While Louis D and Kevin Maggs were adding liquid to the pissing match about the King of the Clubs event last year (will this nonsense end?), seven of us ran the so-called 'lower' section of the Moose river (NY). Robert Monti, Bill, Todd K., Sara, Jacques, Chris Ellis and myself. We were in creek boats, except for Chris who was in a small playboat but he had a great day nevertheless.
This section is really the middle one, as the take out is just above Fowlersville falls, the put-in for the so-called 'bottom' section. At 5.5 on the gauge that day, it was definitely above Moosefest levels, and the bottom section would be Class V+. A dozen plastic buoys were being recirculated at the bottom of the falls, likely had been for days.
The lower Moose is a properly labelled Class III-IV run. The photos on the AWA website are a good indicator of what we saw. It consists of seven named rapids interspersed with small Class II ones or just moving water (no flat to speak of). Each rapid ends in a big pool, so no real danger if someone swims (which, you know, happens...). Ironically, the two hardest drops are very innocuous at first look. In fact, the only part that I elected to walk was a very short Class II section... for a good reason--read on!
It all starts with nice small warmup rapids. The first real rapid, Iron Bridge, is not very far after the put-in and is only Class II-III, but has a few surprises for the unattentive paddler (or one in need of rolling practice).
Then came the Tannery, a scary looking looong rapid that was the first that we stopped to scout. Eventually it was enjoyed by all, even if I remember eddying-out 4 times as we sneaked river-right to skip the big stuff.
Soon after comes Rooster Tail, named (as I found out the hard way, since we didn't scout this one) after the big curling wave/hole at the end of it. I wish my helmet camera had been on for that one, but I have scratches and bruises to prove my ordeal... By sheer luck, since I almost lost my paddle, I rolled with one arm only.
Froth hole is the first of the two harder drops, in my opinion. We had our lunch there, the sun was warm. It is essentially a Class II rapid (lots of boulders), but but you have to make sure you can go hard left at some point because, except for a 2-foot window extreme river-left, the river becomes a huge pour-over with a nasty retentive hole. A foot to the left, you hit the rocks and bounce into the hole and a foot to the right, you're in the hole. Robert ran the whole thing without problem. Myself, I walked the Class II part and put in just above the hole and ran the small opening. Turned out to be easy, but I relaxed a bit too early, flipped, rolled, and had to run the rest of the rapid instead of eddying out where everyone else was putting in...
After some swifts, boulders and small waves, comes Mixmaster. At first, it looks easy. The river is blocked by a ledge, most of the water flows through an opening on the right, the rest flows extreme river-left (lots of rocks, nasty), and also over the ledge where mini-slides form (like, 1 inch of water over the rocks). The problem is that below the opening on the right are two consecutive retentive holes. Robert showed us how hard it was to avoid them... Bill managed to re-unite Robert and his boat and paddle. Chris, Sara, Jacques, Todd and myself decided to run the mini-slides, it was entertaining except for Sara whose forward progression was abruptly ended by a rock... Ouch.
Elevator Shaft was one of the cleanest drops I've seen. A smooth fast tongue that ends in a wave that sends you up flying. Way cool.
More small stuff, then the take-out (a bridge) is in sight. Everyone is happy, relaxed... except that a surprise is waiting: just before the bridge, a series of wide ledges are hiding below the smooth horizon line. One more thing to pay attention to!
I suppose that if the level had been much lower, we could have ended the day by running Fowlersville falls, but not that day.
Everyone agreed that it was a great run, even if the drive is long. We were on the river for over five hours, with a good variety of rapids to handle. A great section of river, and an opportunity that may not present itself for another year, as the level will drop below the runnable minimum very soon. We ran many rapids without scouting, and this was very good experience for river-reading skills. Thanks to Robert and Bill for showing us around!
--Christian
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