SaskatchewanGerald Siemens wanted to do something special as his 70th birthday approached, and splashed upon a novel idea — jumping in 70 lakes. Siemens travelled all summer with his son, Matthew, who runs SaskLakes.ca, an online directory for all things about the province’s more than 100,000 lakes.Gerald Siemens comes up with a great way to see the province with his sonCBC News · Posted: Oct 01, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours agoGerald Siemens takes the plunge in Pike Lake near Saskatoon. The 70-year-old dove into 70 lakes this summer. (Radio-Canada)Gerald Siemens wanted to do something special as his 70th birthday approached, and splashed upon a novel idea — jumping in 70 lakes.Siemens travelled all summer with his son, Matthew, who runs SaskLakes.ca, an online directory for all things on the province’s more than 100,000 lakes.”I like to swim, so I thought, ‘Boy, if I could jump into 70 of them, that would be a fun thing to do for my 70th birthday,” Gerald said.It didn’t take long for Matthew to say yes to the plan.”At first, I thought it was pretty audacious … but pretty quickly I was on board,” said Matthew, who documented the feat.He planned out routes where they could hit a series of lakes on the same day, although it was a work in progress all summer as wildfires put up roadblocks.Gerald Siemens, left, and his son Matthew Siemens recount their summer adventure at Pike Lake. (Radio-Canada)Gerald said it was quite the adventure.”There’s so many great lakes in Saskatchewan,” he said. “Some of them have just great water, and some have great scenery around them, some great sandy bottoms.”He said some of his memorable swims included Kimball Lake, Candle Lake, Lac Eauclaire and Fife Lake.The Morning Edition – Sask8:17Sask. man makes it his mission to swim in 70 lakes before he turns 70One Saskatchewan man swam in 70 lakes before he turned 70, and it was partly inspired by his son’s love of exploring lakes. We’ll find out more about the birthday goal.What makes the feat even more special is that Gerald didn’t even learn to swim until about 12 years ago.”I started getting into the water as therapy for a back injury, and I found out that the best part of my day was when I was in the water,” he said.”I acquired a love for water and learned how to swim by watching YouTube videos. And I love being in the water now.”Matthew even joined him by taking a dip in some of the lakes.”I got quite a few of the lakes, but there is a decent number where I was like, ‘This isn’t my challenge; you’re on your own,'” Matthew said.”[By] the third or fourth or fifth [lake] of the day I was like, ‘You know what, I’m not 70,’ so I let him go and just manned the camera.”Gerald said it was just a privilege to be able to share the experience with his son.”I would have never got to the 70 lakes if he hadn’t been driving me around. So yeah, what a great memory for me.”With files from The Morning Edition and Radio-Canada
Sask. man takes the plunge in 70 lakes to celebrate 70th birthday
