Weather delays teen’s swim across Moosehead Lake

GREENVILLE – A Farmington teenager hoping to raise money to fight lung disease will have to pick a calmer day to swim across New England’s biggest lake, which he hoped to cross Sunday.

The Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department said it received word that 17-year-old Joseph Fowler’s attempt to swim the 32.4-mile length of Moosehead Lake was off for Sunday because of stiff wind and ocean-type swells.

Even on a calm day, the swim would be a grueling haul for even the fittest swimmer, but Fowler also has asthma. He planned the swim as a fund-raiser to bring attention to pulmonary fibrosis, which took the life of his grandfather Vincent Oliver last year.

The lung disease claims 40,000 people’s lives annually.

Moosehead Lake’s water temperature reaches only the low 70s, and with a strong wind, waves regularly reach heights of five feet. Fowler estimated the swim would take him about 15 hours nonstop.

“Once you start thinking realistically, you realize that just can’t happen,” said the Mount Blue High School senior. “But it will.”

It takes tourists a whole day to drive around Moosehead, and boating enthusiasts plan weeklong trips to navigate kayaks and canoes around the 300 islands that dot the northern Maine lake.

Fowler came well-prepared for the Moosehead Lake challenge.

Swimming competitively at the high school level, Fowler was named the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Swimmer of the Year. He’s been swimming five miles daily in Industry’s Clearwater Lake.

Every Friday he does a long swim, like the 16-mile, six-hour swim across Richardson Lake or a 15-mile swim down the Kennebec River.

Fowler’s parents, sister and his open-water swim coach, Craig Taylor, planned to travel alongside him in a boat during the Moosehead swim.

“I want to test my limits,” Fowler said of his latest challenge. “If you don’t challenge yourself, you are never going to know what your limits are.”