Independence/Oswegatchie

After sitting on the couch all day Saturday recovering from the wicked flu I caught from Moosefest, I couldn't stand this apartment anymore and had to get out and paddle.  It didn't help that I was getting calls from Danny and Jim all day telling me how much fun they were having with some sketchy people on the Moose.  Anyways, I got in the car and headed down towards Lowville.  After checking out some of the options we had, we decided to get a lap in on the Independence.  I would guess that the level was around 700 cfs, which was pretty good.  I forget how fun that first upper stretch of class III stuff is.  And the slide was really fun.  If you see Uncle Jim, be sure to ask him who the only one to catch the middle line!!!

After we got off (thats what she said), with some careful persuasion of Jim and Ron, we decided to go up and get another crack at Section IV of the Oswegatchie (Out-to get-me).  And yes, it did get me.  We were at the bottom of the first rapid when I noticed that it was a little cool in my boat.  I developed a crack in the hull of my boat about 6" long.  I was pretty upset about loosing a good friend, but we continued on, not really having much choice.  Other than having to empty my boat like every 5 minutes, the run went pretty well.  Apparently, I got a pretty cool launch off Panther Falls (aka "The Juice" or "The Cure for Cancer").  It was a really fun day, and I can't wait to get back there to run Section III.

LaFlair