Hiking, Multi-Use, & Water Trails
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.”
-Edward Abbey
If there’s one main section of CTMQ that I don’t think I’ll ever complete everything listed, it’s this one. Although it may be my favorite part of the whole website (and the most read), so that keeps pushing me onward – and often upward. Up our verdant Connecticut hills and mountains! Here you’ll find every single trail in the state… and my attempt to hike, bike, and kayak them all. No time to waste; let’s get to it!
Jump to Multi-Use/Cycling & Canoe/Kayak Water Trails
For my list of suggestions on how to hike smart and safe, go here.
Let’s hike the Connecticut Forest & Parks Association’s Blue Trails Challenge!
To me, this list is clearly the hiking list in Connecticut. With two National Scenic Trails (the AT is included here) and some of the oldest trails in the state, this amazing (mostly) volunteer organization is just fantastic. I love the CFPA, so let’s take on their Blue Trails Challenge!
State Parks, Forests, Preserves, Reserves, NAPs, & WMAs
I see differing numbers on how many state parks, forests, and other stuff we have in Connecticut, but I do my best to get to them all – and there are a lot. So let’s get going and and hike every state property!
Land Trust Trails
There are around 100 land trusts (and land trust-like entities) in Connecticut and almost all of them have trailed properties. I’d love to hike them all, but let’s be realistic. I’ve been quite surprised by how nice most of my land trust hiking has been. Go here for Lots and lots of Land Trust hikes!
Town Land Trails and Such
Ok, now I’m getting silly, right? No, not really. I’ve enjoyed a lot of excellent hikes on what I call “town owned land,” which includes most non-Audubon nature centers and private property as well. Some towns publish awesome trail guides and everything. Let’s start the long walk: 169 Towns, a billion trails.
Audubon, Nature Conservancy, South Central CT Regional Water Authority, & US Army Corps of Engineers Trails
This is where I’ve combined the trails for all of these entities that you likely never think about, but they also maintain some of the absolute best trails in the state. Don’t believe me? Well, then, go here for CT’s mish-mash trails!
Highpointing & Peakbagging
I put together a list of The 10 highest peaks in Connecticut and while most aren’t exactly hiker friendly, here they are. While we’re at it, here are my ascents of Connecticut County highpoints. And for other non-Connecticut lists, you can go straight to my Highpointing & Peakbagging page.
CT Hikes with Rewards
This has been difficult to stay on top of, and they all seem to change fairly frequently, but I still enjoy the idea of them. These include things like The Sky’s the Limit Challenge, The Giant Master, The CFPA Blue Trails Challenge, etc. If you like these to, go here.
Cycling/Multi-Use Trails
I can’t really say, but it seems like these mostly started as the Rails-to-Trails trails and have been increasing in number ever since. I didn’t decide to ride them until fairly late in the CTMQ game, which is a bit of a bummer since here are an insane number of these things.
Water Trails
I haven’t even really decided if I’m going to make this part of the CTMQ canon. But I have a kayak. So we’ll just have to see. Here are the canoe and kayak water trails in Connecticut.