On a Nordic quest for heat

It feels like winter is well on its way to central Wisconsin as the fall briskness has set in and frost has bared its teeth on a few occasions. My wife and I, along with a few friends, took the opportunity to return to more tropical temperatures over the weekend as we participated in an outdoor sauna.

I was skeptical of the adventure, at first. I had seen sauna’s depicted on television with older folks wearing nothing but a skimpy bath towel sweating out all the toxins they’ve had pent up inside their bodies. However, I went into this process with an open mind.

We started out eating at a local restaurant in Stevens Point about an hour before we were supposed to arrive at the sauna. We caught up with our friends and exchanged stories of home ownership, recent weddings and traveling.

Soon enough, it was time for the experience of the Nordic Night Sauna in Stevens Point. We traveled to the location and my friend parked on a street in a residential area. I was confused as it didn’t look like there were any buildings around that could house a sauna. I looked to my left and there was a residential lot that had been turned into a garden area with a trailer parked on the back end of the lot.

My friend led us through the garden to the back end of the lot where a worker met us. She sat us down in a circle and explained to us that the sauna experience was one that was meant for us to relax and find some sort of Zen during it.

At this point, I was nervous as I was not sure what to expect and was unsure what kind of heat awaited us in the sauna. The worker took us inside the trailer which was lined with wooden planks on the inside and outside. The sauna had a wood burning stove inside which provided the heat without the wood burning smell. The stove was surrounded by some sort of rock which helped radiate the heat from the fire inside. We stepped inside, in our swimsuits of course, and we were instantly hit with 170-degree heat. The heat didn’t affect me too much but when the worker poured water over the rocks to create steam, it was as if the air became thick and was almost chewable. We sat in the sauna for periods of a maximum of 15 minutes over an hour and a half. After about three minutes in the heat, I started pouring sweat. It was slightly uncomfortable the first 15 minutes I was in there but each time I went back in, it felt like it got easier and easier. After each session in the heat, we spent no less than five minutes outside recovering. The grounds had a shower and water buckets we could use to cool ourselves off. It was in the high 40s outside but that was the perfect temperature contrast between the heat and cold.

The night turned into being a ton of fun as we got to laugh and converse with our friends while trying something new. Plus, the sleep we were able to get the night after participating in the sauna was some of the best we’ve had.

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