Moore Reservoir Dogs

I was going to race the Mille Lacs Crossing,  an endurance race out in Minnesota, this weekend. It was to be the last one ever and I would have liked to have a shot at winning it but the wind forecast looked really bad and I bagged it at the last minute. I heard they really got "skunked" with 50 degree heat and no wind.  They had to cancel the race.

It sucks but it's okay because I got to stay home and ride one of my favorite places to throw a kite in the air. Moore Reservoir.

"Luke, I am NOT your father."

It’s been two weeks since Kitestorm and there’s been a sudden terrible downturn in our local riding conditions. Just after Kitestorm we got hit with a storm that dumped almost 4 inches of rain in some locations and also got some snow, which left us with several inches of slush on top of the ice. You can’t reasonably kite in slush because it’s too grabby and too damn messy. To make it worse the storm has been followed by unseasonably warm weather and both Chocorua and Silver have been un-ride able since the storm. Winnepesaukee had some riding but has now melted from the shore so much you have to swim to get to the good ice. Jim Cline got the last days on Winnepesaukee and he and I got out on Lovewell Pond last week but it’s done there now. It’s as though we jumped straight from February right into April. We’ve lost almost a whole month of riding.

It’s been a messed up season to say the least.

Mike at boat launch

That’s okay, we can’t always have 5 months of snow kiting. Hell most people are lucky to get a month or two. When spots get lean here we know where the riding can be had if we don’t mind driving a little. Moore Reservoir and Umbagog are still a good bet and will be for a couple more weeks. If you’ve been following the blog you’ll remember my mention of Moore Res. in an earlier installment. That’s where we rode this weekend and it was awesome.

The Cove.

(those mounds are over15 feet tall)

First a little history on the area.

Moore Dam

Moore was created back in the 50’s by damming a section of the Connecticut River, the river that defines the Vermont/New Hampshire border. Unlike most water bodies in New Hampshire, Moore has very good public access with several boat-launch areas and parking right off the interstate. It is also one of the most publicly visible kiting areas that we ride allowing people who have never heard of snow kiting to get a glimpse of it. Moore is a fairly large area at over 3000 acres and becomes a kiter’s playground when they drop the water level in preparation for the rise in water level in the spring. There are numerous terrain features such as sand bars and large granite out cropping under the water that support the ice when the water level is dropped. This produces hills and ramps of ice that a kiter can ride over, jump up or glide off. These are terrain elements that we don’t usually get to play with unless we build them ourselves. And even if we were to build them we could never build them to this scale. These features are pretty damn big.  Some years the level is lower than others. Last year it was really low.

The window of opportunity for riding Moore after the water has been lowered can be just a week or two so when it’s good you have to get in as much riding as you can. As it turns out the window of prime riding this season was just a few days.

Read yellow sign.

Friday Mike and I showed up at around 11:00 am. The wind reports were saying NW winds and as usual this season they were completely wrong and the wind was coming straight out of the East. I can’t believe how bad the weather people have been this winter! Anyway so the wind was out of the East and we were parked on the North East side of the lake so we were in a decent spot to launch. Mike went out first and set his screw while I got my stuff on and shot some shots to show a little scale. Moore is pretty big and judging things as far as size or distance can be a little deceptive. I’ll try to illustrate the scale of things with photos but unless you see it in person it’s hard to translate.

That speck in the center is Mike setting up.

Moore is big but you only get to ride certain parts depending on the wind direction. Mike launched and shot over to the other side and up onto the shore to ride along the tree line. Something that is always in the back of my mind when we ride Moore is the fact that under the water is the former location of a town called Upper Waterford. Upper Waterford was flooded when they built the damn and where we’re launching from was once the main road that ran North/South through the town. For more info on the history of the town check out this link.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vtcbarne/UpperWaterford.htm

With East wind we can ride the bulk of the lake that runs East/West. It’s really nice cruising and scenic but the best part of the lake is the cove area that runs NE/SW right along the highway. It has most of the fun stuff to play on and lies about 40 feet directly below the highway. Unfortunately I’ve never seen anyone down in the cove when I’ve been driving by but it must be stunning to be cruising by at 70mph on the highway and seeing these huge colorful “things” floating up and disappearing from view at road level just on the other side of the guard rails.

15m Charger across from highway.

It would make some great video footage.

Mike and his 19m. (for scale)

After a while of cruising on the long section of the lake the winds picked up and started to shift more North. Mike and I had decided to change to smaller kites and with the wind shift we’d relocate to the NW part of the lake. This puts us in a better position to take advantage of the wind shift and gets us much closer to the cove. The down side is the wind near the NW shore is really “dirty” or turbulent. Depending on how strong the wind is it can be a really tricky launch. The kite can be fully powered one second and in a blink it can be falling out of the sky. But once you get out there it’s really an amazing place to ride.

