"This is private property! Get out of your tents!" I was awake immediatelly. "Fuck", I thought, "thrown out of the States just five hours after entering for the first time." We've been on the trip from Canada to the Moose river crossing the US border after midnight and being overtired in such a way that we choose a gravel plant as place to sleep untill the next morning. But the guy who woke us up pretty rudely turned out to be rather friendly and didn't hesitate to explain us the quickest way to Old Forge, the town where the Moose Riverfestival happened.

The Colorado and Bavarian team styling at the lake of Camp Danmark

Sometimes on a trip where you do not plan too much, great things can arise just out of nothing. And so it did when we came to Old Forge having no idea where to go at all and then catching up with one of coolest group of kayakers I've ever met. Together with Ben, Jason, Chris, Justin and the rest of the Colorado gang we were paddling on the Independence and Moose river from Friday to Sunday.

Though the weather wasn't always sunny and temperatures ranged from 0 to 9 degrees we had some incredible runs especially on Bottom Moose. This section can be described as perfect pool-and-drop style containing several nice rapids, slides and drops up to five meters.

Jason cleaning the first slide

Ben having a good time on Bottom Moose

The whole river is surrounded by the lovely scenery of the most colourful autumn leaves imaginable.

Ben's forfathers had come over from Danemark in the early 20th century. They had built a huge house on a lakefront just 15 minutes away from Old Forge.

Ben invited us to stay in this house with the whole groupe over the weekend. We had an awesome time celebrating this trip with bonfire far into the night. Thanks a lot, guys!

Some more Moose impressions:

Boby hitting the perfect line on 'Modzilla'

After the Moosefest we were heading back towards Canada but first checking out the Black River wave in Watertown on our way.

Our camp at the Black hidden behind a decayed factory

Then the Ottawa was our target. Unfortunatelly the waterlevel was exceptionally low and only McKoy rapid had some playspots to offer. After all the weather was improving a lot.

With lacking a stove we cooked vegetables and chicken wings rolled into aluminium foil on embers - exquisite!

On Wednesday we drove back to Montreal spending the rest of the week on Big Joe and Pyramid wave. Time passed by extremely fast and so on Saturday in the evening we were sitting in the plane back to Munich still thinking about the great days we had. And already making further plans. Cause one thing is for sure: this hasn't been our last trip to North America.

Finally thanks a lot again to Almut, Fabi and every single member of the Colorado team! See you in Norway with real creek boats :o)

Video clip "Montreal & Moose"
Video clip "Moose Slickers" by the Colorado team

Text: Seppi
Photos: Copyright © Sportbande.de