Contributed by: Karl Gesslein
Location of put in: Old Forge, NY
Approximate class: Class V
Estimated length: 5 miles
The Bottom Moose. Just mention that river to any
Whitewater Kayaker in the North East
and you're sure to get some kind of reaction out
of them. No river that I know of has as
many interesting stories. Any old time boater you
talk to always has some crazy tale of the
time they got munched on the Bottom Moose. The first
time I ran it was last fall during
MooseFest. Like most of the less experienced kayakers
there I had attended the festival
with every intention of running just the Lower Moose
and maybe Fowlersville Falls if I got
up the courage. As it turns out it was too low for
the lower so I ran Fowlersville several
times and the first half of the Bottom Moose. That
was a very humbling experience. After
getting trashed in the 'sneak route' of Knife's
edge I figured I better save face and save butt
and get out while I could still walk.
Now things are different. After another season of
boating at every possible chance I felt
confident to try it again. I also ran into an awesome
guy by the name of Mike Burns who
just happened to also be one of the best paddlers
I have ever met. He was offering to hold
my hand down the Bottom Moose and show me all the
lines. How could I possibly refuse
an opportunity like that. So off we went to run
it at a bump-scrape level of a measly 2.4 feet
on the McKeever Gauge. Mike assured me that the
place would be totally deserted as all
the 'hair boaters' would be off looking for something
that was a little more challenging.
We got to Fowlersville and Mike suggested we slide
down it on my Thermarest sleeping
pads. It was a little cold for that but we both
agreed that we would jump off the falls at
Augers. We ran Fowlersville 2x on river left (the
easy route) and blew down through to
Funnel. Funnel was an interesting rapid that you
needed to punch the cross curling wave
about in the middle and at a right angle. Mike said
most people punch it too high and get
blown back into the hole. We found a bunch of really
good squirt lines and spent a long time
practicing squirting and Mike showed me how to do
a Screw up (otherwise know as
flipping the boat over intentionally mid squirt.)
We preceded onto Knifes Edge and got out to take
a look. Knifes edge is a knarly looking
rapid with several lines to take. The thing that
makes this rapid especially dangerous is the
numerous potholes in the rocks that are just the
right size for pinning the bow or stern of a
boat. At the low level all the potholes were very
obvious and we both decided that it was
far too dangerous to run in our little RPM and Sleek
with that flat stern. We opted for the
sneak rout which isn't really a sneak at all. Its
got a nasty sticky hole and a pinning rock.
The sticky hole Mike went into and got totally back
endered out of. I followed with a little
more force and punched through fine. Coming off
the second little pour over there is a rock
that abruptly stops your decent. KaCkunk. Mike got
stuck briefly as did I. Mike side surfed
out downstream and I side surfed back upstream to
look at the potholes. Sure enough the
main flow of the water was running right into the
potholes and swirling around like a flushing
toilet. An exceptionally nasty place to get pinned.
The potholes were along the river left side
of the rock that splits the main flow. There are
several potholes at different heights and pose
a risk at several levels. Mike used to splat the
rock with the trees on it in the center and ride
it all the way down until Chris Cole told about
the potholes. You better believe he doesn't
do that anymore.
Anyways, with Knifes Edge under our belts we plodded
along to Double Drop which was
quite friendly and forgiving at lower water. We
both rode down the tongue then ran the
center of the three drops to get down. There is
a narrow sluice just to the river left of the
center drop that was particularly nasty looking
and should defiantly be avoided. The line on
far river left over a small falls was clean.
Then came the portage and Augers falls. We went to
scout it and then decided to jump off
the falls (good picture potential). Mike conned
me into climbing up the sheer rock
embankment to get to the top and I was clinging
on for dear life with my neoprene socks
coming off and my grip weakening. I clung to the
wall and removed my socks and climbed
up barefoot. Mike chided my for my lack of rock
climbing skills and I vowed revenge. We
ran Augers and that damn RPM went totally vertical.
I had considered trying to do a
helicopter but I figured it was better saved for
when people could watch and laugh when I
flipped over onto my head.
