Alive and Well...

To anybody who's been by my blog lately, I'm writing this very short post to let you know that I'm alive and well. It's been too hot to hike in Phoenix this summer. With average temps hovering at 115º F and lots of humidity, I just haven't had it in me to get out and hit the trails this summer. Never fear, autumn will soon be here and I have plenty of hikes already planned that I will blog about. Looks like we should finally be in the low 100s in the next week and then the high 90s the week after. Can't wait for the cooler temps!

San Tan Mountain Trail

On Easter Sunday, I went for a hike at the San Tan Mountain Regional Park. It's part of the Maricopa County regional park system (which means you pay $6/vehicle to park... or you can buy a yearly pass for $75). San Tan Mountain Regional Park is located in Queen Creek, Arizona (southeast valley).

At the Littleleaf Trailhead

I had never been there before, so I really didn't know what to expect. The trails are easily marked and are located just a short distance from the parking lot. After reviewing the map that the ranger gave me, I decided to hike the San Tan trail. At 6.7 miles (10.3 kilometers) long, this is the longest trail in the park. The majority of the trailheads start right at the parking lot, including the San Tan trailhead. Instead of hiking the trail directly, I started off with a detour on the Littleleaf trail. The Littleleaf trailhead is located to the right of the parking lot. The trail quickly traverses a dry wash and then you find yourself on a very slight incline for about a half mile. The scenery is classic rugged desert (I love it). One thing you quickly realize is that this mountain park is a veritable saguaro forest. They are everywhere and most are very tall, fat and old. When you reach the end of the of the Littleleaf trail, you'll merge onto the Goldmine trail. Veer to the right and continue until you come to the San Tan trail.

Beavertail Flowers

The San Tan trail meanders around the periphery of the park and you'll be greeted by every type of desert vegetation known to this part of the Sonoran desert. Look closely and you'll find pincushion cacti nestled under cholla and creosote bushes. Beavertail cacti are abundant. The creosote is thick in this area and it's odiferous leaves greet you whenever the wind kicks up. The trail itself is relatively flat throughout. Toward the end of the trail, there is a short uphill hike, but it's not too bad. One thing to keep in mind is that the end of the trail (beginning where the trail meets the Hedgehog trail) is located in a dry wash with lots of loose sand and gravel. This will add time and challenge to your hike. Due to the length of this trail, I would rate it as a moderate hike.

If you have the chance to go, go now. The ocotillo are still in full bloom, the cholla and beavertail are beginning to bloom, and the saguaros are budding and will be in full bloom by the time May comes around. Take plenty of water and wear sunscreen and a hat; there is precious little shade on this hike. Enjoy

Alta - Bajada - National Loop at South Mountain

I haven't been hiking much in the last few months. Work has been crazy. Life has been crazy. You know how it goes. Nevertheless, I made hiking a priority this past weekend. I got my lazy self out of the house and went to South Mountain with a friend.

Truth be told, I have been hiking every weekend, but I've been tending to stay on the trails I always go on. I love them, but sometimes you just need a jolt to re-invigorate you. I got a jolt on the Alta-Bajada-National loop. It was fantastic.

To get to the trailhead, you enter South Mountain off Central Avenue. Take the road for about 2.5 miles until you see a t-split. Keep to the right and you'll find yourself on San Juan Road. Take San Juan Road to the very end and you'll arrive at the trailheads for both the National and Alta trails. Keep to the left and start the ascent up Alta to hike this loop.

Let me be frank, the ascent up the Alta trail is tough. Really. I had to stop numerous times just to take a breather before we got to the peak. This trail goes up, and up, and then up some more. At first the slope isn't too bad, but as you get higher up on the mountain, the slope becomes steeper. Take my advice, don't do this too quickly. Instead, go slow, and take breaks to look at your beautiful surroundings. To your left is a great view of downtown Phoenix. Directly behind you are the towering Estrella mountains. After about two miles, you'll finally reach the top. Take one more break and enjoy the magnificent view.

Once you get the first part of the trail behind you, it's all easy sailing. You'll head down the Alta trail on the other side of the mountain for a short way, and then you'll pretty much be hiking a ridge line for a couple of miles.There are lots of barrel, saguaro, hedgehog and pin cushion cacti and ocotillo on the route. If there's a breeze blowing for you as there was for me, you'll be treated to the scent of the abundant creosote bushes. It's a real treat.

