The first day of paddling on the river was in February and the last day will be in November this year.   When we paddle early in the season, the river is cold so there are some things we can do to make the experience more reasonable.

1. Check the weather forecast in the last 24 hours.   Wind is the critical issue.   Pick wind-free days which are few, but on many days the winds don’t arise until about 11:30 in the morning, a result of warming of the hills in the valley.
2. Paddle parts of the river that have a good hand launch with close parking.   The best two local choices are Pioneer Park and Valleyview Boat Launch.  McArthur Island is only suitable for higher water conditions.   Riverside Park and Harrington Road are okay, but we have to haul the boat from the parking areas down to the beach and back.   The South Thompson is an easier river to paddle upstream than the North Thompson.

3.   The sit-on-top style of kayak or open hull kayaks (like the Costco ones) are not as warm as the traditional style kayaks.   Either way, we want to wear a good sprayskirt in the early season.

4. Warm hands make a big difference.   We keep our hands dry and wear paddling gloves.   There are over-gloves (pogies) available, but they are needed on the ocean where spray is a factor, not on the river in town.

5. Dry feet help too.   Usually at least one foot has to be in the water to launch the boat.   We wear neoprene boots for this.   We have seen people that use rubber boots to launch, then change once on the water.   Some paddlers leave their boat partly in the water, get into the boat, and use hip thrusts to move the boat off the beach into the water (this works).

6. Since the water is cold, we definitely don’t want to capsize so we only use very stable boats at this time of the year.   Although we can perform self-rescue, we stay closer to the shoreline and if we did capsize, we would pull our boats to the shoreline right away.   In general, we avoid turbulent water early in the season.

7.  Wear a good paddling jacket.   There are paddling-specific jackets with latex rubber gaskets for the neck and arm sleeves.   These keep the paddler dry, but the jackets are expensive so some type of layering can also be used.   We don’t use wetsuits or dry suits on the river, but if we were crossing a big lake, we would.

8.    Some kayaks have good seats that don’t get cold in cold water, but if the seat is just plastic, an inflatable pad (Thermarest makes these) works well.

If we can stay warm and dry, paddling in the early season is a nice experience and best of all, there will be no one else out there but the ducks and geese.