The North Thompson River rises in the glaciers of the Premiers Range west of Valemount, flows east to the Monashees, then is steered south and down the North Thompson Valley.   Many rivers flow into it – the Albreda, Mad River, Thunder River ,Blue River, Mud Creek, Raft River, the Clearwater River, the Barriere River, Jamieson Creek – and many other streams and creeks.    It flows steadily south to Kamloops at 3-4 km/hr.   It is joined by the South Thompson River in Kamloops, the outflow of Shuswap Lake and all its feeders.    Starting from Kamloops, the paddler can paddle either river upstream for days north or east, but few will choose to paddle upstream for more than an hour.   Its hard work above all.

But we do choose to paddle upstream every week:

• We embrace the challenge as a strength and endurance workout.
• While we are still fresh, we find a steady rhythm of strokes, without a break until our turn-around point.
• We pick one side of the river for the way up, and the other side for the way down.
• The first half is all concentration, a focus on precision, balance, and finding the aerobic threshold.
• The second half, on the flow downstream propelled by the current, is easy, meditative, a reward for all the hard work upstream.