AMC Outdoors, June 2003

By Katharine Wroth

The phone call came one day 26 years ago: Would you be interested in writing a guide to 50 hikes in Connecticut? Sue Hardy said she thought so, then relayed the message to her husband, Gerry, at work. The two AMC leaders had spent years exploring the state's blue-blazed trail system. By the time Gerry got home from his engineering job, he says, he'd already come up with a list of 50 hikes to cover. Eight long months of on-the-ground research, writing, and editing later, their project was complete.

"Gerry would write about 500 pages on each hike and I'd cut it down to three," recalls Sue, a former high-school math and science teacher. Their collaboration is now a staple of the Countryman Press "50 Hikes" series. The Connecticut guide is in its fifth edition, with a twist: the Hardys' son Dave — an active AMC member who is the director of field programs for the Green Mountain Club — re-hiked and revised the tome for the last two editions.

Dave, one of four siblings, has helped out before, co-leading Major Excursions with Sue when Gerry, who has multiple sclerosis, was no longer able to hike. The couple, who have belonged to AMC since the early 1970s, led local, interchapter, and major excursions for years as members of the Connecticut Chapter. Both have been chapter chair; Gerry also served as AMC's Major Excursions chair and Sue was on the board of directors in the 1980s, during the controversial bylaws revision. Their energy and devotion earned them the Distinguished Service award in 1989. "The club is not the same club we joined," Sue says, citing its growth and structure. "But it couldn't have stayed the same and survived."

The Hardys populated AMC with Dave and their three other children, Patty, Chuck, and Mary Anne, all of whom have been members and bagged the 4,000-footers. And, though Sue and Gerry's travels now tend to be for visits with their five grandchildren, this is still one hardy family.

—Katharine Wroth is Senior Editor of AMC Outdoors.