Looking for hiking options other than crowded parks? CT has 110 state parks and 32 state forests. There are more than 130 land trusts. CFPA maintains 825 miles of blue blazed trails, including the New England National Scenic Trail.

Towns and cities own land with hiking trails. An example is my little town of Guilford. It owns four preserves constituting 10 percent of the land in town. The Guilford Land Conservation Trust owns another 10 percent. That is a lot of conserved land.

CFPA is the Connecticut Forest & Park Association. We partner with them often, including on the maintenance of the New England National Scenic Trail (NET). Go to http://newenglandtrail.org  and http://ctwoodlands.org  for information.

If you want to know what else we do, go to http://ct-amc.org . We have committees that hike, climb, bike, paddle and host speaker programs. Our leaders are trained and we offer training to the public.