C-Forum

Figured I'd write a trip report for Moosefest, since I saw a bunch of other single bladers up there.

The fest started with a party on Friday night at Challengers....a few took to the water in various states of (un)dress for Gladiators, with the winner being the one who avoided getting knocked from the raft. And they say we're nuts....didn't notice any of us out there in our birthday suits at sub-freezing temperatures. I stayed nicely huddled near the blazing fire trying to avoid singeing my clothing from the heat

Camped at Singing Waters Friday night and Saturday was "safety boating" with a bunch of kayakers on the Middle. Jo and myself were in our OC1s and were the only single bladers in the group of 14 (way too many people for a fast run in cold weather). Still, we had a decent enough run - I ran Nelson's Fall for the first time nailing a clean dry line until just before the last drop when I took on some water and got messed around by one of those lovely inconsequential holes you don't even notice when scouting. Made it through the hole though, which was all I cared about I heard a few others made some runs in open boats too, but I was busy downstream freeing a pinned boat ('yak) whose owner "swam" just above the main drop at Nelson's, so I didn't get to see them.

Saw LEW just after that paddling tandem. He and his partner were looking as elegant and controlled as ever! Good stuff guys! Met another open boater who was paddling with some other friends of mine (one of whom I am in the process of converting to the ways of the single blade )

Rest of the run continued with a few swims from the yakers and me floating along beside them. I've got some questions about swimmer and kayak rescue in a solo open boat, but will post that in another topic. We dropped all the beginners and a bunch of cold folks at the Rte 28 bridge and continued on down, running the last few miles down to the Iron Bridge take out in ~45minutes.

At the fest, Sat night I encountered LEW again and also met up with Andy Westwood, Mark Scriver, and Bob Z, amongst others whose names escape me for now. Chris Craigmile is also apparently going to be trying some open boating soon, so be sure to give him a hand if you see him. He's apparently laid a bet that, without any reasl instruction, he'll be able to roll an OC1 (Prelude) within 10 tries. That should be amusing

Oh, and I picked up my new Groove on Saturday night YEAHAAA!

Just as the fest was breaking up, it started to snow. Jo had returned to Ithaca, so I drove down the road and slept in my car - it's kind of cool waking up to see the windows coated with snow and everything white for the first time of the year. There was about an inch that came down over night - enough to warm things up a little and make everything look clean and fresh.

The Moose was still at 4.8ft Sunday, so our plans for the bottom were scrapped and the Lower was nixed as being too long. Watched some runs at Fowlersville for a while (we only saw one person end up in the hole and that was bad luck rather than a notably bad line) and contemplated our navels, the weather, waterlevels and the world in general. We saw one C1'er paddle it - who was this? I think I got a pretty good photo of him and will post it when I get it off my camera. Finally managed to motivate people into running the Independence. We were just putting on when a group of Canadians in OCs came down - Andy the Aussie from Canada introduced me to Martin. Great to meet you Martin and sorry again we didn't get to paddle together.....trust a 'yaker to hold the group up

The Independence was a rocking good run (quite literally - pinball anyone?) Continuous rock dodging for a good long while. I really love that run although I'm sure my boat is less favourably disposed to it It was even warm and sunny for a while

So, what did everyone else end up paddling?

hey matt, i ran independence on saturday -- that river is awesome! i cant wait to get back! great fun.

ran the bottom moose on sunday which was incredible! you might have a picture of me, i ran river right side of fowlersville (as in sneak route!) but all the rest of the drops on the river were awesome! funnel, k edge, d drop, agers, powerline, crystal, all big and juicy and fun!! i wish i had had more time. i portaged shurform (looked nasty!) and my favorite drop was definitely magilla, ran river right and i really want to run r left when i go back. so many lines on that creek-on-steroids. everything was well-padded and juicy, with plenty of space and lots of fun!

saw only one other cboater on bottom, brad pitts, red boat

well, off to class,
take care all
Alden

Hey Alden
Patrick Rogers ( http://www.kayakingphotos.com/) has some pics from the Indy that look like you.
Me, I got all cranked up on the New Boston III. Then I see what you guys ran. (you too NZMatt on the Moose).

Wow!

Tommy

Hey Alden - the bottom Moose at 4.8ft is a pretty full on run. Good stuff! That's more than I wanted to deal with

Surform is a nasty drop - I've run it at lower levels in a 'yak, but it scares me more than any other drop on the river. Magilla is a sweet drop, although I haven't run the left line either - I did look at it a couple of times.

The photo I got at Fowlerville was on the main river left line - the guy is in a red boat with a Gath helmet. I've got the picture posted now, so here it is:

<img src="http://isc.astro.cornell.edu/~don/pictu ... .sized.jpg" width="550">

yep,that's brad in the red boat. good stuff. tommy, i may be down on the farmington this weekend if you're interested. i live right near there, i have to go home and get some stuff, plus i have long wondered what it would be like to paddle through those tubes on fall creek . . .
ALden

it is a super fun, tough run, I'm out of the country and missed it this year. I have found Crystal the toughest rapid, don't know how much it has to do with paddling left or just the intimidation factor. I have been down the right side of Sureform twice out of the three times I have run the bottom moose, another intense place to end up! glad you guys had fun, I have to check out the independance when I get a chance
James

abird wrote:yep,that's brad in the red boat. good stuff. tommy, i may be down on the farmington this weekend if you're interested. i live right near there, i have to go home and get some stuff, plus i have long wondered what it would be like to paddle through those tubes on fall creek . . .
ALden

I'll be down there running a II trip for BosAMC this weekend.
There are usualy folks up on Falls Creek during the release. I did a road scout up there last year and buddy it is TIGHT!

