(10/14-17/05)
(Moose Fest & Inner City Strife Photos)
After a long rainy drive from Baltimore to Old Forge, NY the Go Big Rig rolled up to Slickers for the Friday night pub crawl. Fluid, H20 Paddles, Rock Hedz Helmets, Confluence, and Aquaholics all shared sponsoring Slickers for the night. It was a fun scene with lots of drinking, good food, and good friends.
On Saturday I managed to finally paddle the Inner City Strife Wave on the Black River in Watertown after chasing this wave for something like four years. I've heard nothing but good things about this wave, and I can now confirm that they are all true:) The spot is actually three waves that are eddy serviceable and about 100 ft. from the road/parking area. The main wave is unbelievable, think Lachine with an eddy! After over five hours on the wave it was time to head back to Old Forge for the Moose Festival. The Festival was pretty low key, but tons of fun. Many of the local retailers were on hand selling off their '05 goods for some amazing deals. Most of the major kayak manufacturers were also on hand along side many of the top accessory manufacturers. It was really good to catch up with John from Mountain Surf, Steve from H20 paddles, and Andrew from Rock Hedz helmets. Fluid had a solid showing with tons of interest in the Solo creekboats as well as the Vaya, our kids white water sit on top. Fluid team paddlers Seth Chapelle and Tracy Sage were also on hand at the festival.
Sunday started off a bit slowly with everyone still recuperating from the past two nights of partying. I ended up paddling Independence creek at a really fun level with a group of first time creekers from Canada. Everyone did really well and enjoyed their first experience with steep creeking. The Solo helped with this task keeping everyone safe and happy. After the creek run I took Steve from H20 paddles over to "look at" Inner City Strife. After looking at the wave for about a minute Steve got a huge smile on his face and went to his truck to put on his wet paddling gear for a quick session, as it was already starting to get dark. Of course I couldn't let Steve paddle alone and I went for a paddle as well:)
Since the wave was still going off I had to stay and paddle on Monday. I ended up getting a really solid two hour session in Monday with a fun group of paddlers, even though it was really cold and windy! After the session it was time to hit the road for home. Eight hours later I found my bed.
See you on the river- Bryon Dorr
