Schieffer had a radical idea: to swim the full length of Lake Powell, hauling his own gear and setting his own course.
On Sept. 11, he completed his 11-day journey of swimming about 14 miles per day when he arrived at the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona.
He said when he saw the finish line, he was surrounded by support.
“There was a dozen or so boats that had followed for those last couple hours and just sat there idling with me, cheering me on as I got to the end,” he said. “And there were people lining up on the canyon on both sides of the dam that were watching.”
Schieffer encountered lots of curiosity and encouragement from passersby as he made his way south through the reservoir. Many also stopped by his campsite in the evenings to say hello.
“They were just not only supportive of me, but you could see that it was touching them in a way,” he said.
Schieffer isn’t the first to complete an endurance swim in Lake Powell, but said he considers his feat an “expedition,” rather than a race or a traditional marathon swim.
He said the idea for the swim came to him during a sea kayaking trip on the reservoir. He trained for Lake Powell using an upright climbing machine to build upper-body strength and did countless laps in a pool.
To cross the reservoir, Schieffer had help from a wetsuit and fins, and his friend Jerome Naleski accompanied him in a boat for safety. But he didn’t accept any help such as navigation assistance, and all his meals and supplies were loaded onto a paddleboard tethered to his waist.
“I really went day and night without assistance, because I wanted that expedition feeling of carrying my own gear and making my own way from top to bottom,” he said.
That choice meant he swam off course on a couple of occasions, adding a few miles to his journey.
For Schieffer, the long days in the water were quiet and meditative. He said he often closed his eyes while swimming.
“I could kind of see the sun even through my eyelids, to make sure I wasn’t changing direction, and I would just go for long stretches without opening my eyes,” he said.
He said he crashed into the safety boat or into shore a few times, but it was mostly a relaxing way to swim.
Highlights of his voyage were exploring the upper end of Glen Canyon, where very few people venture, and coming to the confluence of the San Juan River, where the landscape is beautiful and dramatic.
Now that he’s back home in Aspen, Colorado, he plans to celebrate his 50th birthday and share stories with friends.
“It’s five months out of my life that I spent towards this,” he said. “As a life picture, it’s not a huge part of me, but it’s this really precious little sparkle of something I got to do.”
With winter coming on, Schieffer will head to the pool for now. But when the weather warms again, he said open-water swimming will be a lasting passion.
