Rocky Mountain swimming

‘You never regret a swim.’ This Mark Richards proverb has been proved time and again on our journey through the Rockies. Two particularly memorable ones will now be expounded upon.

We left Edmonton on a scorcher of a day with a rather wobbly start for our car (turned out to be dodgy fuel we were sold which had been watered down). But the Canadian Rockies embraced us with their munificence and coolth and we were soon oggling glaciers again and feeling quite at home. We camped that night in the wooded Icefields campsite of Jasper National Park. There was not much rest for the wicked, as our true destination was Yellowstone, 1000 miles or so away. Lunch that day was in Banff National Park on the shores of Bow Lake. It was a blue-bird day – to borrow a term from the Alaskans. The sunniest day you can imagine bestowed happiness as we skirted round the edge of the turqoise glacial lake and found our lunch spot. I had been resisting the urge to leap into the azure waters since we began our walk and now submerged myself with relish. We both shot out without our usual fulfilment of 3 submersions. Man, glaciers can leak frigid waters. The sidelong glance of a nearby fisherman expressed our hunch that we should have realised that.

The second thrilling swim occurred the next day after we’d camped just outside Banff National Park and partaken of Tim Horton’s doughnuts for breakfast again. It was another gorgeous day and we were driving around Flathead Lake, Montana. As we entered the town of Lakeside, I spotted a pretty jetty and bouys demarcating a swimming area. And…there was no-one there. The thrill of knowing that it is Monday morning and you’re the only couple of loafers lucky enough to be off school or work at 10:30 in the morning with a sparkling lake stretching out to a far shore in front of you is exquisite. It took a fair amount of cavorting about to convince my other half to come and join me without fear of frostbite.

The swimming has continued to be glorious as the following Yellowstone blog will reveal.

R