Write-up: Greg Sipp

Leader: Paul Sirtoli

Co-leader: Greg Sipp

Wilder Vly … Not this time!
Déjà vu is a real phenomenon. Today’s hike was reminiscent of the attempt to Wilder Vly in Feb 2023, with some eerily similar outcomes. Two Tramps went into the drink, not the polar plunges that we are accustomed to from Paul, but enough to reassess the hike. The weather you ask about, it was cold, hovering around 12 degrees with sun all day long. Not much in the way of wind. The snowmobile trail did make most of the hike easy to traverse.

We came up short actually hitting our target today and ironically it was the lack of tech that would be the Achilles heel. With the clear skies and no obstructions to the 74 GPS satellites, it was the Gaia app not being set to show the tracked hike that prevented us finding Wilder. Once home; the track was downloaded and showed we were short of our goal of Wilder Vly by 1⁄2 mile. It just may be time for “someone” to buy a new map.
It was beautiful regardless of where we were or where we were going. The women’s baby blue snowshoes that Tom had was a fun topic of conversation by all, or as he calls them, masculine man blue. Pauly went off script as he usually does and when asked “where are we going”, he responded “not sure”. Not a typical Paul answer. We chalked it up to residual effects of the bike accident. Therapy is a long road.
5 Tramps went in and all came out, some did 10 miles and some did 11 miles. Tom started hiking late and consequently did less mileage playing catch-up to the group. At least he was going in the right direction.
Stay tuned for Wilder Vly, attempt 3 – We’ll get there.