Moshier
Maggie asked that I write the entries for the Moshier and Eagle sections (yay my blogging debut... I hope this isn't too much of a dissapointment for everyone!) ~Mark
We woke up Sunday morning with a great deal of enthusiasm; it was going to be an exciting day (or at least that was what we expected). It was going to be the day for the two big ones that we planned to run (the Raquette was no longer on our list at this point due to it being two hours further north). We grabbed breakfast at the same place we had on Saturday (this time no one got the buffet....hhmmm lessons learned?) and then headed toward the Moshier. While trying to figure out how to get to the Moshier (driving slowing through the middle of Lowville) Jeff in a moment of divine inspiration announced "turn left here" at a random road in front of us... moments later he changed that to "no wait the other way", was that "right" Jeff? Soon enough we were putting on and looking at the bonus rapid. The bonus rapid is basically a slide about twice as long as Oceana and at least as steep involving several rooster tails, a nasty looking hole and a pile of rocks at the bottom. Apparently it's been run but not by anyone who could ever be deemed sane.
After a long pool we ran some ripples that emptied into another long pool. Somehow I had gotten the impression beforehand that the Moshier was creeky and at least relatively steep… I was starting to get a little worried. After the second pool we reached the horizon line for the first rapid and everyone got out to look. The river was wide here and the drop had two distinct lines. One a 12 foot or so clean drop (on the opposite side of the river from where we were) and one a double drop with a cool little angled rock slide at the end. We all ran the two sides several times while waiting for the rather large crowd to thin somewhat. After a little bit of "drop and plopping" we crossed the pool to run the next rapid. It was another 12 foot or so drop that has a short slide into a 7 or so foot clean drop into an island requiring a quick right turn to avoid a collision. After that you had to move to river right and negotiate several little ledges and holes to finish. The rapid was quite cool and boded well for things to come...
... and come they did not! After the second rapid was a large pool that fed into a small rapid after which there was another large pool. To make things worse we were stuck in the middle of what looked like an endless line of other kayakers. The intermittent class IIIs only served to frustrate us even more as we rode blindly into the drops with people following a few feet off our sterns and frequently trading holes with the hole bait in front of us.
When we finally got to Moshier Falls both Maggie and I were pretty frustrated with the whole thing. We had both expected something more exciting and hadn't quite anticipated the river being as congested as it was. We got out to look at the rapid and Maggie quickly decided she didn't feel up to running it, since most people were walking it or at least scouting there was a decent trail going around one side.
I looked at each of the drops (except the last one), and could easily see the lines and felt like I would have no problem making them, so I decided to go ahead and run it. The rapid is basically four drops all back to back except the last one has a small moving pool separating it. The line basically zigzags down starting from the left and alternating sides for every move. James decided to put on with me and after a short wait I started down the rapid. I made it through the first major drop and eddied out in a small eddy against right bank.
James came down and got into the same eddy I then pealed out and ran the next two drops (see the video) and eddied out before the last drop to wait for James. Several more people came down before I finally saw James, and he had a few problems mostly involving a search for fish in the shallow area between the drops and later said that he was thrown off because people kept coming down and cutting him off before he could get out of the eddy.
Videos:
Mark running Moshier Falls
James running Moshier Falls
After that I ran the last drop and found myself in the final pool at the take out. The rapid had gone perfectly, I went exactly where I had intended to go and it was very fun so it really helped get me out of my bad mood and motivated me to go to the Eagle.
-Mark
We woke up Sunday morning with a great deal of enthusiasm; it was going to be an exciting day (or at least that was what we expected). It was going to be the day for the two big ones that we planned to run (the Raquette was no longer on our list at this point due to it being two hours further north). We grabbed breakfast at the same place we had on Saturday (this time no one got the buffet....hhmmm lessons learned?) and then headed toward the Moshier. While trying to figure out how to get to the Moshier (driving slowing through the middle of Lowville) Jeff in a moment of divine inspiration announced "turn left here" at a random road in front of us... moments later he changed that to "no wait the other way", was that "right" Jeff? Soon enough we were putting on and looking at the bonus rapid. The bonus rapid is basically a slide about twice as long as Oceana and at least as steep involving several rooster tails, a nasty looking hole and a pile of rocks at the bottom. Apparently it's been run but not by anyone who could ever be deemed sane.
After a long pool we ran some ripples that emptied into another long pool. Somehow I had gotten the impression beforehand that the Moshier was creeky and at least relatively steep… I was starting to get a little worried. After the second pool we reached the horizon line for the first rapid and everyone got out to look. The river was wide here and the drop had two distinct lines. One a 12 foot or so clean drop (on the opposite side of the river from where we were) and one a double drop with a cool little angled rock slide at the end. We all ran the two sides several times while waiting for the rather large crowd to thin somewhat. After a little bit of "drop and plopping" we crossed the pool to run the next rapid. It was another 12 foot or so drop that has a short slide into a 7 or so foot clean drop into an island requiring a quick right turn to avoid a collision. After that you had to move to river right and negotiate several little ledges and holes to finish. The rapid was quite cool and boded well for things to come...
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... and come they did not! After the second rapid was a large pool that fed into a small rapid after which there was another large pool. To make things worse we were stuck in the middle of what looked like an endless line of other kayakers. The intermittent class IIIs only served to frustrate us even more as we rode blindly into the drops with people following a few feet off our sterns and frequently trading holes with the hole bait in front of us.
When we finally got to Moshier Falls both Maggie and I were pretty frustrated with the whole thing. We had both expected something more exciting and hadn't quite anticipated the river being as congested as it was. We got out to look at the rapid and Maggie quickly decided she didn't feel up to running it, since most people were walking it or at least scouting there was a decent trail going around one side.
I looked at each of the drops (except the last one), and could easily see the lines and felt like I would have no problem making them, so I decided to go ahead and run it. The rapid is basically four drops all back to back except the last one has a small moving pool separating it. The line basically zigzags down starting from the left and alternating sides for every move. James decided to put on with me and after a short wait I started down the rapid. I made it through the first major drop and eddied out in a small eddy against right bank.
James came down and got into the same eddy I then pealed out and ran the next two drops (see the video) and eddied out before the last drop to wait for James. Several more people came down before I finally saw James, and he had a few problems mostly involving a search for fish in the shallow area between the drops and later said that he was thrown off because people kept coming down and cutting him off before he could get out of the eddy.
Videos:
Mark running Moshier Falls
James running Moshier Falls
After that I ran the last drop and found myself in the final pool at the take out. The rapid had gone perfectly, I went exactly where I had intended to go and it was very fun so it really helped get me out of my bad mood and motivated me to go to the Eagle.
-Mark
posted by Maggie at 11:00 PM
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