Sureform was an interesting rapid to scout. We ran
it right and stayed left and rode the
whole thing down. There are several lines in the
center and the right is hard at higher water
because of the crazy crosscurrents and holes that
form. We looked at one place that makes
a particularly nasty horse shoe hole in the center
near the bottom. Avoid at high water for
sure!
Off we meandered to Powerline. Powerline we eddy
scouted but was an interesting rapid
because while running the holes my paddle got turned
sideways in my hand twice. I quickly
readjusted it but I was not used to having that
happen. The holes were very powerful and
one hole I had a little bit of trouble escaping
from until I paddled into it and it spit me out. At
low water these holes were intimidating at higher
water they must be monsterous.
Then to Crystal, probably the most difficult drop
on the river. Crystal is difficult not because
of the 15' falls at the bottom that most people
flip in. It is difficult because the approach is
very hard to make and its hard to judge where the
heck you are on the river. It is very wide
and nearly devoid of landmarks. The horizon lines
look different in the boat then they do
from shore and extreme caution should be exercised
while making the approach. More
people get creamed in the horse shoe shaped hole
at the top then do running the last falls.
They are so busy thinking about the last drop that
they don't realize that the horseshoe
shaped hole right above it is the real muncher and
you'll have to work to avoid floating into
the fold of the horseshoe. I started out trying
to run center and come back and run over the
river left side of the horse shoe. I got disoriented
and ended up on the Alpine line. That was
a little scary. I carried back up and ran the line
Mike took and made my first serious Class
V mistake. If you pick a line from shore, stick
to it in the water. When I was paddling the
approach to the horseshoe it looked too shallow
to ramp off on the far right so I went about
a foot left. Opps. As a cut across the face of the
folding water fall my heart practically stop
beating. I paddled like mad and came right out of
the hole. Mike was on shore yelling at me
telling me how lucky I was. I did not feel lucky,
I felt stupid. Missing a line by even a foot on
the Moose can be a bad thing. I was right, it was
shallow there, but I still should have
ramped my boat up and boofed off the rock then I
would have jumped over that nasty hole
at the bottom. The last 15' falls was fun, right
at the top I found myself backwards and as I
started to spin around to run the falls, vooop,
totally vertical squirt. I spun my boat around
and ran the falls and flipped forgetting to lift
my left knee and brace on the left. I rolled up
and told Mike what happened and he laughed telling
me that was his signature move to do 3
or 4 spinning squirts before spinning the paddle
over his head and launching over the falls.
What a maniac.
Then came the last drop. It was a falls that I didn't
anybody run at the last Moose fest. The
center line is a no brainer. When I hit the hole
I must have gone down at least 10 feet. My
paddle went from pressed against my lifevest to
way above my head even though I was
pulling hard down on it. Had I run the falls with
the paddle over my head I would have lost
the paddle at best and dislocated my shoulder at
worst. Mike said he was the first to run the
line at the left and that looked particularly nasty
from the bottom. Apparently that drop is
commonly run nowadays, but when they first ran it
they were unsure if the rock that the
main flow goes into was undercut to they boofed
off a rock and dropped 8 feet down to
boof off another rock and avoid sinking into the
hole. That was a ballsy line if I ever saw
one that I may never run. OK at least not in the
RPM. Mike noticed that one of the
rainbows on the center falls followed the tip of
your boat and we spent some time just
paddling into the rainbow. It was difficult to describe
but as you moved the rainbow moved
too, almost like it was attached to the end of your
boat.
I felt so at peace at that moment after running the
mighty Bottom Moose and knowing that I
would do OK. I hope other boaters can get a chance
to have positive experiences there like
I did. A special thanks to Mike Burns for taking
the time and energy to show me the lines
and teach me some of the stuff he has learned. A
lot of it he had to learn the hard way.
Thanks to Mike and people like Mike perhaps I can
become a great kayaker without
having too many horror stories to tell people about.
