Bantam River in Connecticut

Trip Overview

Bantam River is a small, calm river that flows between a pond a Bantam Lake. Lots of songbirds, vacated beaver dams, water plants. A very nice quiet place to paddle. Follow the river southwest to Bantam Lake, which is a smallish, quiet lake. It's a good fishing spot, so weekends might be busy here with motorboats, etc. We paddled the circumference of the lake in about 2.5 hours. There's a small beach with picnic tables where you can pull out for lunch, located across and to the right of the river's mouth. This is a good place to go if you have limited time/energy and need some quiet.

Accommodations:

There is a map at the launch area. No facilities at the launch area. Museum (Foundation entrance, first right to end) may have facilities. Picnic tables at small beach on lake. Grocery store is about 1 mile from turn off on 202, a few delis along the way too.

Directions:

I-84 East to Rte. 7 north, to 202 East. Follow to Bantam, turn right into White's Woods Memorial Foundation (past grocery store). Follow road to end, turn right on White's Woods Road. Go over bridge, river launch area is just at the other end on the right. Parking for about 7-10 cars.