Ledyard — When Meghan Read conducted a hiking survey in March on the Ledyard Community Resource group on Facebook, she found she wasn't the only one who didn't know much about trails in town.

"One of the questions I had asked was 'what do you think we can do to encourage hiking in Ledyard' and also 'what are any obstacles you think keep people from hiking,'" she said. "By far the biggest obstacle was that people don't know. One person said they've lived in Ledyard for, like, 20 years and they didn't even know there were these trails available."

Through the Conservation Commission, interactive maps for 13 trails in town have been completed as part of a trails mapping project, and the commission is finishing the townwide map. Once that is done, all of the updated maps will be available on the town website at bit.ly/ledyardtrailmaps. The commission also will be looking for volunteers to help with the trails.

An avid hiker herself frustrated by the lack of information, Read said it had been her dream to map the trails in town since she moved here five years ago. She had joined the commission because her interests aligned with the group, and everything fell into place to start the maps project last year.

She said the project took a lot of work from not only commission members but also people outside the group. In addition to gathering their own GPS information, members worked with Avalonia Land Conservancy and the Groton Open Space Association to collect data on their trails in town. Read also worked with the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments for mapping services; she had done other mapping projects in college but no longer had the software.

Then, they had to verify that the data matched the trails, as well as confirming how many parking spaces trailheads had and what colors the trails were blazed. Gary Paul, an alternate member of the commission, walked some of the trails that didn't have GPS data with his daughter and assisted in some of the verification. He lives near Glacial Park, and he said the outdated map for that trail was one of many talking points during the project.

He said every commission member was dedicated to the project and excited about making it happen, especially with Read's enthusiasm and heart. He said it was hard to quantify how much time he spent on the project because sometimes he'd be out for a trails walk for his own personal enjoyment and end up doing some tasks for the project.

"It's a win-win for everybody," he said, adding that it not only gets people active but also puts Ledyard on the map as a hiking destination. "That's, I think, the best part of it. You look at what the world's going through right now. What a way to combat that, combat your anxieties and stress and come on out with a walk and rediscover what it's all about."

Read also had met with the Parks and Recreation Department in March about the project, as the department was looking to update its trails brochure. She said they are working together on developing a Hike Ledyard program that uses the Conservation Commission maps to encourage use of the trails.

"This is kind of getting all the pieces together," she said.

Through her time on the trails for the project, she said she enjoyed learning about the trails, which take visitors through a variety of landscapes with interesting features. She said there's also a lot of history, from geological leftovers from the glaciers to an early 1900s trolley path, and a fellow commission member is developing a scavenger hunt for kids and adults of points of interest along the trails.

a.hutchinson@theday.com