finally got the hint!  They took off and I was able to get out of the water.

I went back to Kevin, who was having such a great time fishing that he didn't hear me come up on him.  I watched for a while and it wasn't even sport- he was dropping flies into the water and pulling out greenbacks on every cast.  We packed it up and hiked back to camp.  I decided to save my swimming story for camp, which proved to be some excellent entertainment!  We cooked up a dinner of buffalo steaks, mashed potatoes, corn, dinner rolls, and cherry pie, all washed down with ice-cold Coors Light.  After the dishes were cleaned, we lounged around camp, watching the stars appear, knocking back beers, sipping Bourbon, talking about life, family, solving the world's problems, and after retelling my story, laughing our lungs out, our raucous cries echoing off of crags and rock walls and mixing with the songs of owls.

Beautiful and cold swim, that Lake Nanita, and well worth the journey to get there.


Bear Creek, Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks
Click here for the Pro Trails description of this hike


Bear Peak, elev. 8461'

This was one of the first hikes I ever attempted when I first moved to Denver.  I had heard that Boulder was a great town for outdoor recreation and that the hiking was amazing, so I researched a few local places to try out and I picked Bear Peak.

The hike up Bear Peak has a few possible routes, through Shadow Canyon, Fern Canyon, or Bear Canyon.  I've tried all three canyons and they are all great hikes.  For my first attempt at Bear Peak, I hiked up Fern Canyon to the summit and came down through Bear Canyon.  The hike up Fern Canyon was pretty nice, fairly shadowy and cool in the hot August weather.  I didn't see any ferns, but it was damp going up the canyon.  Bear Peak was beautiful and had a great view of the Front Range.  I could almost see clear to Denver, but there was a little smog that got in the way.

Coming down Bear Canyon was great.  The trail crosses over the creek several times, so the hike is interesting with a lot of great scenery to look at on the descent.  I returned a month later when the aspens were turning and the hike over a carpet of fallen golden leaves was stunning.  But, in the month of August, it was still fairly hot outside and I had a good sweat worked up after crossing Bear Peak West Ridge.  After turning onto the junction with the Bear Canyon Trail, I started to see the creek.  After crossing a couple times, I was too tempted to pass it by any longer. 

After one such crossing, I scanned up and downstream to see which would be most passable.  Looking upstream, I planned a route so I could step on the rocks and boulders in the creek until I was out of sight.  After I made it upstream about 50 yards or so, I carefully looked around to make sure I screened from view.  I wasn't sure if swimming in the creek was allowed (it's not, swimming is not allowed on any Boulder OSMP property) and I wasn't actually going to be swimming, since the water was not very deep.  I took off my boots and socks, rolled up my shorts, and shucked my shirt and hat.  Stepping into the cool water, my aching and blistering feet were instantly soothed.  I waded out into a little pool that was calf-deep.  I stooped over and splashed cold water head to toe.  It was a good, cool, refreshing reprieve from my hot hike through the mountains.  I found a nice rock on which to rest and sat down to air-dry.  In the high mountain air, this process only takes a matter of minutes.  After thoroughly drying out, I headed down the rest of the trail and back to my car.

I will always remember that hike as a good weekend's break from a hectic schedule and a nice, calm escape from the hot weather in town.


My Experiences Swimming in the Rocky Mountains

These three experiences that I've listed above represent some of my most memorable swims in the mountains.  I have certainly been swimming more than three times in the mountains.  I've even been in the water in the middle of December!  For the most part, I just experimented here and there with a quick dip in the water, but I happened across this article by Desertphile, in which he describes his own cold water adventure while he was camping in the mountains.  This got me to thinking how others might have an interest in this, too, and I made it a point to get out and try it more often since I read the article.  It's hard to find much writing on the subject, but it certainly is a lot of fun.

Disclaimer: please be very careful if you ever try swimming in cold water.  Hypothermia is no joke and nothing to fool around with.  While swimming in the mountains can be very refreshing and enjoyable, there can be severe consequences.