At the end of the ridge line, you'll descend the mountain in a serious of switchbacks until you find yourself back on the desert floor. Hike this all the way to San Juan Road and cross the street to a small parking lot. On the left side of the parking lot is the trailhead for the Bajada trail. The Bajada trail is a relatively easy trail that skirts San Juan Road. There aren't as many cacti on the Bajada trail, but there are a lot of shrub bushes that dot the landscape here. I hear the Bajada trail is stunning during wild flower season. That's just a few weeks away so I'll go back and report what I find here. After a few miles, you'll see the junction for the National trail. Stay to the left and cross San Juan Road one last time. The National trail will gently ascend the mountain and, after a few miles, you'll find yourself back at the trailhead. Be forewarned that this part of the National trail is an active horse trail. We passed at least of dozen horses in about 30 minutes of hiking. If you're afraid of horses, you may want to avoid this trail.

If you can get through the first couple of miles on the Alta trail, you'll really enjoy this 9-mile hike. I highly recommend it. Happy hiking.

Hiking in Spain

The Trailhead

I was in Spain last week. Madrid to be exact. Spain is one of my favorite countries in Europe, and I try to get there at least once a year. This year, I set out to do something new. I decided it was high time to go hiking. Stupid me, I didn't do much research before leaving the good ole USA. I figured I would easily find all the info I needed once I was there using this nifty search tool called Google. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. About the only thing Google was good for in this search was telling me where Madrid's hiking hot spot happened to be. I will get to that more later in this post. Suffice it to say, I only happened upon the trail head after a couple of false starts and a lot of frustration. So, did this desert hiker enjoy hiking in Spain? Absolutely! In many ways, it reminded me of hiking in Arizona. In other ways, it was very foreign (no pun intended).

Rio Manzanares

So, let me first say that unless you are a fluent speaker of Spanish (I am not, I just know how to order tapas and find out where the rest rooms are), you may have as much difficulty in finding places to go hiking in Madrid as I did. I found a general spot and figured my friend and I would head up there and ask the locals for direction. That was a mistake. We got there, went to see an old castle, had some tapas, and then were ready to start our hike. We asked our waitress were we could find the trail head. She had no idea. We asked the couple sitting at the table next to ours. They had no clue. We went to the town's information center. It was closed. We walked down one street and up another looking for signs. Nothing. Discouraged, we headed back to Madrid.

Discovering that my rudimentary Spanish wasn't helping me, I concentrated trying to find the hiking spot using English web pages. Again, I came up short in my search. At long last, I found what I thought would be a bright spot... but was again a big disappointment. The blogger told about going to Manzanares el Real (in the mountains about 45 minutes north of Madrid) and discovering that the tourist information office was closed. I gasped "OMG, that's what happened to me." I continued to read, knowing that what I wanted was within my grasp. The blogger went on to talk about how hard it was to find directions to the trail head without have a doctorate in Spanish ("just like me," I thought). Nobody in the town was helpful with directions. On and on the blogger blogged. At long last, they finally found the trail head. The hiking was good. The scenery was great. The end. WAIT A MINUTE! Where's the trail head? I couldn't believe the blogger would go through all the detail and then fail to deliver directions to the trail head for others.

Well, I won't be that blogger. I went back to Manzanares El Real with my friend via bus. It was the 724 that takes off from Plaza de Castilla. We got off the bus when it pulled up to the Visitor Information building at Avenida de Madrid #11. Walk west on that street (stay on the same side of the street from which you got off the bus) until you come to a street called Avenida de la Pedriza. When you come to this street (it's right before the bridge), turn right (which is north) and following it until it dead ends at the trailhead. That's it. The walk is about 2 miles. Just stay on that street and don't get off it until you can't go any further. This street will follow the Manzanares River the entire length of your walk. If you can't hear the water rushing by, you probably got off the street and need to get back to it. If you have a GPS device with you, the trail head is roughly located at 40.742057, -3.883355.

This trail isn't hard at all. In fact, it's very much like a walk in the park. But, it connects to many more trails and you can make it as long and hard or as short and simple as you like. Additionally, the spot is very popular with rock climbers. Bring your equipment if you want to do that.

Rio Manzanares

Most of the trail follows the Manzanares river. On the north side of the trail as you start out is a rugged granite mountainside. It's literally granite (I think). The rock is very polished in some places, so I found myself constantly watching my footing. The ultra smooth stone was just about as bad as the foot gremlins on Arizona trails. On the south side of the trail (across from the river) is a huge forest of pine trees. As if that didn't make the trail smell good by itself, I found lots of wild rosemary bushes growing along the north side of the trail. It was heaven.

On the day we hiked it (in mid October), the leaves were changing color. There were lots of reds and yellows mixed in with the lush green pine trees. The sky was also particularly clear and we could view the peaks of the mountain chain for miles. There are a few restaurants at the trail head, and even one about a half mile into the trail. If you're planning on eating, though, I would recommend making it a picnic because there are lots of places to stop along the river or a short climb up the rocks. We hiked for several miles along the river, discovering flowers we'd never seen before, spying on trout swimming in the clear water, and just enjoying the sun and clean air. All in all, it was a beautiful hike.

