Re: [Paddlewise] Homer Alaska & Cold

  I once took a skinny dip in a pool in John's Brook in the Adirondacks


  during an early spring backpacking trip.  It was unusually warm (>20C)


  for that time of year, but the water was snow melt coming down the 


  mountain and wasn't much above freezing


...........


Believe me, freezing water can disable you very, very quickly if you're


not dressed for it.  I rather doubt that street clothes are much better


than naked in those conditions.


..........................





When I was a little kid we used to spend some summertime on the South Bay of
Lake Champlain.  When we went fishing, to get bait we'd go to a mountain
called the Diameter at the very southern end.  The East face was all talus
with lots of ice packed in over the winter.  The stream were freezing cold.
We'd herd small frogs toward it.  They'd jump in and within seconds they
stopped moving.  We had to use a dipnet to get them out;  your hands would
stiffen up within seconds.  Then we'd continue on down the stream to the
Beaver ponds.  By that time they would have revived....











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