That's Pretty Neat!: Polar Plunge For Me!!

This weekend I hiked the most popular trail in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area: Iron Creek Trail to Sawtooth Lake. It was a moderately rated hike with incredible views. All in all, we hiked a total of just under 12 miles that day- including some scrambling to and from the waterline so as to avoid the group of people at the "beach" area.

A great deal of the trail was through decently shaded forest with large boulders and fir trees all around. The switchbacks were pretty gradual, so the hike was not incredibly difficult. We encountered a forest ranger on the way up who stopped and checked to make sure we had a permit- of course we did. The first of many spectacular views was an opening into a meadow full of wildflowers of all different colors. Once in the meadow, you have a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains. (Talk about gorgeous)

After snapping some pictures and taking in the views, we continued on up the trail. It wasn't long before we arrived at an overlook of the first of two alpine lakes. This lake's blue-green water was sparkling in the sunlight as if it was completely saturated with glitter. The water was enticingly clear and I could see what appeared to be the perfect camp spot on a flat looking rock formation that jetted out into the lake. I'll definitely be keeping that in mind for possible backpacking trips in the future.

After spending a decent amount of time taking pictures here and just soaking it all in, we make the final climb up the rest of the trail leading to our destination for the day.

Just as I began to get a stitch in my side, the first glimpse of our destination comes into focus and all pain was forgotten. Sawtooth Lake is a thing of beauty and I cannot recommend this hike enough. The water is crystal clear and blue. The surrounding mountains, with their frustrating patches of snow in the middle of July are perplexing but beautiful all the same. We scrambled down some rocks to get to a good sitting area amongst the rubble close to the water's edge.

I started this hike with the notion that I would be jumping into the lake upon arrival and had even packed in a towel to ensure that I could do just that. Upon an initial toe-dip, I determined that it was going to be a bad time- but that wasn't going to stop me.

After a bit of mental preparation for my plunge into the icy waters of the lake, I was ready. I stripped off my hiking gear and stepped into the water. I stood there, motionless, for a minute and a half trying to stop psyching myself out and JUST DO IT. Finally I dove in, my sunglasses were pushed off of my face (yet somehow I managed to catch, and not break, them in my knee pit), and immediately all of the air was forced out of my lungs. When I surfaced, it felt like my lungs were spasming in attempt to pull in air. This resulted in some very odd gasping and grunting sounds as I returned my sunglasses to my face and pulled myself back over to the shore.
As awful as that all might sound, it was truly an exciting experience and I'm definitely glad that I did it. I was all smiles as soon as I started heading back to the shore anyways. After drying off, enjoying some lunch and fresh filtered water from this pristine alpine lake, we headed back down to the trailhead, thus concluding this weekend's adventure.

How Neat Is That?!