Lake Tahoe Water Trail by the numbers

Miles: 60.91

Hours: 5 days 6 hours 22 minutes / Moving Time 25 hours 13 minutes

Maurten: 25x 320 or caffeine 320

Crew: Dave Monachello, Jonathan Cahill, Bruce Carswell, Rob May, Rita Williams, Ricardo Urbina, Cam Bellamy, Elena Anisimova, Dennis Williams, Sara Sheltz

Notes and thoughts:

The Lake Tahoe Water Trail advertises itself as “72 miles of pure liquid fun”. I was curious- is the trail fun if you swim it? And if you do choose to swim it, how fast can you go?
No record, no ratification— just a crazy goal and support from friends.
This was a training week- a chance for me to answer some questions like:
Is Swim California possible? What nutrition do I need before/during/after? How long can I go? Do I like doubles? What is pre hab/rehab? What crew do I want? What energy do I have after each day?
A lot of great “data” was collected and I can confirm- swimming the @tahoewatertrail is a blast.
View my map vs the trail- pretty damn close if I’d say so myself!!

Day 1: 7,156 yds/ 1:52

About 4.1 miles. Today was great, we departed from Skylandia to head to Sunnyside fighting about 1 hour of a nasty headwind. We then tucked into Tahoe City to get some reprieve from the wind and it was smooth sailing from there.

Day 2: 15,729 yds/ 3:51

About 8.94 miles. Sunnyside to Rubicon Bay with a full crew! This was a relatively easy day with Captain Bruce running a perfect line, just hugging Homewood. My body and shoulders felt good. I really focused on technique and making sure to refuel quickly after the effort to keep my blood sugar levels stable. I used P2 Nutrition as my recovery protein drink.

Day 3: 17,009 yds / 4:13

About 9.7 miles. This was my absolute favorite day. Dave and I left from Rubicon Bay and headed towards Baldwin Beach via Emerald Bay. The current was in our favor, the water flat, and the views gorgeous. I got to spend 4 hours on the lake with my love, that is pretty dang cool.

Swimming into Emerald Bay was a bit demoralizing because I felt like we were going backwards. However, we ran into some Trans Tahoe swimmers and that boosted my moral.

The boat traffic on Tahoe picks up around 10am making it very choppy and a little nerve wracking. I was glad Dave had a boat and was visible.

I skipped a feed here because I just wanted to exit Emerald Bay and then take a 3 minute break but it made me go a full hour without nutrition, where I typically go every 30minutes.

I slowed down a bit so that was a good reminder to keep fueling.

I also did a poor job fueling right after, we decided to go jump off rocks and have fun but doing so caused my blood sugar to plummet below 70 for over 90minutes. This led me to feel HORRIBLE for a while. Good data point here.

Day 4: 11,112yds / 2:35 and 10,633yds / 2:51

About 12 miles total. The morning from Baldwin to Lakeside Beach was easy and quick, my pace at this point has been getting faster. Either from a current or because I have settled into this speed, 1:25 feels GOOOOD. Ricardo took over support at this point, towing our feeds on his prone paddle. I am acutely aware of the effort he is putting in and watching for the crazy South Lake Boat drivers.

The second swim was planned for the afternoon, another 6 miles from Lakeside Beach to Cave Rock. Cave Rock was an easy land point to spot—if we were not battling 2-4ft swells. At the 1 hour mark a huge wave knocked the tow over and caused us to lose all our feeds. Ricardo, trying to recover to the bottles, also tipped over. It felt really dire. I asked myself, “are we safe"?”

When I truly evaluated the risk, the answer was “yes, we are ok”. We had food, cell phones, our health, and despite the conditions—we were getting closer to our goal.

I don’t like swimming in chop but it was great training and a good reminder that we can do hard things.

Day 5: 19,501 yds / 4:32

About 11.1 miles. My gosh this Lake is so magical. We had a perfect morning of fast and smooth water carrying us towards Sand Harbor. Several planes flew overhead giving us a little bit of a show!!

I wanted to hug the shoreline a little more tightly but when you are a swimmer, you are the follower. The captain or crew make the call and choose the line.

We finished much faster than expected in the gorgeous Sand Harbor Beach.

Day 6: 11, 496 yds / 2:44 and 10,908 yds / 2:35

About 12.5 miles total. The final day. We woke up ready to go and knock this thing out. Sand Harbor to Gar Woods and then Gar Woods to Skylandia in the afternoon.

Mother Nature had other plans.

