When I Met My Sweetheart

I have always loved the outdoors and the feeling I get when I am away from the city, thus it was natural on a subconscious level to test my new partner's propensity for slightly risky adventures when I met her, thus ensuring our compatibility. Ever since I attended university in Bellingham Washington I had this yearly ritual of hiking up to a little lake called Fragrance Lake not far away from Bellingham and then taking a cleansing swim across it and back during the summer. Usually it would be a nice warm day and the water would be cool and refreshing after the sweaty hike with trees reflecting in the waters and dragon flies skimming across the surface.

The summer day I decided to take my partner ended up being a bit cooler than we expected, and then the waters were also a bit cooler. This meant a brisk cool swim after hiking the 3 1/2 or so miles to the lake up from Chuckanut Drive. Upon swimming half way across, my partner asked if maybe we should turn back since it was so cold. I figured we had equal amounts of time in the water either way we went at that point so we should just keep going to the other shore and so we continued to the other side.

The point I didn't consider was upon reaching the other side we either had to swim back through the cold water, or walk barefoot 1/2 mile or so with water softened feet around the lake to back to our clothes and shoes. As a result we ended up swimming back also. By then we were quite chilled and put all our clothes on in an attempt to get warm and got hiking quickly to also help warm ourselves up.

This is a wonderful hike and swim in the summer and we will never forget this common bonding experience (my partner came to the conclusion I can be a bit crazy sometimes), but if you go for a swim make sure it's warm enough and that you have adequate supplies (Hot thermos of water for tea possibly.) to get warm afterward if it's a bit cool. The hike is moderate and the lake is beautiful along with some of the views towards the San Juan Islands on the way up.