10Aug13

Went to Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe today for our AM swim.  It's a cove on the side of Tahoe that has an island in the middle of it.

There was about a 1/2 mile hike down at a pretty good degree to get to the Bay but WELL worth it.  There is a sign there that specifically states that swimming to the island is not allowed.  TOO BAD!

We all swam out to the island and around it a few times.  Once again, I got in the water and was thanking God for the beauty I was beholding.  We stopped to regroup a few times and even had some fun doing flip turns off of the rock walls around the island.  It was fantastic.
I had Phil take a look at my stroke and apparently is HORRIBLE!  I made some corrections and as I swam some more.  The Bay got really busy with boats so we all headed in.  That swim was about 2 miles.  Nothing tough but my shoulders were a bit sore from so much swimming the past few days.  I haven't cranked out this many miles back to back in awhile.  Still loving it.

Afternoon was another swim down Truckee river.  This time it was PACKED with people in inner tubes with coolers.  It was fun dodging rocks and them.
Swim camp clearly isn't for everyone.  There was a man there that could barely swim...in SWIM CAMP..............ughhhhhhhhh  and there was a woman there who had the brain capacity of a squirrel.  We told her SEVERAL times to go down head first facing the river so she could see the rocks or minimum feet first if you are on your back.  Sure enough, 5 minutes in and she's on her back going head first.  I told her a few times to roll over and she asked me why.  Are you F-ing kidding me?  We JUST went over this and why.  Okay....stay like this so I can see what you head looks like with a HUGE dent in it!

1.6 miles down the river "swimming"

At 2200 the crew was fairly inebriated and it was our last night.  We typically do a naked night swim and this camp would be no exception.  I don't drink so I was the DD for one of the cars.  We crammed a bunch of people in a car and headed to Donner Lake.  We got down to a dock and we all had a glow stick attached to a cut up swim cap that only highlighted the back of our heads.  We then all stripped down and got in.  I honestly didn't see much except a LOT of rears!
They sky was CLEAR and the stars were in full force.  It was magnificent.  You could even see the Milky Way "dust" along with the stars.  I spend several minutes just laying on my back looking at the stars.  It was great.  We didn't swim at all and just mainly hung out for about 20 minutes in the water making naked jokes and looking at the stars.  On the way back I wanted a Slurpee and the people in the car had no problem offering to buy it for me.  Free Slurpee for the DD. SCORE!
Man this camp was great.  LOVE coming here.  I made a few new friends and strengthened some friendships I already had.  It was extremely fun.  I won't go into details about what we did each day because I'm not going to break the Golden Rule of Swim Camp....although here is a TINY snip of what can happen.

Gordon next to a beer?

Women dancing in a swim suit made out of swim caps!

3.6 miles OW