S T A N D I N G W A V E S
Be vewwy, vewwy quiet… PHOTO MARIE-PIER CÔTÉ
CANOE SEASON OPEN MOOSE RIVER HUNTERS BAG A NEW LEGEND OF THE FALL
AS THE GROUP PREPARED to move down river, Paul Mason joked, “Why don’t you fi nd a hunter and shoot out the airbags?” Which is how Olivier Chatigny, Marie-Pier Côté and I found ourselves walking out from the Moose River’s Fowlersville Falls, pounding through the Lewis County, N.Y. backwoods with an opportunity to make some local resident’s dream come true. Fowlersville Falls is a class IV+, river-wide, 20-foot slide into a nasty ca-
noe-eating hole. The levels on the bottom Moose were higher than expect- ed. “The line looked straightforward enough,” says Chatigny. A collective think tank of 10 open boaters including the likes of Mason, Andrew West- wood, Eli Helbert and Mark Scriver scouted the drop and the only concern was a deep and sticky section about two feet right of the main line. Just hit the slide at a slight angle to the left from river left and everything should be fi ne. And it was for Côté and Scriver. Chatigny, however, planted his Esquif Zoom in the hole. Chatigny freed himself of his straps and grabbed a rock downstream to
await a lift to shore while his canoe linked end after end. While the Zoom racked up an impressive 30-minute rodeo score, the rest of the group con- tinued on down the Moose. “Shooting the canoe didn’t seem like such a bad idea,” Olivier recalls. “It
was either that or leave a note at the local outdoor shop for if it came free. Maybe they could call us and maybe we’d pick it up.” Minutes from the put-in there was a place with signs of life; an old house
in an overgrown fi eld, a rusty F150 in the yard, moms with babies sitting in garden chairs smoking Marlboros watching the men shingle the roof. Olivier told the story to the alpha female, who showed no signs of concern for the paddlers or the boat until he mentioned the need for fi repower. “She leapt from her chair and yelled ‘Hey boys! Git down here, they need
someone to shoot a canoe!’ They were running from every direction, kids coming out of the forest with slingshots, the men sliding off the roof. After reckoning on distance, angle and calibre, one thought to ask if anyone was still in the boat,” Olivier says. They went back to Fowlersville Falls with the salivating army and hundreds
of rounds of ammunition. They were going canoe hunting. The fi rst guy—we’ll call him Ted Nugent—fi red several well-placed rounds
from his 30-30 rifl e, but despite roars from the local crowd who’d gathered, the canoe danced away. A second hunter had far more luck with his Rem- ington semi-automatic12-gauge shotgun. With one huge hole in the hull and peppered end bags, the wounded carcass fl ushed from her trap. Although amazed by how bullet-resistant the canoe was, Olivier says the hunters were disappointed to learn that an evening’s work and a good repair job would have this beast on its feet for another run. “Packing for the drive back across the border to Canada, we stacked
the canoe carefully so customs offi cers wouldn’t question the bullet holes,” Olivier says.—Vincent Normandeau
www.rapidmag.com 15
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