1. Torrington

This run is best described in two sections. The upper section, from the dam at the putin down to essentially the Shell Station/Dunkin' Donuts when the river crosses under route 4 is very creeky. No particularly serious rapids, but beware of strainers -- there are often mandatory portages, but everything should be visible from above. Be subtle when portaging and stay as close to the river as possible -- you're right in people's backyards on this run. Mostly class II-III continous fun. There's one or two man-made drops in this section, but everthing is pretty small and straight forward. The second section has two runnable dams in it. The first, shortly after the end of the creeky section is an 8-foot (appr.) slide with a lip that bottoms out and shoots you out into the pool. Beware at higher levels, the hole can get incredibly nasty (even terminal), but there is apparently a line (with no margin for error) on far river left where the lip is backed up by a rock shelf that you can ride past the hole -- don't try this without extensive scouting. At normal levels, run a little left of center. This drop is best scouted before you put on by turning south on Riverside Avenue at the traffic light on route 4 next to the Shell Station/Dunkin' Donuts. The dam is behind the Riverside Deli, a short ways down on your left. The second dam is an 18-foot vertical drop that bottoms out nicely. Scout it on river left just above it (there's a huge, slow moving pool). At low water be very careful and consider portaging due to risk of pitoning (or just seriously scraping the bottom of your boat). Also, stay away from the river-left edge -- a rock wall sticks out a bit at the bottom. The only major rapids in this half of the river are in a gorge in downtown Torrington. There are some fun class III rapids and a number of playable holes (that are usually fairly shallow, unfortunately). Beware of occasional bits of metal sticking out from the wall, particularly the river right one. After the gorge, the river mellows out becoming class I-II for the rest of the run. A creek comes in on river right from under a bridge and there is some gravel piled up at the confluence. Another one comes in a little further down on river left. After passing a few shopping carts and mattresses you reach the takeout marked by a riverwide 2-3 foot drop made by two offset pipes -- hasn't seemed to be dangerous in the boat, but don't swim into it (there aren't really significant rapids above it so that shouldn't be an issue). Get out on river left just downstream of this feature and hike up a few yards to the parking lot. Driving Directions The putin is reached by turning north on 272 at the traffic light on Route 4 just west of Torrington (next to the Shell Station/Dunkin' Donuts and on river-right of a bridge crossing the Naugatuck). Take that road for a mile or two and turn right on a small road called 'Brass Mill Dam Rd.' Go a couple hundred yards to a dead end parking circle and hike up from there to the dam to put in. The takeout is on river left south of central Torrington. From the Shell Station/Dunkin' Donuts, go south at that light on Riverside Avenue. It becomes Church Street after 1.2 miles. After .2 miles, turn right onto Water Street. .3 miles later turn right onto Main Street. After .8 miles, turn left onto Palmer Bridge Street for .2 miles then right onto Perkins Street and then a quick right onto Davis Pass where you'll see a big lot on the right (baseball field on the left). Park there, there's a path up from the takeout just beyond it.