Wallkill

We completed a 2-man paddle of the Walkill River from Walden to New Paltz in a 16' Mohawk Blazer. After a late start around 11:30 we paddled pretty leisurely through the afternoon and landed in New Paltz at around 4:30.

The 9:00 a.m. river data showed 790cfm and left its designation 'runnable', which we would tend to agree with. There was one section about nine tenths of a mile from our put-in behind Orange County Bagel that we lined the boat because it was very shallow. Other than that and the occasional light grounding on a rock we were able to paddle comfortably.

The river was turbid, but we saw plenty of wildlife along our trip. Many herons, mallard, wood, and merganser ducks, a school(?) of carp, red tailed hawks, kingfishers, and canada geese were seen along the way.

Some garbage was strewn about on the shoreline, but not much. This paddle is definitely not remote in any sense of the word, but it was a fun afternoon for us nonetheless.

The paddle was really Class I throughout the vast majority of our trip. One section with large boulders just south of New Paltz along Libertyville Road posed the only significant challenge of the day. It would be difficult to carry around this feature, but it might be possible to line it. Inexperienced paddlers or the cautious-minded should consider scouting the section via a bushwack from Libertyville Road prior to trying to run this section.