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An Orem-based swim group is pictured at Deer Creek Reservoir. (Courtesy Robin Eide)

Courtesy Robin Eide

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Swimming friends Fred Axelgard, Jennifer George, Bry Christensen, Robin Eide and Julienne Vance prepare to swim bridge to bridge in San Francisco. (Courtesy Robin Eide)

Courtesy Robin Eide

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An Orem-based friend group united by their love of swimming has gone on a few wild adventures over the years. 

Many of the 10-member group, ranging in age from their 30s to their 70s, swam from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. On another trip, they completed a 10K swim in Sitka, Alaska.

Perhaps their most creative adventure, though, is set to take place later this month, when they attempt to swim one mile in each of the Great Lakes in the same day on August 7. 

The group will start at 5:30 a.m. at Lake Ontario off the coast of Hamilton, Canada, then swim off the north shore of Lake Erie. They will then enter the United States, check off Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, cross the Mackinac Bridge into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and finish with Lake Superior. 

For a group of 10 well-versed in lengthy swims and other distance challenges, they don’t consider the challenge a physical feat as much as an opportunity to do something memorable with friends. 

“I just thought that sounds like a crazy adventure that our group would really like because we have a history of different parts of our group doing swims like that,” said Robin Eide. 

The idea came to Eide from a YouTube video she saw of a group of teenagers from Grand Rapids, Michigan, doing the challenge. She thought it looked doable, and started building a route that seemed attainable. 

Eight members will fly out from Utah, and two friends who live in the Midwest will meet them there. Eide, Dennis Archuleta, Fred Axelgard, Bry Christensen, Jennifer George, Diane Johnson, Sierra Savage, Tammy Stevens, Carlee Tullett, and Julienne Vance will participate. 

The total swimming distance is five miles — not overwhelming for a group of endurance athletes — but the driving distance is about 10 hours, which will make for a busy day. 

While swimming, their yellow, pink and orange buoys will drag behind them are easy to see, and they will swim close to the shore. They’ll also stick to a buddy system. 

“We tend to swim alongside somebody so you can kind of keep track of them, and you know that reflects in just our friendship with each other,” Eide said. “You’re always just looking out for whoever’s having a bad day or didn’t get enough sleep. We have one gal who has seven children, and sleep is a rare commodity for her. But that connection that we have with one another sort of extends into the pool or into the lake.” 

That friendship is really what keeps the swimming group together, according to another longtime member, Axelgard. Those who still live locally swim at the Orem Recreation Center three times a week, and go out to Deer Creek Reservoir when the weather is cooperates. 

“I don’t think many of us would do it if we did it on our own,” Axelgard said. “Really, the sociality and sociability of it is a big deal. 

“I’ve been swimming actively since I was about 12 or 13 competitively, and I also swam at BYU and played water polo there. But as the years wore on, it became pretty clear that the most important swimming I ever did was as I got older, and it has been a great way to stay in shape.”