WILBRAHAM – Since it first began more than four years ago, the Wilbraham Hiking Club has organized hikes for people across the region and has grown to include a roster of 1,200 hikers.

Geraldine Morgan, a longtime member who joined about three months after the group’s inception, told Reminder Publications the group started in the early spring of 2012 and was founded by Jay Taylor, an experienced hiker and Wilbraham resident.

“Jay and his wife have been hiking all of their lives,” she noted.

Morgan said she first found out about the club through an article in The Reminder.

She said she’s created friendships through the hiking club and considers hiking to be a spiritually fulfilling aspect to her life.

There are about 200 core group members who attend hikes about once a month, Morgan explained.

The club hosts a hike typically once every weekend and cancels rarely. A hike leader always accompanies members on a trip. She considers the hikes to be “very casual.”

The club features hikes for beginners and trips for more experienced hikers such as a primitive backpacking hike through Mount Washington State Forest in the Berkshires, which is tentatively set for the beginning of August and is limited to eight hikers, she said. The hike would start at Bash Bish Falls and continue through the state forest.

“It’s going to be, I believe, one night and the essence is of teaching folks skills to survive … The idea is that it’s black bear country and there are coyotes and you need to know how to prepare your food, how to stay away, at least 200 feet, from your food source so that you eliminate the chances of interfering with any critters,” Morgan said.

Scott Wasserman, a resident of Easthampton, will be the hike’s leader, she noted. The hike will be overnight. The group would climb to Alexander Mountain, which has an elevation of 2,200 feet.

“He is going over the gear,” Morgan explained. “Not just anybody can show up. He’s going to be screening people; making sure people have everything that they need or might need.”

Morgan said the group has hiked various areas in Wilbraham such as Fountain Park, Crane Hill Recreation Area and Wilbraham Mountain.

“We have gone as far afield as over an hour away,” she noted. “Beyond Chester is one of the farthest we’ve done … We’ve actually done Bash Bish Falls as a hike [in the past].”

About once a month, club members hike Mount Warner in Hadley and frequently hikes a portion of the 47-mile Robert Frost trail in Amherst.

Wilbraham Hiking Club members have also helped maintain the Rice Preserve in the community for the past two years, Morgan said.

“About once a year … we will go up there and just clear the trail and make sure that there’s no branches that are down,” she noted.

She added the club has begun to limit the number of hikers on a trip, as the group has become better known.

“We have had upwards of 45 people on the trail on some of the very popular hikes and we’re starting to think that that’s having too much of an impact on the woods,” Morgan said.

Club members also hike year-round, including winter hikes and snow shoeing hikes, she added.

For more information about the Wilbraham Hiking Club visit the group’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Wilbraham-Hiking-Club-112130382262969.

The club’s MeetUp page can be found at www.meetup.com/Wilbraham-Hiking-Club-Meetup.

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