Crazy Lake Swimmers blown by the winds of caution

SANDPOINT — As the houseboat trailed a lone swimmer heading down the river on Saturday, families came out to cheer and wave, construction workers stared expressionless at the unusual sight, and people along the river came out to snap some photographs. Concerned friends phoned and reported seeing the Crazy Lake Swimmers going the wrong way.   

What started out as the “Sandpoint City Beach to Button Hook Bay Down and Back Swim” evolved into the “Slingshot-Down the River Swim” as the boat tossed and turned and the captain became nervous in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The water was calm and the sky overcast at 6 p.m., when the first swimmer took the plunge and began to swim from Sandpoint City Beach on Friday evening. The sky threatened harsher weather, but the adventure and challenge seemed promising. 

Over the course of the next several hours the Crazy Lake Swimming Team swam about 10 miles from City Beach to the east past Contest, Anderson and Picard Points. Every 45 minutes a new swimmer slapped the hand of the previous swimmer and jumped off the back of the boat. Some swimmers screamed in scary anticipation as they took the plunge into the dark waters, others jumped in with a smile and a cheer.

The emotions on the boat were as varied as the swimmers’ experience, age and abilities. Veteran lake swimmers Eric Ridgway, Karen McClelland and Meleah Nelsen swam in the peaceful waters as dusk changed to night. The team passed Camp Bay heading southward towards the big open parts of Lake Pend Oreille on their way south to Button Hook Bay. By nightfall, 49 years old first-time swimmer Suzy Miller tucked a glow stick in her goggles, took the plunge and did her 45 minute swim with grace and ease.

Sandpoint High School swimmers Keeley Pearlstein and Michele Rockwell, both 15 years-old, courageously entered the dark waters in the middle of the night. Keeley’s small voice filled the night air as she called out to the kayaker, Erik Nelsen, by her side as she tried to track his strobe light in the dead of night. As she boarded the back of the boat she said “that was so scary swimming in the dark, I couldn’t see anything.”

By midnight the water conditions continued to change and the one swimmer, Brenda Speakman, who had absolutely no open water experience and very little conditioning, entered the water and spent the first few minutes of her swim gasping for air, trying different strokes in the choppy water and clinging to the back of the kayak. After changing from slightly tinted goggles to clear ones she was able to see the strobe light and relax into a steady freestyle for 40 minutes and was surprised when her time was up. During her dark swim her mind repeated one thought — “Karen McClelland is crazy.”

Swimming at night seemed to be the biggest challenge for the first time swimmers on this Big Lake Swim expedition. It really can be quite an eerie feeling easing or jumping into pitch black liquid with no ability to see anything beneath you and only the silhouette of land being some distance away, and the nearest lights being many miles away.

The only means of seeing the swimmer in the ink black water in the dark of night was by a 4 inch long fluorescent glow stick tucked between the swim goggle strap and the back of the head.  In the tossing waves, it was critical for the safety kayaker to stay close enough to the swimmer so that they could both know where the other was. The kayak could only be seen at night by its glow stick and a flashing strobe light worn on the life vest. Erik Nelsen and Allen McClelland did all of the safety kayaking and did an outstanding job of accompanying the swimmers through the long, cold and dark hours of Friday night.

The boat began to tip from side to side as Karen McClelland joyfully swam behind her husband Allen, who was her guiding light in the kayak.

“Finally I was able to see with my own eyes what Eric Ridgway and company have been putting my wife through on these crazy trips,” Alan said. 

As the dishes began to shift and the food began to fall in the kitchen, the boat Captain, Ken Casler, decided to talk about turning The Bountiful, a twin pontoon houseboat, northward towards calmer waters around Hope.

While quite challenging to swim through the tossing waves with a steady stroke and the repeated mouthfuls of water, the swimmers were able to plow through the waves better than the boat and with more enthusiasm than the captain. Perhaps the swimmers were comfortable knowing, if the boat capsized they could all enjoy a long swim to shore.

After battling to go east and south for over half an hour, Karen was redirected to swim north and somewhat west.

Eric Ridgway, possibly the most obsessive member of the team, could barely keep himself from jumping overboard in despair at the realization that they weren’t going to achieve their originally stated goal. Turning north through the serious chop, Karen and Meleah swam the team into the calmer waters around Pearl and Cottage Islands. 

The crazy swimmers, not wanting to give up because of a little wind and waves, decided to swim under the Railroad and Long Bridges and as far west down the Pend Oreille River as they could.

Super-fast swimmer Jane Rockwell had to slow down to observe the “No Wake” sign as she swam under the train and Long Bridge. Later, while swimming next to the boat, Meleah Nelsen lifted her head to look at some construction workers at the railroad bridge in Dover and yelled “can you believe that they won’t give me a ride?”

Suzy Miller kept swimming over towards the sandy beaches and playgrounds along the river bank and jested that she was ready to play. Accomplished triathlete and experienced Big Lake Swimmer Keith Hertel loved the night swimming and sped along the river and made every stroke look effortless. 

The team made it past Morton Slough and was on the way to Laclede when lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the distance. The team immediately plucked Keith out of the water. After waiting for the storms to pass, the swimmers slapped hands and the team continued to swim westward towards Albeni Falls Dam. With Jane Rockwell and Keeley Pearlstein doing the final two swims of the adventure the team ran out of time and had to motor back to City Beach, arriving at 9 p.m.

“It is definitely an experience I will never forget,” said Brenda Speakman. “And somehow the best memory of all is that I’m eager to do it again.”  

Jane Rockwell suggested that the Crazy Lake Swim take on a greater purpose in the years to follow by using the event to raise money to provide swim scholarships to local youth.