Class Five - New York Style.

If the traffic is running well (in NYC??) you can make it from Manhattan to the put in of The Popolopen in under an hour. First run in the last 5 years or so The Pop is classic class 5 creek and all the more so for being within a stones throw from an 8 million person megatropolis.
Like most North Eastern runs the Pop flows only after heavy rain or when snow packs decide to head South. So it was on a grey wet day that we found ourselves walking into the snow lined river this last March for 3 successive days. You have to make hay while the sun shines or paddle when the flow goes. This ephemeral little gem offers only 2 miles of paddling but you won’t feel short changed.



Today we put in and it’s clear that the snow is combining with the rain to surge levels in one direction – up. There is a short warm up before you get to the steeper section – Chutes and ladders, and it is at this stage that the rest of the group decides that it’s a little too feisty for them. It’s just too dam high quality for me to make the sensible grown up decision and so I push on, on my own, at least there will be a car at the take out for me.
With the river high and turning brown, eddies are getting smaller and are flushing out the back ends sooner. I’ve done this stretch many times and am happy to dinosaur it (long neck, no brains). My major concern is wood but most of it seems to be charging down river with me rather than blocking the way.



Committed on my own in the bottom of this dark dank tree lined valley everything disappears apart from the lines. My lines are mostly good, but the odd error, I clout my elbow on a rock, forces me to focus and paddle as clinically as I can.
And then I’m thru and dumped into The Hudson as The Pop finishes its hectic drop off Bear Mountain at its final confluence. This time my decision was validated by my survival and the exhilaration of running such a beautifully continuous and technical run. But soloing is not a smart decision and I shouldn’t get caught up in the delight of paddling what I love as a kayaker, beautiful continuous technical WW over my own personal safety.

F*** it I’m going to have another run.