Polar Bear - January 1, 2003
Mike was all nice and warm when he came to the house just shortly after 11:00 am. Who would've thought that just an hour later he'd be the complete opposite. I did.
We stand there all nicely wrapped up in our winter gear, not knowing what makes us so crazy as to jump into that frigid lake.
I finally got my He-Man towel. And that smile of warmness finally returned to my face. I don't mind running into the lake, going underwater, feeling the numbness creep through my body, and so on. What I do mind is standing out in the cold wind afterward, shivering, longing for the time when I jump into the open flames of a fire pit.
Why I stood there long enough for my mom to take the picture, I'll never know. I did know that this picture was necessary for this site.
Me and my buddy Mike fresh out of the frosty lake. The funny thing is that we had 4 cameras between the 3 of us, so we had to sit there for a long time without our towels.
I had been back in Wisconsin for just over 16 hours, having just returned from warm sunny California, and what was one of the first things I did? Jumped in the freezing cold waters of Lake Michigan of course! My good friend and mentor Mike Bates was the only one brave enough to join me in the coldness, and my mom Kris was the only one willing to accompany us so that I could have these wonderful pictures to show you. So enjoy this one with your feet in a bucket of ice, cause that is the only way to imagine how deathly cold it was in that lake.