Opening my e-mail before the holidays, I saw a request from Charlie Darling and announced to the man having a beer next to me, “Hey, this is funny. The Andover Beacon wants to write a story about you.”

“Why?”

“Apparently, someone asked him to find out who the guy is that swims around Highland Lake.”

“Yeah, not interested.”

“Well, what if I write it?”

“Not happening.”

“Maybe?”

“Maybe not.”

Not one to be deterred, here’s some information on the man some of you may have noticed in Highland Lake from May to October swimming the circumference of the lake. He is a very reluctant participant in this article and does not want his name used, so I will refer to him as HWMNBN (He Who Must Not Be Named).

The swim usually takes him a little under two hours, and we figure it is around three miles to swim his perimeter route. He swims it every day he can, but he works in the Boston area, so that means usually weekends only. He’s been known to wake up early, though, on workdays and get a “little” swim in before he goes to work.

He’s been swimming since he was young. He took the course to become a life guard to help pay for school and swam competitively in high school and college. He exclusively uses the crawl stroke on his open water swims, but he can do a mean butterfly and back stroke as well.

HWMNBN does use goggles and occasionally sees fish, but not as often as we’d like. He said it is not unusual for loons to come close and check him out, but most other wildlife stays away.

He doesn’t stop when he swims and prefers not to be interrupted, not even by someone checking up on him. On especially busy boat days, I will accompany him by boat when he crosses by the Channel.

The best water temperatures for his swim are mid to high 70s. There are times when the lake gets too warm for comfort, but not often. If the water temp is very cool, in the 60s, he will cut the North Cove corner a little bit.

He doesn’t mind swimming in the rain but will call off the swim if there are white caps from the wind. When he gets back, he likes a nice hot shower and a cold beer. It takes an hour or so to get his body temperature back to where it should be.

When I asked him what the most interesting part of the swim was and told him that he couldn’t say “Dead bodies,” he responded, “All the dead bodies.” Upon further prying, he thinks the most interesting thing is the change in underwater flora. Where the stream enters the lake in the northern corner, there was always a lot of weeds and fish until a couple of years ago. Now he says it is like a desert  – nothing but dirt and sand, a complete change.

I find the most interesting thing about the swim is his playlist, which changes every time. That’s right, he listens to music while he swims.

He has an MP3 player that doesn’t use headphones but technology called bone-conduction. Two pieces similar to headphones sit just over his jawbones (not over the ear). When music plays through them, they vibrate the bone so he can hear them in any condition. They work best when totally underwater, and even though he swims mostly on the surface, HWMNBN said being able to listen to music has made swimming much more enjoyable.

Today HWMNBN and I took the dog for a walk across the snow and ice out to the island on Highland Lake. Hard to believe, but before you know it, the ice will melt, and the trees will bud out. The docks will go in, and you will probably see those feet kicking through the water once again.

On our walk back to the cabin, I asked him why he swims. His answer: “If you don’t swim, you sink.”