by Zoe Mathias
We started a traditon, just a year ago, that on January 1st, we would jump in Wallowa Lake with the Polar Bear Club. Now, this is a national thing to do on New Years day, from Florida to Alaska. We are no where near the temperature of Florida in January though also not really as cold as Alaska. At least most years we are not. The year before we started, the water had been 40 degrees and the air was 14 degrees, so it had felt nice and warm in the water. This year the lake had frozen over two days before we were to jump in. Eye witnesses said it was almost thick enough to walk on.
So when we got the call at 9:00 New Years morning that the dive was still on and a guy was going up to chip a hole in the ice, we got ready for the worst. Got ready for the worst, but still jumped in the car to make it to the Lake in time! But as we drove around the bend, a totally thawed, blue lake greeted us though tell tale chunks of ice still floated in the water.
After standing in the snow for fifteen minutes, with sandals on might I add, we were ready to shed our ten layers of clothes and stampede into the water. Up to our waists in frigid water, we dunked our heads. Rae caught her hat just in time as she burst out of the water, having forgotten to take it off. She went in last year to offer me moral support, but didn't dunk. This year she promised herself that she would dunk. And she did!
We waded out of the water as fast as we could and on winged feet we flew to the car. We then piled as many heating devices on top of us as we could. And when we got home we had a nice helping of birthday cake.
1 comment:
Yay, Zoe and Rae!!! Congratulations on your first Polar Bear plunge, Rae, and on your second, Zoe. Very cool (ha ha, very bad pun). The video didn't work, so I'll have to come back later to watch it (probably some weirdness with our system!). Happy Birthday, Zoe!!!
Post a Comment