One of those days you expect to be nice and are pleasantly surprised. It had rained heavily nearly a week ago and then gotten cold, so as the river came down it coated logs and rocks with ice and icicles. And unlike our friends who went skiing, no crowds on the Moodna.
Sun was out, wind was non existent. Saying the Moodna was at a good level is sort of moot as the Moodna’s fun from very low to crazy high…but at a lower level it was a lot dryer which is certainly nice with 32 degree water.
In the easy class 1-2 warm up we saw a wood duck and a pileated woodpecker. Though a little low the upper section and in fact the whole river had plenty of water 6 days after the last heavy rain. Though it doesn’t have a gauge, the Moodna holds well and is fun at so many levels. There were a number of holes that looked liked they’d be fun to surf in or be surfed by…and with the water at 32 degrees neither of us were interested in exploring.
Pushing across ice to get back to river.
I elected to portage around the first dam as I was feeling poor and good about my boat…this dam’s an easy slide down what feels like a cheese grater. Getting out required breaking the ice at river’s edge until I could get my boat parallel and then delicately climbing out onto a shelf of ice. Getting back in required pushing across 10′ of ice.
At lower water there was no eddy at the final drop on the first real rapid, lumber yard.
For the pillars -the hardest rapid – we ran left to right above the entrance rapid and eddied out just above the main drop and boat scouted close enough to be pretty sure the main drop was clean…with the low flow it was a pretty straightforward ferry and line up to get a straight drop clear of the pillars and then hang on thru the drop.
The pond above the second dam had ice at its edges making both getting out and getting close enough to boat scout difficult…Most interesting challenge came near the end when I got off line and thought I had a line between one partly submerged boulder and one ice covered boulder. The ice as more like a mushroom cap and the left side of my boat slid down and i found myself stuck between the 2 rocks, cockpit out of the water. Pushing of the ice was way too cold without gloves (I prefer pogies for the solid grip and adjustability)…so in the middle of the rapid, water flowing over the boat I pulled the skirt, pulled out my gloves from the drybag and was then able to lift myself free.
The Moodna holds well and is fun at a wide range of levels. With the exception of the pillars it’s similar in difficulty to the Mongaup. More on the Moodna on AW.
