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Swimmer crosses Lake Superior, conquers Great Lakes

Posted on: Thursday, 4 August 2005, 13:27 CDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Long-distance swimmer Jim Dreyer survived rip currents and the chilly waters of Lake Superior to complete a U.S.-Canada crossing of the largest of the Great Lakes, a supporter said on Thursday.

The more than 50-mile swim in which Dreyer, 41, towed a raft with supplies and a global positioning system transponder, began Aug. 1 at Whitefish Point, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and ended roughly 84 hours later on Wednesday at Gargantua Bay near Wawa, Ontario, Canada.

"He did make it, and he's in awfully good shape," said Dale Knepper, owner of the Mad Moose Lodge in nearby Montreal River Harbor.

"He went into Gargantua Bay and got into a rip tide right at the end," Knepper said, adding that the water temperature of Lake Superior averaged 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7.22C) though would be warmer in mid-summer.

Dreyer, who raised funds for the Big Brother Big Sister program and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, has swum across all five of the Great Lakes since 1998. It was his sixth attempt in Lake Superior and his first without a support boat.

Dreyer's route could be tracked on his Web site, http://www.swimjimswim.org, on which he claims to be the first to swim across all five Great Lakes.

Source: REUTERS

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