Gwynns Falls

At higher water levels, the ledge below Route 40 becomes Class 5-6 (at 5.0+ and 1000+ or so cfs). It was awkward hauling my boat up a jagged concrete pouring on the right to the railroad tracks. The day before, the body of a boy who fell in the creek was snagged/recycled here and recovered after a big rescue effort (it was on tv). Be careful of this drop.

Also, I paddled down to the harbor, and I didn't think it was as bad as described above. I enjoyed it, but there was a lot of trash--some of it usable! As far as takeout parking, the Carroll Park Golf Course may have less crime than the Wilkins Ave location. Even safer would be to paddle down to the harbor (eg Harbor Hospital).
While riding my bike here in 2007, I noticed that the pipeline immediately downstream of Route 40 is actually two pipes side-by-side horizontally; at 1000 cfs, I never saw them (well, they seemed like an old dam), but I would say definitely take out on river left above the rapids at the Route 40 bridge to scout or portage--these pipes could be extremely dangerous. The right slot has a good bit of debris hanging from it; the far left may be open (at least at below-minimum level); the center slot has the body of what appears to be a construction crane (amazing!) in it. There is a concrete support in midstream that kind of makes it look like a dam. Also, the trash on the banks has gotten much worse than before.