The big swim

Sandpoint’s Kevin Woodruff swims length of lake, from Buttonhook Bay to City Beach

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

The fact that Kevin Woodruff is even alive is a miracle, let alone that he swam 33 miles of Lake Pend Oreille in just over 25 hours.

Woodruff, who was born and raised in Sandpoint, recently completed the feat, departing from Buttonhook Bay at 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 11 and arriving at the Edgewater Resort at 7:45 a.m. the next day — 25 hours and 14 minutes of straight swimming.

It’s a far cry from when Woodruff was just 12 months old and diagnosed with a liver disease that has often left those afflicted with poor quality of life.

“When I was first diagnosed, my parents didn’t know if I’d live or not,” Woodruff told the Reader. “Half the people just get liver transplants to try and fix it and most that didn’t get G-tubes installed, so that means no physical activity. My parents committed to giving me nighttime doses, waking me up twice in the middle of the night to feed me corn starch, just to give me a chance at a normal adult life. Big shout out to them for taking the hard road and being committed to it.”

Though Woodruff said his condition “wasn’t a death sentence, I’m sort of part of the first generation that lived. It’s all about energy management and intake. … When you eat food, you can store it as energy and when you need it, your body will take it out. I’m missing that enzyme that takes it out.”

The disease makes even normal exercise a chore, but swimming for over a day straight? That’s almost unheard of.

Woodruff said he grew up swimming, but nothing major. 

A year ago, Woodruff said he started swimming for exercise and wondered if he could make it from Hope to Deadman Point without training — a distance of about eight miles.

“I made it,” he said. “After that, I started thinking there’s a good chance I could swim the whole lake.”

He began training in summer 2024, researching competitive swimmer Elaine Howley, who became the first person to swim the length of Lake Pend Oreille in 2014.

“She was doing 25 miles a week for months leading up to it,” Woodruff said. “I tried that for one week and I was dead, so I dropped it down to five miles a week.”

Woodruff committed to longer and longer training sessions, starting with two miles at a time, then five and up to 10 miles in the pool at YMCA.

Finally, in a last minute decision, Woodruff decided to embark on the swim on the evening of Aug. 10.

On the support boat were Kevin’s parents — Kim and Gina Woodruff — along with his wife Brynn Williams-Woodruff, her sister Mariah Williams and brother-in-law Tucker.

While the weather cooperated, a constant headwind made the swim more difficult. Sticking to a route planned by his dad, Woodruff pointed north and began plying through the water, one stroke at a time.

He didn’t touch bottom again until the next morning; but, because of his liver condition, Woodruff needed to take glucometer readings every hour.

“I had to crawl onto the boat to get tested, but I always had part of me in the water and never had both feet out of the water,” he said.

Wearing headphones and with a wetsuit protecting him from cooler temperatures at night, Woodruff slogged up the lake, turning west at Picard Point and swimming the final leg toward Sandpoint.

“The amount of public support we saw after my mom posted about it on the local boaters forum was amazing,” he said. “People came out and took drone shots, took photos from their beaches in the middle of the night. It was really cool to see all of that.”

Woodruff initially worried that he would hit a “mental wall,” which Howley said happened in the night during her swim in 2014, but he was pleased that it never came.

“I never hit that,” he said. “It definitely sucked and it hurt. And I did end up in the ER afterwards.”

Because of his condition, Woodruff isn’t able to process sucrose and fructose, so he had to feed himself a mixture of corn starch and water every hour during the swim, as well as drink sugar every 30 minutes.

“It was so acidic, it kept wanting to come up, so I kept having forceful burps … it got a little sketchy,” Woodruff said. “I knew if I told the support crew about it, they’d pull me out, so I kept it to myself. I didn’t want to be stupid, but I knew if I didn’t finish this time, it would be another year of training.”

From the ER, Woodruff was sent to Kootenai Medical Center to sort out the esophageal issue and, after several days of respite, is back in good health.

Woodruff said he felt compelled to complete the swim simply because he wanted to prove he could do it.

“It’s something that seems insurmountable, but should technically be doable,” he said. “It’s really just testing myself. I know it’s going to suck, but it’s about how willing are you to enter the suck and exist in it, for however long you can.”

The lake has always meant a lot to Woodruff thanks to spending summer vacations every year sailing with his family. This swim mission is one way for him to pen another love letter to the community and the lake — as well as his family for raising him in North Idaho.

“It’s just very Sandpoint,” he said. “You grow up seeing everything people can do. You see the person who skied down the Monarchs, people doing CHAFE, people like Eric Ridgway starting the Long Bridge Swim. It’s the spirit of Sandpoint — something that’s cool and unique. I never really appreciated it until after college.”

Though he was exhausted after the swim, spent time in the hospital and is thankful he doesn’t have to swim that far again, Woodruff said he’s proud of his successful quest.

“Big thanks to everyone who helped and the community that supported it,” he said. “It was cool to see so many people come together online and not be mean to each other. Don’t get me wrong, I love the drama on the local Facebook forums and stuff, but it was cool that it was all positive feedback. Everyone kind of dug it. It was a nice surprise.”