my brother, sister-in-law and i swam out to shellworth island today to find a geocache. none of us are particularly strong swimmers, but we’re all reasonably fit, so tho it took us a while, it was a pretty manageable swim. the scariest part was just making sure we were visible enough in the water that the speed boats and jetskis wouldn’t run us over. once we got to the island it only took us a few minutes to find the geocache. we explored the island a bit, hiked over to the other side, and took a few silly pictures. (T and i made my brother pose as the crazy hermit of the island.). then we swam back. felt like good exercise to stretch the body and soothe tired muscles from yesterday’s run, but not terribly high-intensity exercise. i’ve never been a good enough swimmer to make it work as cardio exercise.

mostly, by the time we made it back to the car we were just pleased with ourselves for a successful adventure in which the geocache was found, hiking shoes were transported to and from shore without getting wet, and the camera, GPS device and car keys stayed dry and afloat in our improvised mayonnaise-jar drybox. it seems we were something of a spectacle in the water, three swimmers crossing half of payette lake, and no less than 4 boats or jetskis pulled up along side to offer us a ride to shore or ask if our boat had sunk. “we’re just going for a swim!” we’d call back. they would look quizzically at us and then repeat their offer, “but do you need a ride to shore?” an eight-year-old girl leaned out of her father’s boat and asked us, “but why?” T called back “oh, just for fun!” the little girl processed this for a bit, looking at us as though we’d suggested that keeping rattlesnakes as pets would be a fun idea, and then admonished us, “okay, well, be careful!” it’s really more of a water-skier’s sort of lake, i guess.