By Joe Platko
Living along the coast in central California, I’ve been able to enjoy the local diving that the Pacific offers. Being able to dive whenever the conditions are favorable, I’ve never thought to look inland, aside from diving in Lake Tahoe.
But after seeing fellow BARE Ambassador Max Hohn having a blast with tadpoles in lakes and salmon runs in the rivers of Vancouver Island, I wondered what freshwater opportunities I might be missing out on. So as soon as I had some vacation time saved up, I headed up to Lassen National Park on a quest to find some hidden freshwater gems that I could snorkel in…
Even with it being the middle of summer, most of the high-altitude lakes in Lassen were still completely frozen over, so I ended up only getting in at Manzanita Lake and Lake Almanor (located south of Lassen). I figured these lakes would still be freezing, but was quite surprised to find I was warm wearing just a full-body BARE Exowear suit. I also made sure to wear booties, gloves and a doo-rag, though, as I had heard of leeches being in the lakes and didn’t want any stowaways found on me afterwards.
The visibility in the lakes was much better than expected, and even more surprising was the amount of aquatic life I found! I’ve always pictured freshwater diving as more of a green or brown pursuit, but the shallows were amazingly vibrant.
Sure there was still a lot of green from algae, but mixed in with it was a pinkish plant that made one heck of a bouquet. These weren’t short little weeds just off the bottom, but were more reminiscent of the kelp forests found in my dive sites back home.
I was so shocked I got out and showed my girlfriend, who instantly suited up to join me. We swam, snorkeled and explored for hours in both lakes, and after that first trip, we both agreed we’ll be coming back again soon.
And the best part of the freshwater diving? Not having to rinse off all that salt water.
