Mohawk Mountain and Housatonic Loop

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Torrington

   Torrington is a brass-and-hardware town that has outlived most of its factories, and the grit shows. It sits in the valley of the Naugatuck River's headwaters, in northwest Connecticut, ringed by hills that rise quickly in every direction, and it is the proper starting point for a loop into the high country around Mohawk Mountain. This is not a postcard village: it is a working small city, with a brick downtown, a handsome Art Deco theater called the Warner, and honest food at fair prices.

   Read the complete Torrington write-up.

2. 2. Cornwall

3. 3. Kent

   Kent is a quiet Connecticut town on the Housatonic River, near the New York line, and it has an air of unhurried good taste that comes from being just far enough from the city to remain calm. A white-steepled main street, a private boarding school, small galleries, antique shops and a handful of good places for coffee give the centre its look, and beyond the houses the hills of the Litchfield county close in with woods and stone walls. The Appalachian Trail passes through, one of the few places where it follows a village street, and hikers stroll in with heavy packs to buy lunch.

   Read the complete Kent write-up.

4. 4. New Milford

   New Milford is big in a way that surprises people: it is the largest town in Connecticut by area, spread across both banks of the Housatonic River with a long green at its center. That green is the heart of it, a classic New England common lined with churches and old houses, and the place to start a loop into the Litchfield Hills. You get a real town here, not a museum piece, with working shops and the usual stations and diners you will want before heading north.

   Read the complete New Milford write-up.

5. 5. Back to Torrington

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Torrington write-up.