Hike #19 - Sonoran Preserve - Desert Vista - Dixie Mountain Summit Phoenix AZ

Hike #19

Date: February 23, 2014 

Location: Phoenix AZ

Hikers: Me & Stroodel 

Directions:  
I17 North to Happy Valley Road or 7th Street North to Happy Valley Road. North on 19th Ave. Stay Straight onto N North Valley Pkwy. Take 3rd right onto W Copperhead Trail. Take 1st left onto N Melvern Trail and first right onto W Desert Vista Trail.  This trailhead is behind the Fireside Development. No Water/No Restrooms

Sonoran Preserve - Desert Vista Trailhead 

http://phoenix.gov/parks/trails/locations/sonoran/index.html

or    http://phoenix.gov/webcms/groups/internet/@inter/@dept/@parks/documents/web_content/095100.pdf

This is my second trip to the Desert Vista Trailhead.  Today Stroodel and I are hiking buddies.  It is Jim's birthday and he is off being Reverand Jim.  I will say Happy Birthday thoughts for him at the top of the Mountain. Happy 66th to the best hiking partner a girl could have.

The plan today is a quick hike at a fast pace.  I have my training partner who is speedy out of the gate.  Stroodel and I are ready to go! We are hiking up Hawk's Nest to Dixie Mountain to Dixie Summit.  Per my checking (which is better today) the hike will be a little over 3 miles up and back.

Hawk's Nest gets its name for the cactus that has a large nest in it.  If you zoom in you can see it.  But it will need to be renamed.  I will show you why at the end of the hike.

 It is a decent climb up Hawks Nest. We were moving quick.  A biker caught up to us and said he was surprised how quick we were moving.  I said it was my training partner.  She goes out quick.  But gets a little tired at the end.  It was 65 this morning and there were not alot of people on the trail. This is where Jim and I branched off on hike #15 but today I am staying straight.

We hit the end of the Hawks nest and headed to the right.  We will take Dixie Mountain loop for about 1 mile.  We passed a couple familys and ofcourse they had to talk to the dog.  That is what we always do too.

I rounded the corner and there were two guys riding unicycles.  We often see a guy on Shaw Butte riding one.  It has big mountain bike tires.  One of the guys was slow.  He said he was just learning. He said he knows the Shaw Butte guy.  There are about 10 of them in a group around Phoenix.  I have no idea how he stays on this thing and you add the rocks.  Crazy!!

After he passed we rounded the corner to the summit marker.  .2 to the top.  Steep switch backs and we were up in 5 minutes.

 There were two woman in from of us. They headed up first. Stroodel was slowing down and we stopped for a water break.  The balloons as usual were up to the North of us.  We saw them starting to land.

 Stroodel and I did a Selfie at the top.  Kind of hard to hold it all together when she does not want to sit on the rocks.  I don't blame her.  You can see I17 and the West Valley off to the East.

We take a break to sit for a minute and enjoy the quiet.  Still no one in sight and the summit is all mine! 

We headed back down the same way we came up. Running a litte and skipping the rocks.  I was feeling my legs. This was a good workout.  We stayed on Dixie Mountain til we hit Hawks Nest trail heading down.  Below is the reason the trail needs to be renamed.  If you look closely you will see a small head sticking up.  It is an Owl...who? and Owl...who?  HAHA. People say there are two babies in there. The picture does not do it justice. It is huge! 

Owl's Nesting in Cactus

Back to the parking lot.  I really like this area. Close to home and good workout. 

 This was a great quick hike.  Stroodel and I went up and back in a little over an hour.  Almost 3.5 miles.  Perfect morning hike for hike #19!

Check it off! 

This was a great week. Three really good hikes.  Almost to 20. I hope to pickup some shorter hikes over the next couple weeks. May be time to hit South Mountain area.  Will research soon.

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!

