Swimming Upstream

I was in Kamloops on Wednesday (June 25th) for business. Before driving back to Kelowna, I went for a swim in the Thompson River. The South and the North Thompson Rivers converge in Kamloops. These great rivers drain melting snow from the West Rockies, Columbia, Cariboo and Monashee Mountain rainges. Not surprisingly, the current rate of snow melt is high, thus contributing to swollen rivers. The combination of cold and current lends itself to perfect conditions for Channel training.

For safety reasons, I swam along a public park with beach access. Needless to say, I was the only one in the water, but there were a lot of people watching the "crazy" guy. I gather I am the 1st swimmer of the year to take the Thompson River plunge. I started of by swimming downstream 400 m--this took about a minute (eat your heart out Ian Thorpe--Australia's 400 m freestyle WR holder); then I turned 180' and sprinted for 15 min. to get back to my departure point. Swimming in these conditions is akin to swimming on a treadmill. I was swimming nowhere fast. If the currents off the coast of France are this strong, it will take every ounce of energy I can muster to "break through." Alternatively, it may mean that I continue swimming (backwards for a time) until the tide changes in my favour. Either way, in the river, there is a trick to swimming upstream. I call it the "salmon" manoevre whereby I cut across to the riverbank and find an back eddy to assist me upstream...just like the salmon do when they swim upriver to their spawning grounds. All in all, this was a very memorable swim in a very beautiful public park. Good for 30 min. worth of cold (13'C) "treadmill" swimming.