PORTLAND – Dan Routh admits he decided to participate in the Peaks to Portland swim on an impulse.

Routh had no plans to attempt the 2.4-mile, open-water crossing of the Casco Bay, but his best friend, John Bradshaw — a person who couldn’t say no to any kind of adventure life offered him — insisted that Routh take on the challenge.

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Dan Routh will be swimming his 2nd Peaks to Portland race seen here at East End Beach in Portland. ALL

Nearly a year ago, Routh swam off the shore of Peaks Island and met Bradshaw, who guided his crossing in a borrowed kayak. Bradshaw paddled as Routh worked through the water, zigging and zagging across the chilly, dark waters of Casco Bay.

“We asked each other, ‘what have we gotten ourselves into?’” Routh said, laughing. “We’d only practiced it two times together and those two times were hellacious. You can’t swim a straight line for anything.

“The two of us were rank amateurs. It was the blind leading the blind. But he never turned me down for anything.”

Crossing Casco Bay became a personal challenge for Routh.

“All the times I took the ferry out to Peaks Island, I never thought I’d be able to swim it,” Routh said.

Saturday, Routh will make the 2.4-mile swim across the Casco Bay with his son Eliot leading the way by kayak. It will be a bittersweet crossing, the anniversary of the last day Routh spent with Bradshaw, his best friend for more than 50 years.

Less than three months after last year’s Peaks to Portland, Bradshaw died of heart failure during a hockey game in Ontario.

At first, Routh was devastated. He admitted he had put too much faith in the fact his best friend would always be around. And Routh never wanted to attempt the Peaks to Portland again. But as began to come to terms with Bradshaw’s death, he found a fitting tribute.

Routh decided to swim from Peaks Island across Casco Bay and to Portland’s East End Beach a second time, raising money for the YMCA in memory of his friendship with Bradshaw.

Hildy Ginsberg, the executive director of the YMCA’s Greater Portland branch, said fund-raising is not a requirement for the 322 swimmers registered in this year’s event, but a fund-raising minimum of $100 is encouraged for each swimmer.

So far, the race’s participants have raised more than $15,000 for the YMCA, and Ginsberg found there was an even larger response from those who didn’t participate in the swim.

“Last year was the first year we had donations and we found that as people watched the event, they were really encouraged to give donations,” Ginsberg said.

Fund-raising, Ginsberg explained, is set up through online registration, where participants can expand on their purpose for participating in the Peaks to Portland.

Routh used that and a blog, (danrouth.tumbler.com) to tell the story of his friendship with Bradshaw and his motivation for crossing Casco Bay a second time.

“The idea came into my head last winter,” Routh said. “I need to honor a guy who’s been there for a half-century.”

Routh met Bradshaw, a kindergarten classmate, in 1960 in Potsdam, N.Y., a college town in northern New York about 30 miles from the Canadian border. While Routh was gregarious, Bradshaw stayed out of the spotlight but offered his wit.

They remained inseparable through the course of five decades, despite the fact Routh moved to New York City and then to Maine while Bradshaw remained in Potsdam, where he worked in the Clarkson University athletic department, doing everything from setting up the lacrosse fields to washing uniforms for Clarkson’s hockey team.

Routh and Bradshaw made a point to see each other at least five to six times a year. At the end of September, Bradshaw called Routh to confirm a visit Columbus Day weekend. The visit never materialized. Bradshaw died on Oct. 2, 2010.

“I expected him to be around for the next 25 years,” Routh said. “There was never a hint of heart disease.”

Besides training for the open-water swim, Routh, creative director for Burgess Advertising & Marketing in Portland, also designed the illustration that will be on this year’s race T-shirts. A group of swimmers in wetsuits paddle in front of one of the Casco Bay ferries, and among the swimmers are three kayakers.

One of those swimmers could be Routh. One of the kayakers could be Bradshaw. Routh won’t let on which one is which, but it’s a small tribute to the 2.4-mile journey they took together.

“Our last day together, it could have been something boring, something innocuous,” Routh said. “But the swim turned out to be a very momentous thing.

“It’s crystallized in my memory. It’s something that’s strenuous, scary and a little boneheaded, but something we did together.”

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at rlenzi@pressherald.com

Twitter: rlenzi