Cold Plunge: A Review Of Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna in Duluth
Washing on the Ice/ Vid Vaken by Pekka Halonen, 1900 Wikimedia Commons
It all started the first time I took the proverbial cold plunge through a hole in the ice. During a Northwoods winter weekend with friends, we spent a day cross country skiing across frozen lakes glittering with snow diamonds and through patchworks of shadow and light beneath tall pines. It was so beautiful, I could have glided on forever until suddenly I noticed that I couldn’t. Fatigue was setting in and I was getting cold with still a ways to go. The final distance was a long downhill run back to the cabins. My muscles were so tired and shaky that I wobbled like a train coming off its tracks–I finished in a heap at the bottom.
By the time we returned to our cabin, every muscle and bone in my body was sore and my head felt like a bowling ball. My plan was to join the group for supper and then crawl into bed early but I felt the peer pressure to join everyone for one more activity–the group sauna. Soon I found myself sweating in the lakeside bathhouse until I could take the heat no longer. I stepped outside and padded across the carpeted path to the hole in the lake ice where a boat ladder hung on the edge. I knew that if I hesitated I wouldn’t do it. There was nothing for it except a full on plunge into the water after which I popped up like a bobber, stunned, and climbed out as quickly as I could. What followed was quite unexpected.
First of all, I was not cold after exiting the water. As I stood there, bare skin in below zero weather, I felt just right, neither hot nor cold. There was also a moment of exhilaration, my mind was focused with laser sharpness on the present moment and it felt good. It wasn’t until later that I noticed that all of the aches and pains had evaporated. Unbelievable. That night, I enjoyed a deep, satisfying sleep. I was a convert to the cold plunge.
February 2024, it was a most unusual winter month with temperatures in the 60’s. Photo by Jamie Steinmann.
Since I do not have a frozen lake in my backyard I have had to come up with different ways to add a cold plunge to the Bad Sauna. Sometimes it’s enough to step out of the sauna and sit in the cool evening air, my body steaming as I gaze up at the stars. For a more immersive experience I followed the trend of getting a big plastic stock tub from the hardware store to fill with water from the hose. I also keep a supply of cold water in the sauna itself to improvise a bucket shower. Sometimes, only a natural body of water will do.
With that thought in mind, last November, my husband and I made the drive a few hours north of the Twin Cities to Duluth and one of our favorite bodies of water, Lake Superior. We checked in at the Pier B Resort Hotel located at the western end of the Lakewalk. Historically, the location is where a number of piers and silos were built to move lumber and ore in the late 1800’s. In more recent years, as industry relocated, the area began developing tourist attractions such as the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, Great Lakes Aquarium and Bayfront Festival Park.
The smaller sauna on the left is perfect for couples. The larger sauna, right is for social groups.
Our real destination that weekend was the public sauna now claiming its space among these harbor developments. Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna is located just steps from the hotel and right by a small marina. It is not just your average hotel-style sauna amenity. It’s a mini sauna park that consists of several buildings in black and blonde wood with a contemporary Nordic look. At the center is a fire pit with Adirondack chairs. Moored nearby are the cold plunge dock and the floating sauna. The venue promised “the full practice of sauna” which means a cycle where heating up is alternated with cooling off along with resting and sipping beverages for hydration. The cost for this Nordic experience is not low. The small sauna is available for private rental at $79 (plus tax) per person; joining a “social” group in the larger sauna, as we did, is $49 per person (plus tax) and for frequent flyers, discount booklets are available.
We made our sauna reservation several days in advance and arrived for our sauna at 5:15, the sun already below the horizon in late November. After checking in and getting into our bathing suits and towel togas we walked to the social sauna. The large sauna has an ante room tastefully appointed with towels, rolled and stacked; scented candles and a station for water and some of their specially curated tea. The hot room is handsomely paneled with two levels of benches on either side. There is a wood fired stove and the far end of the space points toward the city with a large picture window. The room is spacious enough to hold as many as eight people.
During our session just one other fellow was there to whom we were kindly introduced by our sauna guide. I want to highlight this simple but increasingly rare gesture in our post-Covid quarantine times; many gracious social gestures, such as a host introducing guests to each other, seem to have been forgotten. I’m always glad to have that little ice breaker which opens up conversation. After witnessing the rowdy group in the hotel’s outdoor hot tub that evening, we decided that sauna people are our people, friendly and hardy but also focused on the interiority of the experience.
We had plenty of elbow room as we gazed out the windows at the city lights which included a perfect view of Duluth’s iconic lift bridge. Just across the marina, as a special treat, the Christmas light show known as Bentleyville was putting the finishing touches on its five-million-light twinkling landscape in Bayfront Festival Park. This was not the typical Lake Superior view of waves beating against a wild, rocky beach.
As our host loaded wood into the stove from outside we felt the heat increase inside. On the top bench it was a decently hot 180 degrees dropping about 20 degrees for the lower bench. Our guide kept an eye on the temperature and entered at three points during our session to add some scented steam and as a time check. When we were ready to cool off, we stepped outside to the deck to sit by the fire.
The floating cold plunge dock.
I was eager to take the plunge. Our guide escorted me to the canal where a tall conical Xmas tree of red lights from Bentleyville laid down a reflection like molten lava on the dark water. I was instructed to descend the ladder slowly, aware of my breaths, into about a four-foot depth of water (there is a sort of under cage built into the dock that provides a bottom). The water, he said, was probably in the 30 degree range. It felt like liquid ice to my hot body; I tolerated a quick dunk. The after effect, as anticipated, left me glowing like a holiday light bulb.
The sauna was a great activity before eating dinner and tucking into bed for the night at the hotel–for the anticipated happy, deep sleep. It was moderately expensive but much less so than Cedar and Stone’s Twin Cities version at the Four Seasons Hotel where a guided session at The Spa starts at $99 plus tax (twice what we paid in Duluth). I thought about pricing as we observed a couple with two young children excitedly walk up as we were in the sauna–the kids clearly wanted to try it. I realized that they would be in the $200 range to take a family-of-four sauna which seems prohibitive. The experience was also rather formal with the guide directing us throughout. Sauna should have a certain freedom from supervision but I imagine this is one way to maintain both decorum and safety in a public sauna.
Our session of one hour and 15 minutes was hardly enough time to enjoy the heat of the sauna, the relaxation of the fire pit and the cold plunge for the usual two or three cycles. We took a peek at the smaller sauna, about the right size for two people to sit side by side and gaze out the picture window at Duluth harbor in the distance. It features an electric stove for a softer löyly than the wood fired sauna. Later, we checked out the floating sauna moored nearby. Back in November, it was nearly finished. It looks promisingly fun, especially for groups.
Cedar and Stone is a business that offers a full menu of sauna related items–everything from guided sauna experiences in Duluth and Minneapolis to custom built saunas and related paraphernalia. They have just about any aspect you can imagine covered–from stoves, tubs and buckets to soaps, books and even their own sauna water, developed with Portage Brewing in Walker, Minnesota. You can also learn much more about sauna through their business accelerator program, webinars and podcasts. If you are wondering where sauna culture is strong, Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna puts the Midwest on the map.
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