August 11, 2016
My damaged foot and ankle (from my last swim) are good enough to go back to the river. Last Sunday as a test, I am finally around the Holyoke, MA dam. What a world of difference. A very different river, with deeper water, slower current, and lots or recreational stuff: rowing, boating of all types, and many homes. The swim was from a marina up river to a smaller marina just above the dam. Really pleasant –lots of everything going on around me with many curious people asking why I was doing what I was doing. I had been on the river entry to the Massachusetts southern end of the Pioneer Valley, it is beautiful. So 4.25 miles later I was convinced that I could swim the next longer stretch.
The very next day, I decided at the last moment to drive to South Hadley where I had exited yesterday. Then a new experience. I had no one to get me from my car drop-off to my hoped-for entry point upriver about 7-8 miles, so I got my courage up and called UBER with very low expectations. After figuring out how to text for them, to my surprise a driver was 10 minutes away. Got picked up and delivered to Elwood Island in Northampton. Instead of entering at the State park, I decided to go up the UMASS Boat House (also the Dragon Club boat location) for entry, leaving me with 9.25 miles to swim instead of 7-8. Great part of the river with so much activity for a Monday. Pretty much the same type of recreation but the river, as usual, had several changes: slow current would then run up to about 1 knot-per-hour then back to down to about a ½-knot. It was wide, then narrower, with many sandy beaches along the way so that crossing the channel becomes necessary to keep the current working in my favor: a bit faster.
The Dragon Club Boat. (Photo by: DAVE ROBACK / THE REPUBLICAN)
I was offered rides, water, beer, and hot dogs – I did not stop once for the entire swim. One lady asked if they would be reading about me in the paper and I said “I hope not!” The views of Mt Tom and the hills up toward the Oxbow Marina and river bend are just great and worth seeing. However, my prize for this summer is to get at least to Brattleboro, VT – still about 35-ish river miles from the Dragon Club. The Dragon Club shares facilities with UMASS and is a hoot — the boat is very long, in an old almost Polynesian style, with a Dragon Head. It is apparently rowed by 22 rowers and coxswain – maybe a drummer. They do events and of all things, races. The rowers are dressed as Dragon costumed people. It sounds like a scene from Game of Thrones. The area is full of well-educated people and many colleges and are all too willing to let you know their political stance. I am ready for not being in MA. As beautiful as this area is, I am a loner at heart so I am really trying to reach VT-NH by mid-September. My business keeps getting in the way of this swim. That’s it for now.
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Periodically throughout the summer we will be featuring accounts from long distance swimmer, Rick Wright. Rick contacted us this spring to ask us about specifics concerning the northern stretches of the Connecticut River and to purchase a CT River Paddler’s Trail Map in preparation for swimming the full length of the river from the Quebec border to Long Island Sound. Rick, who is 72, started on his journey last year, swimming 50 miles of the CT river between Hartford and Old Saybrook CT over 8 days in the summer of 2015. Stay tuned for more news from Rick over the course of the summer!