Moose River 4/25 and 4/26. Two good days on the river

We wrapped up our Moose season this past weekend. We had great weather on both days but somewhat low water (water levels did come up a bit for Sunday, however, which was nice and made life a lot easier).

On Saturday it was about 75 degrees out and sunny but the river was running at about 3.8 feet when we got on the water and had dropped down to about 3.6 by the time we got off (really low, in other words). The rapids were still good in my opinion, despite the low level, it was just getting to each of the sets and through the flats that was the difficult part. I had a group of young kids from Oswego State College (although I don't think the trip was actually affiliated with the college). They were a lot of fun and down to be little crazy. I had one swimmer in Rooster Tail just above the ledge on river left at the upper section of the drop. I kind of think he was almost trying to fall out, we hit a little wave and he went head over heels (kind of like you see the Navy Seals do in the movies). Anyway, we got him back in real quick before we actually went over the ledges which made me happy but my run through the rest of the drop was pretty iffy after that. We got down to Mix Master without any other major issues and we scrubbed down all the crews pretty good there. Miller's Falls was also pretty good surfing and people were flying out of boats left and right there. Erika and Larry had 14 foot boats and Miller's Falls was just destroying them with people swimming all over the place.

After the trip I went and picked up Heather and my sister Cae and we chilled out at the rafting base for a little longer drinking nice cold Blue Lights. From there we went to the Tow Bar for the annual Spring Fling where Roy Cooper was cooking up some food and they had some music going. After a few drinks there, we mosied on down to Slickers and had a few more drinks and we made it home by about 1:30 or so...all in all a good day and good times had by all.

Sunday was another good day, Chaz arrived back in town later on Saturday night to raft guide for Sunday's trip. I got to the raft base and I was thinking "oh man, 3.5 foot river, jeez" but as it turned out the rain finally started to bring the river up a bit and it was at about 4.5 feet by the time we got on the water. It was good seeing Chaz back in NY and he popped his cheery guiding customers on the moose and he did a pretty awesome job I think. I had a small 14 foot boat with 4 guys in it, which was awesome considering that the river was coming up and with the light boat the rocks wouldn't really be much of an issue. There were no major issues on the river at all, a few swimmers here and there above Mix Master but the vast majority of them happening at Mix Master and Miller's Falls. (When we can keep people in the boat until Mix Master, it's always a good thing). Chaz and Larry flipped their boats in Mix Master. Larry actually flipped in the first of the two holes, he was pretty close to the room of doom (that's what we call a whole bunch of nasty rocks just to the left of the tongue dropping down into Mix Master) and he hit the meatiest part of the first hole in Mix Master without actually being in the room of doom. Chaz had a more traditional Mix Master flip, by hitting a bit of the meat in the first hole and being slowed down by that hole before dropping into the bigger, stickier second hole. Pretty sweet stuff. I did not flip in Mix Master but I did have what we refer to as the 'perfect run' where all customers fall out and the guide stays in the raft. At Millers Falls, Big old Mike was the only person to swim on the hit going over the falls. No one from his crew fell out but Mikey found a way to slip out of the boat. It was pretty hysterical and we all got a good laugh out of it. I flipped my boat on the surf paddling back up into Elevator Shaft (another name for Millers) and calling a low side towards the hole. I was getting frustrated by having no swimmers surfing when everyone else was dumping people left and right so I said "screw it" and low sided them. It was well worth it. After the trip I had a long drive back to Albany where I got a hot shower (first in a few days) and slept like a baby. Next week- two days on the Black River, stay tuned...