Burlington Hiking Challenges

Master of Burlington’s Domain
Burlington Trail Master/Vertical Mile/Century Club Programs

Back in the day, the Burlington Land Trust put together what was known as the Burlington Trail Master Challenge. If you are the rare reader who is interested in the things like the Burlington Trail Master Challenge, welcome! You are my kind of people. If you have no idea what I’m talking about but randomly landed on this page for some weird reason, that’s okay too.

Especially since the Trail Master Challenge no longer exists. Also, to be clear, we are talking about Burlington in Connecticut – not Burlington in Vermont. Although some of the trails in our Burlington can feel as remote as those in Vermont.

I love hiking challenges. Peak-bagging lists, red-line challenges – all that stuff. I am nuts for them and hope to complete every one within my reach. Age and fitness be darned.

I was nearly a Burlington Trail Master before I knew the program even existed. I happened to learn about it while reading through the most entertaining trail guide in the state – the (also no longer existent) Burlington Rambler’s Guide. I struck up an email conversation with Paul Rochford from the Burlington Land Trust and mentioned that I noticed there was a program for weirdo completists like me.

The BLT website said Trail Master completers would receive a certificate of completion and a patch. When I told Paul that I was going to be a BTM, he was excited to tell me that I was the first person to admit to such a thing. As a result, he had to then admit that they had no patches or certificates. But they had T-Shirts!

And I got one.

2018 Update

Ok, so, the Trail Master program is no more. The BLT has moved forward with two new programs: The Vertical Mile Challenge (VMC) and the Connecticut Century Corps (CCC). Both are documented and explained on the Trust’s website. I’m not going to pursue either simply because I’ve a) hiked all the trails involved I’m going to hike, b) not going to hike the mountain bike trails included in the CCC Challenge, and c) I can’t spend so much time in Burlington where there are 168 other towns to hike.

While I’m not going to pursue either, perhaps you should! Burlington has some of Connecticut’s finest and most challenging hiking; and what better way to experience it all that through a rewards program? Happy Hiking!

Burlington Land Trust
CTMQ hikes Burlington Land Trust trails