Salmon Swimmers Moving Ahead Of Pace

Moving much faster than they expected, four Idaho men swimming down the Salmon River to show the plight of migrating fish are well beyond their halfway point.

After only 13 days on the river, the Sockeye Survival Swim group spent Thursday night at Spring Bar, 12 miles upstream from Riggins. That is past the midway point on the 450-mile journey to Lower Granite Dam near Lewiston. The group began July 1 near Stanley.

“We’re making much better time than we’d expected. We’ve got 270 miles behind us and another 176 to go,” said Gooding resident Gail Ater.

Ater and Roy Akins, of Jerome, are hoping to reach Lower Granite on the Snake River in Washington by month’s end. The other swimmers are Jamie James and Paul Lundgren, both of Boise.

At least one man is in the water when the group is on the move; the others follow in a pair of rafts.

The river is moving at up to seven miles an hour, Ater said, so racking up mileage has been easier than anyone had anticipated.

The Salmon River’s volume is high, flowing at about 30,000 cubic feet per second at White Bird.

The swimmers have had no difficulty with the Salmon’s big rapids, Ater said, but they’re a little apprehensive about Slide Rapid, the final white-water spasm near the confluence with the Snake River.

The trip is intended to call attention to the plight of Idaho’s endangered sockeye and chinook salmon on their migration to the ocean.

The swimmers want to contrast the Salmon with the sluggish Snake, which has been tamed by four dams.