I love swimming.
I have always loved swimming. I grew up with pools and spent most summers of my childhood in the water. I took swim lessons, competed on swim teams, and was a frequent visitor to the many lakes surrounding my hometown.
Since being in the van, summers have looked a little different, but I still get in the water any chance I get. Last summer in Maine, I waded in the shallow of the coastal Atlantic and spent a few afternoons lakeside, enjoying the cool water. I’ve plunged in rivers, creeks, lakes, and oceans – and loved every second of it.
I didn’t used to be a cold plunge kinda person. I won’t take cold showers and up until recently, I stayed far, far away from icy lakes. But once I started van life (AKA no air conditioning life) cold river plunges started to look a lot more appealing. After a day of sweating it out glued to my screen, a refreshing cold plunge is exactly what I need. – even if it’s still hard to jump into.
Out west, water, especially cold water, is harder to find. I hopped in an icy river once in Steamboat Springs, stuck my toes in the Pacific a few times, and spent an afternoon in the pool on vacation, but it wasn’t until I got to Sol Spirit Farms in Trinity County that I got my first good plunge of the summer.
Then I got to Lake Tahoe.
As an East Coaster, I’ve heard about beautiful Lake Tahoe for as long as I can remember, the gem of California. A ski town in the mountains with a big, blue lake. I’m fortunate to come from the Finger Lakes region of New York, where big beautiful lakes are abundant, so I thought it was overrated.
And then I spent eight weeks in California. After the misty shorelines and the oven-baked heat of the central valley, I understand now why West Coasters hold Tahoe in such great esteem. It is a beautiful, cool reprieve from the blistering sun. (If you like Lake Tahoe, I highly recommend a visit to Lake George in the Adirondacks.)
I spent part of a Saturday afternoon enjoying the southern shores of the lake at Baldwin Beach. My day was cut short by a thunderstorm that rolled in and rumbled around for a few hours, but it was refreshing nonetheless. The water was cool and inviting and it was easy to take a dip – it was hardly a cold plunge.
I found Lake Tahoe to be crowded (especially the roads around the lake) so on Sunday I went looking for something a bit more remote. I found Caples Lake, 45 minutes south of South Lake Tahoe. There’s a resort on one side of the lake, but I parked in a state-run parking lot (with pit toilets!) and made my way down. A single trail led to an odd end on a large boulder and I awkwardly picked my way down the the lake shore.
Caples Lake sits nearly 2,000 ft higher in elevation than Lake Tahoe, and the surrounding peaks still had pits of snowpack. The water was breathtakingly icy, a stark contrast to the hot air. It was the coldest plunge I’ve taken since Colorado, when I hopped out of a thermal spring into the adjacent river (that holds the title of coldest plunge.) I jumped in again and again, letting the frigid water wash around me.
Cold plunges require control. Dunking your entire body in water 55F or under is a shocking experience that can draw breath in unintentionally. The ability to keep your parasympathetic nervous system calm takes practice – and there’s no better practice than a cold plunge on a hot day. (I highly recommend looking into Wim Hof if you’re curious about the biological benefits of cold plunging.) The colder the water, the more I struggle with the plunge. Lake Tahoe was easy to dive into, but Caples Lake took a little more resolve. Still, once I surfaced from the jump-in, I felt amazing.
There were plenty of times I took having a pool for granted, but I never take a day on the water for granted in the van, especially out here. Cold plunging draws me into the moment, helps me stay present, and reminds me how lucky I am to be doing what I’m doing.
My last dip around Lake Tahoe was in the West Fork of the Carson River in Hope Valley, where I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets of my life. I opted not to plunge here (I was in a section with a lot of algae) but the water was chilly and refreshing after a long day of work in the van. As I start to turn the van north in the final leg of my trip, I look forward to leaving dry California behind in favor of the water-drenched Pacific Northwest.
One thought on “Embracing Cold Plunges”