Seven years ago, Gabe and Sonya Silver leased a piece of land on the banks of the Rivanna River to open a company that would rent kayaks and canoes.
“This place is where nature and the city just rub right up against each other," Gabe explains. "It’s a 20-acre parcel that is just a beautiful little green gem tucked against the river, with a rich history of people coming here for entertainment and amusement --- circuses, apparently at one time you could rent a horse down here.”
They built a small wood structure where they could take payment from guests and go over the rules of the river. They call in their shed-quarters. In the spring, summer and fall, the place proved wildly popular during the day. The Silvers organized evening concerts to augment their business and began thinking about what they might do in winter.
“We did a really deep dive into the Finn sauna experience, and every aspect of it just struck home to us," Sonya recalls. "We have this space. The hot cold therapy is really on the rise in this wellness culture, and we love to build.”
Today, they’ve added two large saunas, able to accommodate a total of 22 people. Tour guide Liz Beamon shows guests around the property:
“There are three cold plunge options," she tells them. "We’re doing open air, shower and then the river..”
There’s a dressing room where required swimsuits can be donned, a tearoom and large patio surrounding a fire pit, and a path leading to the river which, on this day, is covered in ice. Beamon assures customers she has cleared a large segment so they can soak in the shallow waters. They laugh, squeal and splash before settling in for a soak. Tom Daly lasted 45 seconds.
“And then it started to feel like I was getting shot by needles,” he says.
Others stayed longer and reported varying degrees of rapture. We spoke with Andrea, Billy abd Christina.
“It was awesome. I feel like really energized. I was really tired going into this and I feel a lot better now.”
“It kind of mimics the physiological response of working out. And how do you feel when it’s over? Really relaxed.”
“I’ve never had a better night’s sleep than after doing this.”
Eli Crisler, a nurse-practitioner, recalled the rush of endorphins she experienced while giving birth to her second child.
“I was so elated. I remember telling my husband, ‘Ben! Am I allowed to feel this good right now?’”
Some years later she hit the sauna, took a dip in the icy river and reports the feeling returned.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can get it again!’
They hurried back to the cedar saunas to get warm, spilling water onto hot rocks and celebrating their surroundings.
“All the ways that the senses are sort of woken up, it’s just calming to your body – the smells of the smoke, the crackling of the wood, the beautiful flames," Sonya Silver says.
"It’s a different experience that hits deeper," Gabe adds.
"I think that is what people are craving,” Sonya concludes.
They say the business draws a diverse crowd from all over the Commonwealth, with as many as a hundred people coming through on each of the four days they’re open each week. The cost— $36 for a 90-minute session. There’s some data to support claims that toasting in a sauna and soaking in cold water can improve cardiovascular health, reduce pain, boost the immune system, promote weight loss and better mental health.
“This is an ancient thing we’re doing here, and it is exactly what we need. People are getting off their phones. They are in presence with each other. They are touching the real world, and they’re getting grounded. It represents this shift that we’re seeing towards self-care and just the connection between physical health, mental health, emotional health and people’s desire and longing to be connected to each other.”
In addition to sustaining and perhaps expanding their enterprise, they’re excited to be connecting locals with their river – building a constituency for environmental protections in the years to come.