Moosefest 1999
OK, so I overdid it. I warned people about the dangers of high levels of the Bottom Moose, then I went and got hammered myself. Instant karma, just add water. First a little disclaimer, The Bottom Moose really is scary at 4.5 feet, at least Fowlersville and Crystal are. This weekend the intesity of Fowlersville made lots of people who would have run the Bottom, have second thoughts, hell it gave me second thoughts. My first run in the Mongoose I ran down the seam on the left and punched the meat of the hole. You want to talk about hard hits? My sinuses got a sound douching. After about 4 seconds of going down at about a 45 degree angle the Goose stalled out, then to my horror it started going backwards slideing up at a 45 degree angle back toward the meat of the hole. I presented my left blade to the current and threw my body over to the left. Fowlersville was forgiving to me and dumped me back into the recirculating eddy upside down. Then I sat and watched others run it. Most people opted for the far far left boof, scraping down the rock and plopping into the eddy. It looked a lot safer, but not much fun. A few others ran the meat of the seam and they either popped back up in the hole or came out about 10-20 yards downstream.
Funnel was a no brainer at higher water and the diamond splitter rock was covered. As long as you didn't flip at the top it was straight forward. We got out and scouted knifes edge. The last time Mike and I went up to the Moose at 4.5 I thought it looked scary, today it looked easy. Everything was washed out and the center boof seemed to be a good line. After making about 30 runs down the Bottom and never running Knifes Edge I ran it clean. I'll probably keep running the sneak at lower levels, due to the potholes but at higher levels the potholes are much less of a threat. Double Drop looked like it always does, more or less so I slid down the tounge, punched the big hole and ran the center boof. It was fun fun fun. Then we went to Agers, I was half expecting Agers to be scary, not because of the main 20' drop, but because of the big slides and holes, to my pleasant surprise Agers looked more or less like it always does. I began to realize that the power company was not releasing ALL the water back into the Bottom, but only about 3 feet or so. I breathed a sigh of releif knowing that the odds of me getting throughly creamed were pretty slim now. I ran Shurform clean, caught the eddy in the slide, I ran Powerline clean then got out to scout Crystal. I watched lots of paddlers botch up Crystal and I shuddered to myself as I imagined these same paddlers that were running Crystal upside-down and backwards running it with another foot and a half of water. What I was seeing today was skinned knuckles and bruised egos. Had it been a full release I'm sure I would have been performing rescues and watching people get seriously injured. I did a perfect meltdown at the Horseshoe and stalled out deep in the hole, I rested there feeling the water pounding on my back, hovering for what seemed like an eternity. If you had an underwater camera you surely would have seen a huge smile on my face. I leaned way back and initiated the recovery. I popped back to the surface upsidedown after a few seconds. I then rolled up and ran the center line of Crystal backwards. Remember the rule of thumb for Crystal - you can only run 2 of the 3 drops cleanly with any given run.
This brings up another point I have, it seems to me that Crystal has changed. It now seems to be more difficult to make the last left drop. Lots of people, myself included are now consistanly getting washed down the center or getting spun around or flipped. I think one of two things has happened
1) There is more water going over the alpine line and
2) There is more water running down the center.
Lots of people seem to be really struggling right above the last drop, I saw 10 people in the span of about 20 minutes run the last drop upside down. 10 more people ran it backwards, only a few really daring people opted to run it upside-down AND backwards. Even Bernie Wooton did 3 braces in a row at the top of the last drop. I've never seen Bernie brace more than once. Know everyone knows that water is squirly up there, but it seems to be more so than ussual. I think the center line is becoming more inviting, as long as you don't run it with the idea that you're gonna control where your boat goes and just let the water wash you down it AND you stay upright its not a big deal, its the people that fight it or flip a the top of the center drop that get hammered.