Mike and his 19m Peter Lynn V1

We couldn’t ask for better conditions. The weather was perfect. The sun was shining and the temperature was about 35 degrees. The surface was awesome! About ¾ of an inch of firm, crystalline corn snow. You just felt like you were on rails. The winds had shifted NW by the time we launched again. The cove works really well with anything from straight North to straight West. Mike and I immediately headed down to the cove.

One of the mounds from the van pic at cove level. 

(the ice chunks are S.U.V. size)

The water level isn’t as low as it could be but there was still plenty of terrain to play on. The sandbars, the granite mounds, the plates of ice on the shoreline all make for pretty fun stuff to play on. It’s almost like a terrain park. It’s almost like a mix of mountain biking and kiting. You get to ride through the rocks and stumps and you pick your lines like you would on a bike. Except when you glide off a mound. This year we were able to ride farther south into the cove than ever, which was really cool. It’s amazing how tight and big the area seems when you ride there.

What is equally amazing is how soon cars start pulling over to watch. Two of the bigger mounds are right under the highway and one of my favorite things to do down there is to do “step up” style jumps off the flat part of the ice up to the tops of the mounds. I like it because I can jump 20 feet into the air and I don’t feel too uncomfortable because even though I may be 20 feet up I’m usually only 10 feet above the top of the mound before I land. It’s fun, looks cool and is well within my comfort zone. And once I’m up there I bang out a turn and haul ass down back the mound, rip across the cove and back up the mounds on the other side.

Mike on the bank.

We rode for hours like this with Mike on his 12m Synergy and me on my 15m Charger.

Molly and the M5

The next day Molly, Mike and I all went up and we had almost a carbon copy of the day before. But this time we had even better wind. Molly was excited to try out the new 9.5 Montana 5 that I had won at Kitestorm and I was interested to see it in action as well. The wind was perfect for it and we still had the perfect surface that Mike and I had the day before. The wind was blowing W/NW and at about 12mph steady for the most part with occasional punches about 15mph. Not bad considering the wind forecast was for NO WIND. Again, the weather people were wrong and for once this season I was happy about it. Mike and I were wondering about the ice thickness. Any concerns we had were gone when several vehicles drove by where we parked and straight out onto the ice. While our ice is melting fast they are still driving on the water up north. Crazy.

Today Mike brought his helmet cam and hopefully he got some footage. If he did I’ll set up a link.

We put in almost 70 miles in for the day. The weather was perfect and Molly rocked the 9.5m. At first there were some minor issues but we fixed some things and it seemed to fly just fine. Well enough that Molly spent the whole day on it. The M5 turns much faster than the earlier models of Montanas for sure. We had a ball and again a ton of spectators on the highway. I really get a kick out of racing along side the highway and trying to match the speed of the cars and seeing the passengers looking out the windows in apparent amazement that we were almost keeping up. Fun stuff.

Charger pulling me to the top

After riding all day without even taking a break for lunch we were famished and stopped at the Littleton Diner for dinner. The food is great and so is the service. The diner has been there forever and is worth the visit. The meatloaf special is awesome.

Molly

On the third day Mike had to work and Molly and I met Randy Berube at Moore.  He rode Umbagog on Saturday and said it was unbelievably good. It’s a hell of a long drive for Randy to get to Moore and we were hoping that the wind would be good. The forecast again was calling for no wind but we saw wind all the way there and there was wind at Moore when we got there. It was sunny again and the surface was still pristine.

Randy

Unfortunately we didn’t get as lucky with Sunday as we did the previous days. The wind wasn’t cooperating and it was much warmer. Randy got to get a taste of riding the terrain but the wind didn’t really get going until late in the afternoon and the heat and sun had really taken a toll on the ice.

Randy

Eventually we were riding in slush and huge puddles. We rode until we were basically soaked and decided to bag it for the day. I felt bad that Randy drove all the way to get so little quality riding in. I always have a loose ratio in my mind concerning drive time vs. time on the kite. If the kite time is greater than the drive time then it was a worthwhile trip. If not then it was a waste of time. But there are exceptions. For example if I drive an 2 hours but get some really excellent riding in then it wasn’t a wasted trip. I think Randy’s visit is "on the fence this time." Anyway it's a pretty loose ratio.

Molly, Randy and me on the fence.

Take a look at the morning vs. the afternoon ice conditions. 

Before

After

That’s basically our adventures at Moore in a nutshell. It's a great place to ride if you know what you're doing.  There are some "unusual" risks to riding there and I wouldn't recommend a visit without someone who knows the area. 

 I’m not sure where we’ll be riding next week. If we get some snow maybe Moore again. If not then we’re up to Umbagog. We’re losing ice here at an alarming rate and my hopes of making my goal of 80mph this year are fading fast. I learned some things about the Charger that will help me go faster but I may have to wait until next season the way things are going. My best bet was probably Monday and I had to work. That’s how it goes with this whole speed thing.

You have to be at the right place at the right time. I just have to be patient.

We'll probably get out a few more times this season.  I have a spot I want to hit at higher elevation and We'll wear life preservers on the lakes in case we go through the ice. 

Until next time!