She kicked up 12-20knots of wind forcing a Lake Wind Advisory from 11am-11pm. We knew this was going to be difficult but safety is always the number one priority and wind/water is no joke. I started around 6:45am in relatively calm conditions but by 9:30am, around Kings Beach it became unsafe. Dave made the call to cancel the swim, a call I was going to make myself in a few minutes. I was really proud of him for that.

In the afternoon we waffled with, “when do I finish this thing"?” since there was a Lake Wind Advisory the next day too. The weather window was 8pm-10am. Yikes.

I however, am not a small craft and I won’t tip over in waves. That is the interesting thing about swimming, I am safe as long as I can get to shore and stay warm—both situations were true Monday night.

With all the weather data and knowledge we had of the lake we knew Moon Dunes to Gar Woods was going to be the toughest and least safe for a kayaker but from Dollar Point along Carnelian Bay was going to be protected.

I started from Moon Dunes by myself with a light up buoy, food, and my cell phone. Dave drove to the finish and started from Skylandia, planning to meet me at Carnelian.

My friend Scott knew this plan and headed out in a sea kayak to escort me to Dave which was such a god send.

So, with a beautiful sunset and super fast water I swam hard and fast to the west to get to the calm water.

Scott handed me off to Dave and we had a great time up until rounding Dollar Point. The darkness took over and the wind picked up. I was reminded of many of my night swims which have unfortunately been with clouds shrouding the stars and a no moon to speak of.

Dave relied on his headlamp to navigate us around buoys and I used my GPS to track where Skylandia was. It was only 15minutes but that 15minutes was hard—probably terrifying for him.

We quietly finished at 10:20pm to only Scott bringing us PBR’s.

Honestly, the perfect way to finish this made up adventure. No fanfare just a beer and the satisfaction that we did it.

Swimming for pure fun and adventure is something I got away from when I started pursuing big channel swims. I put this insane pressure on myself to “perform” to be the best, to break a record, etc.

I knew I needed to find my love for this sport again or I was going to burn out. In 2022 when I came up with a never before done route of the Golden Gate Bridge to Half Moon Bay I got back to my love of the water and the ocean. It was just a day along the coast with some of my best friends.

Tahoe I felt that. I got to spend 5 days circumnavigating this place I love, with people I love. I got to feel the current with me, I got to battle wind and waves. I saw magnificent rock formations and teeny tiny minnows. I was able to fully surrender to each day and just move forward one stroke at a time.

I got to revisit how tough I am and mostly, I had fun.

Swim California is doable. If Tahoe taught me anything it is that my mind and body are primed for a journey like this.

Remember, when you are going through hard moments to keep going. Even if you feel like you are moving slowly, any forward progress is still worth being celebrated. When the wind and waves are crashing over you, look at the people who are sitting in it and braving it with you. Those are your people. The ones who aren’t steering your ship but who are guiding you forward with kindness, patience, and support. These are the people you want in your life.

🙂 “It’s our greatest teacher, our family member,” said Williams, who is from the Karuk Tribe, which occupies lands along the middle course of the Klamath. “We revolve ceremonies around it, like when the salmon start running (the annual migration from the sea back to freshwater rivers to spawn), we know it’s time to start a family.”

CNN shares a beautiful story of ‘Young indigenous kayakers about to complete historic river journey, after ‘largest dam removal in US history’.

😢 “Storm and surf forecasts in California will become less accurate this year when federal funding for a network of ocean buoys disappears in September.”

SF Chronicle reports that Federal Support for a Coastal Data Collection ran by Scripps was cut by 70%

Behind the swim is a whole team and so I just want to shoutout the people who have made getting this far possible.

Each newsletter I am going to shoutout someone who went above and beyond. This week I want to shoutout:

💙 Dave Monachello for being the most supportive partner one could ask for.

💙 Rita and Dennis Williams for opening their home, providing meals, being on the support boat, and for their year plus of Swim California support.

And course all others named above for the Lake Tahoe effort.

I also want to thank all the donors who have come in and gotten us close to $100,000.

This isn’t just my swim; it’s a journey for all of us who love the ocean, crave adventure, and believe in trying something even when it feels impossible. Thank you for being here.

Donations are currently being accepted through my 501-c3 non-profit, Sea Dreamers. During Swim California we will be stopping and having various Sea Dreamers events to bring more women and girls into the ocean and create more awareness around ocean conservation—because I believe we fight for what we love and women fight pretty damn hard.