We returned to Fowlersville for another run, this time with the race boats. Mike and I waited for Ted Newton to show up and put on when he showed up. We started out as a group of 5 but only 3 of us would make it to Crystal. As we got out to scout Fowlersville I saw out of the corner of my eye someone in a white wildwater boat run Fowlersville without scouting. As he scraped down the left slide I heard the distinct sound of Fiberglass. I was dumbfounded. What kind of lunitic would paddle a glass Wildwater boat down the Bottom Moose? It was non-other than the legendary Jeff Snyder. So us tupperware junkies got out to look at the falls while Jeff sat in the eddy at the bottom. I opted to run it first in Mike's Mirage since I had the best chance of getting through the hole unscathed. I ran it took an incredibly hard hit and nemoed down DEEP. I was scraping along the bottom of the river bank for awhile before I finally popped up way downstream. I paddled up to the eddy with Jeff and he looked at me and smiled and said "Hey man, you came up right there" and pointed about 20 yards downstream. OK, down came Dave in wavehopper #1. It hit the hole, came to a dead stop, resurfaced and the stern hit the rock face. The hopper slowly started turning sideways and then his skirt blew. Luckily the boater, boat and paddle were all safely recovered from the river left recirculating eddy. Down came wavehopper #2 with Mike at the helm. Wham ... exact same thing. Hit the hole, stall out, resurface, sit on the pile. Mike had a look of focus on his face that I rarely see and he started to full on paddle. After about 10 seconds his hopper slowly started to inch forward off the boil line. I thought he was a goner for sure but after about another 10 seconds he managed to paddle free of the pile. Ted ran last and had a beautiful far left boof right into the eddy. It looked like it might have hurt in such a long boat but Ted made it look very easy, just like he makes everything look easy.
Then came Funnel. I tried punching the hole near the top as Mike had suggested for a race line. I eddied out and spun around and ran the last part clean. Dave had run the last part upside down and had broken his paddle on the diamond splitter rock as well as leaving some of the skin on his knuckles on the rock. With a 2 for 2 record, 2 swims in 2 rapids and with only half a paddle, he opted to carry out. I felt really bad for him. Little did I know that I was next. Our group paddled non-stop from Funnel though Knife's Edge to Double Drop. I was a little winded but followed Jeff Snyder down the tounge. I was too far right and pointed almost 45 degrees down when I went to punch the hole at the bottom. My nose hit something, then I collapsed forward and the boat started surfing. I tried as hard as I could to get to the surface to roll no avail. I finally gave up and reached as far down as I could to get the outflow. I rolled up after about 30 seconds and gasped for breath. I was a wreck, I ran the last drop and took out. My ankle felt like I had broken it. I bent in the nose of the Mirage, cracked one of the footpegs and broke one of the bolts through the plastic. The good news it that it was Mikes boat not mine, the bad news is that this is the 2nd boat of his I have broken and I've decided that buying it from him would be the right thing to do.
I crawled out of my boat and up the embankment groaning in pain. The Sheriff was there grinning when I got to the top. I collapsed on my boat and he said "You OK son" still grinning. "Oh yeah sure, I'm fine officer" I managed a little smile. "Anybody coming down after you" he said, still smiling "Um, I don't think so officer, you see most people are only stupid enough to run this river once in a day. Only the real idiots run it twice". I said "Oh OK" he said still smiling. Then it dawned on me, officer friendly was not going to stop smiling. I talked to him for about 10 minutes, the whole time he was smiling. I was dumbfounded. I have never in my life seen a smiling police man. And I thought I had seen it all.
Moral of the story #1 Don't borrow other people's boats and run class V stuff at high water if you don't plan on buying the boat when you break it.
Moral of the story #2 Don't borrow old-school boats with those stupid ankle breaking steel footpegs that don't move at all when you piton. Pad the end of your boat with minicell if you're runing any drops greater than 10'. Throw the footpegs in the trash.
Mike, Ted and Jeff finished their training run pretty much without incident. Sunday morning I awoke and my ankle was the size of a baseball. I opted not to paddle and decided to drive home. By the time I drove home Sunday it was the size of a softball. So now I'm on crutches and back at work. All and all it was a wonderful weekend, and there was not gear or people recirculated at Fowlersville all weekend despite my predictions. A Moosefest first!
Thanks to AWA, Chris Koll and everyone who made the festival so much
fun!