Hike #18 - Maricopa County Preserve - Go John Trail Phoenix AZ

Hike #18

Date: February 22, 2014 

Location: Phoenix AZ

Hikers: Jim, Tina, Oz & Linda 

Directions:  
From Phoenix take I17 North to CareFree Highway.  (SR72).  Travel East until 32nd Street.  Approx. 7 miles. Turn left of 32nd street. Follow straight into the Cave Creek Regional park.  You can also access the park from Cave Creek Road North, Turn West on Carefree Highway and right on 32nd street. Water/ Restrooms. $6 fee at entrance

Cave Creek Regional Parks - Go John Trailhead 

http://www.maricopa.gov/parks/cave_creek/pdf/2013/cave-creek-3d.pdf

Today's plan is hike the Go John trail which is 4.8 miles.

It was a very busy morning.  As we headed up Cave Creek Road we saw the road flagged off at Carefree Highway.  It is one of the legs of the Ragnar Relay this morning.  If you have never heard of the Ragnar it is a road race with a 12 person team that runs from Wickenburg to Tempe.  They run all day and night. It is extreme.  One of the pit stops was before the extrance to the Park.  https://www.ragnarrelay.com/ragnar

We realized while driving that Tina forgot her license. (don't tell the police).  I also forgot that you have to pay to get in to this location.  Tina had a stash of just in case dollars and I had my $1 for QT after the hike.  We made it!! 6 bucks seems pretty steep for what you get.

Once in the park we found another event.  A trail run event.  The place was packed!! All parking lots were full.  It ended up making our hike very interesting.  Check out the trail running series.  Pretty extreme too. http://www.aravaiparunning.com/elephant-mountain/

We finally made it to the correct trailhead parking lot.  Thanks to Jim navigating us. We are ready to hike.  There are few people parked here so we are thinking it is all going to be good.

This is a loop trail.  We decided to do the trail clockwise.  I heard the views are pretty and the beginning is a steep climb of switchbacks.  I thought this was a 4.8 loop.  But we will discover that it is not!  A couple lessons learned on this hike today. Good thing I hike with people that are forgiving of my mistakes.

After a short climb if you turn around the view back to the South of Phoenix is very pretty.  

We took a quick stop at a bench.  Jim as usually is all layered up and quick to start removing clothes. He is such a pain.  LOL.  It was cooler this morning. 54 when we started.  Oz was not thrilled with Jim's hiking poles but that would soon be the least of his worries. 

The path and trail was very nice.  Not alot of rocks. Very well groomed.  As we started a slight descent we hit the junction of the Overton Trail.  It is here that our fun started.  We had seen a few makings for the race but we thought they had already left before we did.  WRONG!

 

You can take the Overton Trail which hooks back to GoJohn for a longer hike that will add an extra 2.1  We are not planning to do that today.  We then realized that the trail racers had not all left.  Suddenly one at a time runners started coming down the hill.  We had to stop alot to let them go by.  Poor Oz.  He was so scared but did great.  

One of 100 runners. Ugh!

Markers for Trail Runners Race

We ended up starting and stopping for about 30 minutes as we would let about 100 trail runners pass us.  We finally made it to the bottom where the runners headed towards Elephant Mountain and we continued on GoJohn.  If you think that was the last of them....think again.

It was a beautiful view as we hiked to what we thought was closer to the end.  If you look to the left of the cactus you can see Elephant Mountain. We hiked Elephant Mountain way back on hike #7  

We hit another junction and now start the incline to the saddle between two mountains.  If you notice on the pole next to Jim's picture it is one of those lovely trail runner markings.  Hmmm. What do you think that means? Yup we are back on the race course.

We made it towards the top when the lead runners started through.  All the young buff guys.  Tina would tell them what number runner they were.  I think she quit after #10.  They were spreadout so it was not as bad as at the start but still slowed us down and yes Oz still had to deal with it all.

My GPS told us that we were way past 4.0 miles and no sign of the parking lot.  That is when I looked at the map and saw that the trail was 5.8.  OPPS. How did that happen? Hey, its an adventure right. All new means, you never know.  No problem, we all agree we can use the exercise.  Especially Jim. Tomorrow is his bday and he is gonna eat his favorite things. At this juncture we know we are close.  We see two guys coming off the Quartz trail and they tell us to stay on GoJohn  Yea...it's a loop.

The view is still beautiful.  There is an old mine up on the hill ahead. Hard to see but pretty cool to think people mined in these hills years ago.  We finished the hike in over 2 hours and went more than 6 miles.  Poor OZ was exhausted when we were done.  This is him on the drive home.  

 This hike is dedicated to OZ. He was a trooper.  I am sure he will sleep the rest of the day.

Lesson learned today = Check location to see if there is an entrance fee.  Bring your license. Bring your cash. Don't look at old trip reports on trails. That is how I messed up the length. The 4.8 came from a report that was before they redid this trail area. Which can happen alot in AZ as they are improving the trails.  Check events if going to a park vs a small trailhead. I do alot of research before finding the trails but I guess I should pay attention to the little details. :)

This was a great hike.  Very pretty area.  Hike #18 done.  Check it off!  

One of my reasons to hike is to EAT.  After the hike Ricky, Mom and I went to Half Moon for a great lunch.  She now knows what DIP is.  Then a visit to Ricky's dorm room at ASU. 

It was a great day!