During her record-setting swim of the Connecticut River, Kari Kastango found herself joined by the wildlife who inhabit the water: a duckling splashing along the riverbank during its first swim, a long sturgeon slinking past her, three fawns dancing on a nearby island, blue herons striking the water for minnows and a squirrel paddling to shore. These interactions with the river, intimate moments of connection with the watershed’s environment, inspired Kastango to keep going along the entirety of New England’s longest river to raise awareness for the animals that swam alongside her.

On Oct. 15, Kastango became the first person to swim all 410 miles of the Connecticut River, a feat that took her 85 swims over the course of four years. Fifty of Kastango’s family, friends and fans gathered in Old Lyme, Connecticut, to cheer her on during the final three miles of her swim, an accomplishment that extends far beyond the riverbank.

“This journey was just that, it was a journey. It was about connecting with the river, it was never about conquering, it was about developing a relationship with it, learning about the communities down the river,” Kastango said.

Kastango began her swim with no knowledge of the river’s environment and history of pollution. After moving to South Hadley, Kastango looked for a place to swim distances recreationally and a friend recommended the Connecticut River rather than swimming laps at the YMCA pool. A triathlon athlete and lifelong swimmer, Kastango has always found a home in water.

“Water is a very grounding factor for me even though it’s a fluid medium. That is where I reconnect with myself. For other people it might be hiking or air or whatnot, but water is my element,” Kastango said.

Early in her journey down the river, Kastango partnered with the Connecticut River Conservancy to learn more about the river and advocate for clean, safe waters.

“She wanted to be involved and she wanted to use her voice to really advocate for the river and all the work that really goes into keeping our rivers clean,” said Diana Chaplin, the CRC’s director of communications.

From Memorial Day to Labor Day, Kastango swam sections of the river with her wife, Alison Garvey, behind her in a kayak, trailing an extra kayak for when Kastango finished her swim and needed to paddle to shore. The distance depended on the day, as the water conditions, area of the river and weather all contributed to the difficulty of each swim. Toward the beginning of the season, Kastango swam two or three miles a session. By the end of the summer, she would swim five or six miles each trip.

Kastango’s longest swim was 11 miles in the Turners Falls section of the river, which she completed in a little over two hours. The distance took her by surprise: the water was supposed to be flat that day, so Kastango expected to swim three miles. Instead, water released from the Turners Falls Dam helped push her eight extra miles.

“It was exhilarating; I was also a little nervous because we got on the river an hour later than I had hoped, and I thought it was going to take an hour and a half or so to get to the pullout spot three miles downstream, and we got there in about 37 minutes or so,” Kastango said.

The most involved part of the swim happened out of the water. Kastango not only needed to plan the logistics to safely get in and out of the water and track the distance, but also monitor the conditions of the river. Heavy rains washed sewage and stormwater from nearby communities into the river, polluting the water to levels unsafe for swimming.

She used the CRC’s Is It Clean? tool, which rates a section of the river as safe for boating and/or swimming based on the level of bacteria in the water, to ensure an area was safe to swim after a downpour.

Garvey wasn’t the only person supervising Kastango; a team of 16 to 20 people supported Kastango throughout her swim, including her brother and his wife, her friends and CRC board of trustees member Tim Lewis. Lewis understood the currents and tides from when he paddled the entire Connecticut River in 2017 and 2020. Lewis not only taught Kastango how to time her swims to the release of water from dams, but also shadowed Kastango along the dangerous sections of the river.

“Hazards for a swimmer are greater than a paddler; an object in a water could create an entanglement, rocks are hazardous to a swimmer where a paddler can pay a little less attention,” Lewis said. “You really want to take advantage of the river current and the tide as much as possible, even more so than as a paddler.”

The Connecticut River Conservancy is a nonprofit that monitors the health of the river and cleans the water of pollution and invasive species. The organization helped Kastango monitor the pollution level of the river and know when the water was safe to swim in.

“The swim raises awareness for the river because it is now more swimmable than it has been in the past, and it can be more swimmable still with work to clean up the river,” Chaplin said.

Kastango joined the conservation organization’s board in 2023 and plans to continue her advocacy for the Connecticut River. Chaplin said Kastango swam parts of the river throughout the season cycle and traveled the river in both urban and rural areas. The knowledge gained during her swim brings a unique perspective to the conservancy and its preservation work.

“We bring the river to the people and the people to the river. The more that people engage with the river … the more that people directly have their personal experiences being on the river, the more they realize they can help to care for the precious resource that is here for all of us,” Chaplin said.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.