Splash! Man jumps in all Waterton-Glacier lakes

Rain dripped off the trees and a cool breeze blew over Fishercap Lake in Glacier National Park's Many Glacier area on Sunday. A perfect day for a swim. At least if you were Marc Ankenbauer it was.

Joined by family and friends, Ankenbauer finished an historic journey as he plunged into the waters of the shallow lake. Over the past 10 years, he’s jumped into every named lake in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. All 168 of them.

The journey was not just a whim. Ankenbauer raised $7,200 along the way for Camp-Mak-A-Dream of Montana, which provides cost-free programs for children, teens and young adults and their families with cancer. The strapping Ankenbauer had cancer when he was a youth.

Prior to the last jump, Ankenbauer made a short speech to a gathering of family and friends at the edge of the lake. Many of them had hiked with him to lakes, many of which are tucked back in the Park's hinterlands.

“I’m from a suburb in Cincinnati,” Ankenbauer said. “This isn’t supposed to be happening. I feel lucky and thankful to do this.”

Ankenbauer spent hours poring over maps. At first, he dove in lakes close to trails. But about seven years in, “things got really bad,” he said.

The lakes were no longer near trails. In fact, many were located miles back, protected by mile after mile of downfall, devil’s club and brush.

But friends went with him, even on the nastiest bushwhacks. His wife, Jessi Adams, accompanied him to more than 50 of the lakes. Friend Pat Catillino hiked with Ankenbauer to more than 20 — including the worst, Lilly Lake.

Lilly Lake is located on the back side of Adair Ridge — a trail-less journey through 16 miles of downed trees and doghair lodegpole pine. Lilly Lake is no lily of a lake, either — it looked more like a swamp.

“It was terrible,” Catillino and Ankenbauer agreed. “That was not fun.”

Gyrfalcon Lake also involved an awful bushwhack. Ankenbauer and a friend hiked up the Waterton River Valley, instead of taking the traditional high route around Trapper Peak that avoids most of the brush.

Ankenbauer works in the backcountry permit office in Two Medicine, but he did all the journeys on his own time. Did he have a favorite? Ankenbauer just smiles. If he does, he’s not saying.