Tommy

Ran the Bottom for the first time last weekend, it was big, I ran the river left sneak (put in right above the slope and just run down near wher people are standing) Wonderfull day all in all (we didn't put on until 3:00 though so we missed a lot of the crowds. Had a scary run down powerline and got stuck in a hole just above crytal. Had to bail out of my boat after a good trashing in a hole that was just not deep enough for me (you hould see my helmet)

But what a day,

Sunday we did some park and play on the black great little hole.

Beads

At the first photo link http://www.kayakingphotos.com/ the shots from the Moose on Oct. 18 feature a c-boater running the meat of Crystal.

I didn't see the run but was told he was from Canada. Anyone know who he is? I was also told that he got windowshaded in the horseshoe hole about five times but hung in until he rolled up and ran the rest of the drop with one more roll at the bottom.

Hey Matt -

Good to be able to put a face to a name. Like you, we had a blast in Independence. Two OC1's and a couple of residual kayaks. We had paddled with those guys and a bunch of other yakkers the day before on the Lower but apparently it was too cold to kayak Sunday. I don't think any of us had been on the Moose before so got a bit confused about the Middle, Lower and Lower Middle. We were pretty surprised at the intensity of some of the sets on the Lower. A bunch of us swam. The rest of us ran everything except maybe Frothhole or Mixmaster (?) I'm really glad a Prelude handles so well when its full of water

Martyn

hey don,
i was talking to patrick (the photographer) when the canadian c-1er went through crystal. i dont know who he is and didn't meet him. just before he went down, a kayak went down without a boater, and we figured he was chasing it.

he ran river right, but didnt punch the hole enough, got surfed all the way down the hole, ended up in a second hole, flipping all the while, but then got out, scurried to the middle, and ran the good, juicy line . . . and flipped again! just shows you that you can really screw up and still make it over there!

he was showing off that patented c-1 move so familiar to all of us: the "Flip on your offside very slowly, try to do something, it doesnt work, so flip really fast and roll up" move. i did that in powerline myself!
later
Alden

Hi Martyn

Yep, it was good to also put your name and face together. (Especially now I know which Martyn you are )

The Lower Moose at 5.5ft (as on saturday) is a solid class IV run - it's big and technical. We ran it at that level at Moosefest last year - back when I didn't have any "big water" experience in my OC1. It was certainly interesting - Tannery at 5.5ft still stands as one of the hardest things I have paddle OC1. Last year I ran the sneak on the left at the top and then bounced down around the holes left of center, pulling in once to empty and figure out where I was going.

Froth Hole gets significantly easier at lower levels, and the consequences are also less as the hole gets a little nicer. Mixmaster probably gets harder as the level drops (atleast for a rightie since you're paddling on the rocks when you make that left to right move), although the consequences are also reduced. I walked both those last year.

The strange thing for us last year was that Rooster Tail caused us the most difficulty. It's not a particularly difficult drop, but 4 of us swam there last year (I was one when I got sucked out of my boat by the hole at the bottom - perfect line on the left until I hit the left diagonal and instead of punching it got stopped dead and surfed straight sideways into the hole at the bottom of the drop: douh!).

It is a really sweet run, but it's also really long, which is why we elected not to do that Sunday....dam, but I want to go paddle. I need to chain myself to the lab the way Nealy chained himself to his desk to make himself work when the rivers were running!

Hi NZMatt and Martyn,

Glad to ear you Guys had a good time on the Moose. Yes there are 2 Martin's up here in Canada paddling green Preludes, but we spell our names differently and there are some other differences like me having glasses, facial hair and a ponytail. Matt, thanks again for the glue info, i'll post the results as soon as I have glued the stuff in and actually tested it, whichfor me means being worked in a hole without anything falling off . Ithink I actually met you in August one on the Ottawa, I was with a bunch of yakers. Paddled my Prelude and the Atom.
Too bad i couldn't make the Moose, but everybody bailed out on me (you know who you are!).
So it was the Magnetawan on Sunday for me. Water level was BIG, but I survived without a swim, and for the 1st time in a while, my combat roll in my Prelude was 100%!
This weekend it will be the Upper Madawaska in Ontario, If anyone wants to join, we meet at 8:30 to 9:00 am Saturday morning at the restaurant / gas station next to the HWY 60 bridge across the river in Whitney Ontario.

martin

Hey, Martin, After seeing the videos of the moose and photos, I'm kinda relieved that we wussed out on you.... :-/ If not i would have likely been one of the guys you keep reading about in posts from some of the more hardcore dudes there... "I kept rescuing this beginner, my run sucked...I was right on my line when a yellow canoe floated by, down into the hole ahead of me. It distracted me enough to loose my line, and I headed straight into that nasty hole with the boat... I even have it recorded on my helmet cam, that is until that Nitro flew up and knocked my helmet off..."

-no thanks! (but maybe next year

Mike, don't underestimate your skills, I am sure you would have been fine on the Middle, if not the Lower Moose. As far as those horror stories on the Boater Board of people almost drowning or otherwise getting killed are concerned, all this happened as far as I can tell on the Bottom Moose.

Well, hope we'll get to go there next year!

martin

see ya guys tomorrow!