Hey,

As all you Calgarian's know it has been hot recently. Well a surprise for my husband I has been that the amount of people that seem to boat down the Bow river. They all seem to have blown up boats and float down the river quiet casually and seem, although not all of them end up just beyond Prince Edward Island. What amazes me is that no one seems to be swimming at any point.

Even when we went to the Rockies this weekend, when it was really hot no one seemed to be swimming in the rivers why is this?

It seems well hot to me and at this rate it wont be long until I jump into the Bow at the corner of 10th.

If you jump or fall into the Bow River, you have two minutes in which to get your arse out of there before you die of hypothermia. I'm a technical writer in the health, safety and environment industry. Although I don't work in the practical end of the industry, I do know that they have courses in which they teach HSE people how to yank someone out of the Bow River pretty darn quickly.

Edited to add that, when a lake, stream or river is fed by run off from a glacier, the ambient temperature is close to irrelevant.

Yeah, like Judy said, it's a very cold river. Plus, it's quite shallow and the current is quite strong and fast. I've suffered many scrapped and bruised knees from getting swept along the current.

And you will see people dipping into the river off their rafts and it's usually because they're taking a pee. It's a long ride when there's no loo!

There are plenty of people swimming in the river. We saw a never ending line on Sunday at Eau Claire. Remember there are laws tho and the coppers have a boat now to enforce them. Hypothermia..I don't think so

People are swimming in the Red Deer river but I really don't believe it is glacier fed - doesn't go the gorgeous colours of the Bow river so it would be loads warmer.

Here is a news report dated June 28, 2006 about firefighters rescuing a young woman who had fallen into the Bow River in the vicinity of the 85th Street Bridge. The report states, "...... she suffered minor injuries and hypothermia, firefighters said."

In the vicinity of Eau Claire, there is a type of lagoon in which the water is relatively still. I imagine it has a chance to warm up in that area. But most of the river is fast-flowing and the water has little chance to warm up.

Gets a lovely warm temp of a max 10 degrees!!! I'm not swimming in that!!!

There is a lake not far from us called Pigeon Lake and my neighbour went with her kids for a week staying in their trailer. She said the kids got 'swimmers itch' ???? I said "what the heck is that ??" and she replied it is caused by the bird poop in the water (probably how the lake got its name then )..........nice !!! :scared:

Having just been spoiled by a week in BC swimming in their glorious lakes, the ones here are pants! When we went to Pigeon Lake last yr, we didn't swim (thank god) but the blasted flies were enough to ensure we didn't hang around. They were gross !