Hike #17 - Bear Canyon to Seven Falls - Sabino Canyon Tucson AZ

Hike #17

Date: February 18, 2014 

Location: Tucson AZ

Hikers: Julio & Linda 

Directions: Take the Ina Road Exit 248, Merge on I10 Frontage Road. Turn left on W Ina Road continue on E skyline Drive, continue on E Sunrise Drive, Turn left onto N Sabino Canyon Road. Take 1st Right onto N Pantano Road. Visitor Center parking. 

Santa Catalina Mountains/Sabino Canyon Recreation Area 

http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coronado/specialplaces/recarea/?recid=25612&actid=50

Bear Canyon FS #29 to Seven Falls is our hike for the day.  This is a 7.8 mile hike in the Santa Catalina mountains in Tucson.  Mt Lemmon is the highest point of the Catalina's.  This Mountain gets snow each year and you can ski.  Not enough snow there now and hard to think about that when it is 85 degrees in mid February.

I checked out this trail and read trip reports.  There are two Trams that you can take if you do not want to hike or to use to get up to a hiking trail.  We chose not to take the Tram which extended our hike a bit.  I can tell you the place was packed.  Tourists everywhere.  Lots of older people and back eat February vacationers.  The trails were not busy though.

If you do take a Tram make sure you take the correct one to hike the trail you want.  The scenic tour one is $8. It is narrated and takes you up Sabino Canyon. You can hop on and off.  The other Tram takes you to the trail head of Bear Canyon/7Falls and it is $3.  It is not narrated.  Check the times too because we never saw the tram while hiking.  Although on the way back we wish we did.

 The first part of the hike is on a dirt road.  This is where you will see most of the people.  Once you hit the trailhead we never saw anyone til miles into the hike.  Keep in mind we went on a Tuesday though. The trail was very easy a slight gradual up.  There were tons of saguaros. Very large ones.
Our pace in the beginning was slow. Julio had camera issues so we stopped several times.  He is killing my stats.  Joking!

I found the trick to keep Julio going on these hikes.  I take the camera from him and let him walk ahead of me.  That keeps him going and then I take his picture and he likes that.  (don't tell him).

He took 300+ pictures.  I obviously will not be putting them all on this blog.

The temperature was hot.  It was in the 80's when we started and the sun was pounding on us.  It was hot but not too bad.  I forgot my hat in the car.

There is a slight elevation gain but it is not really noticeable as you hike up the path.  The sun was on us the entire time.  It was 85 degrees while we hiked and on the way up there was no breeze. On the way back there was a breeze so that was nice.  

It is a beautiful area very different from our Sedona hikes.  I prefer the terrain of Sedona but this is about discovering new areas.  It still amazes me that we are hiking in February and it is this beautiful and warm.  We are fortnate to live is such a great place. 2 hour drive from the house is pretty sweet! 

The stream along the hiking path was mostly dry beds.  We would get to little pockets of water as we walked. 
Julio and I  hop walked across rocks to other side of the stream over 7 times.   

On this crossing we met a couple from Boston.  They noticed my Red Sox shirt.  We chatted about the great weather and how much they missed the winter in New England.  HA HA

There were many blooming cactus and wild flowers all around.  

 We were almost there.  We hiked a little over 4 miles.  It was an easy hike but longer than we expected.  Julio was getting a little antsy knowing that we had 4 miles back after this.  We finally made it to Seven Falls and hiked a little bit past it.  It was 4.5 miles

Heading back we were excited to go back and started talking about lunch.  Julio had Pasta in mind and that kept him going for a while.  We talked about taking the tram too when we got 2 miles down. But we never saw it.  

 I am so glad we did this hike!

We perked up when we knew there was only one more mile left.  On the way down we took the road vs the trail.  It was 1.9 miles back from the trailhead.  

We had a great day.  This was hike #17 - Check it off!! 

In the end our hike was 8.5 miles.  It took us a little over 3 hours.  We took a couple stops and brought out lunch and ate on the trail.  No Bears were spotted. 

It was a fun adventure!