Being a hiker from the United States, one thing really felt "foreign" to me about this hike, and that thing was trail etiquette. In the US, there is an established trail etiquette the people follow (excluding the newbies). When I pass somebody along the trail here in the US, I always great the person with a hello or good morning, and they will, generally, great me back. In Spain, or at least on this trail in Spain, people did not talk to people outside the parties. I said "hola" a few times and just got blank stares from the people as they continued to push by. I stopped with the greeting and went into observation mode. I thought perhaps my accent discouraged them from greeting me back, but then I observed that nobody greeted one another like we do here. I also noticed that there is not right of way. Here, we usually give the right of way to the people on the ascent, letting them waive the right if they so choose. Not so on this trail. People pushed passed on another and it seemed like a general free for all. I probably shouldn't judge all Spanish hiking by this one experience, but having spent a lot of time in Spain, this "rudeness" on the trail really doesn't seem out of place. Spaniards, in general, are not good queuers so I suppose that would also translate to the trails. Spain, if you're listening, you should hire me to help you develop better trail etiquette and to help you attract the English-only speaking tourist to your beautiful trails. I'm just saying is all.

La Pedriza (Guadarrama Mountains)

Well, my readers know that my heart is in the mountains of the American west, but if I had to hike any other place, I would definitely pick Spain's Guadarrama mountain range. Partly because they sort of reminded me of my beloved Arizona mountains, partly because they had a beauty and personality all their own. If you ever find yourself in Spain, do yourself a favor and find a trail head ASAP. You won't regret it.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:40.742058,-3.883690

Sounds of Nature

Back in the spring, I posted an entry about the sounds of nature. I wrote that I didn't wear headphones and listen to my iPod while I was hiking. I preferred the sounds of nature, instead. The beating wings of a hummingbird, the call of quail, the scuffling sounds of lizards making a hasty retreat from approaching people. These are the sounds I love to hear when I'm hiking. For me, it's like going to a movie: I'm looking to escape my urban life. I don't want to hear the beats of my favorite musician, car traffic, or loud humans. I can hear them all the time when I'm back in reality. When I'm out hiking, I just want to enjoy nature in all her raw goodness.

I got a lot of emails from that post with people agreeing with me. This morning, while I was reading up on National Park Service news, I came across a blog entry that reminded me of that posting. It stated that Zion National Park (one of my all-time favorite parks) just announced approval of a "Soundscape Management Plan." The purpose of the plan, they state, is to improve the soundscape of the park. In other words, visitors to the park would have a greater opportunity to hear nature in a natural setting while leaving the polluting sounds of civilization to the confines of the developed areas like the visitor centers and lodge. The NPS blog summarized it best by stating: "One reason people come to National Parks is to be able to hear the sounds of nature--wind in the trees, water babbling over rocks, or the song of the canyon wren."* I couldn't have said it better.

I think this is exciting and am looking forward to how they implement the plan. If it's successful, I'm hoping it will be a model for other national and state parks to follow.

*from nps.gov website accessed on 10/01/2010
http://www.nps.gov/zion/parknews/zion-announces-approval-of-the-soundscape-management-plan.htm

Location:N Cottage Terrace,Scottsdale,United States

The Curious Coyote

I arrived at the mountain at first light. The sky was still a deep purple to the west as a thin line of gold slowly radiated larger and brighter on the eastern horizon. This was my first time to South Mountain so early. Despite the early morning, the wind was warm and dry. I decided to begin my hike by ascending the Ridge Line Trail. I knew that would get my muscles and lungs burning a little.

The sun arced upward and began to bathe the eastern side of the mountain in a clear, golden light. This was one of those mornings in Phoenix that is clear of smog and haze. I had the mountain to myself for the time being, or so I thought.

A climbed up the mountain at a leisurely pace. There was no need for hurrying. It was a Saturday morning, after all, and I had no where else I needed to be. This was my communion with nature, with God. Up and down, and up and down I went until I finally felt the need to take a rest. I stood to the side of the trail looking out at the mountain. From the Ridge Line Trail, you can spy the several other trails. I took this moment of rest to examine those other trails to see if there were many other hikers out this morning. To my surprise, there weren’t. As I was about to get moving again, a shadow passed before my eyes. Instinctively, I looked for the source and found a coyote about 30 feet directly off the trail to my right.

This coyote was sauntering through scrub bush, his back to me, but a sixth sense must have told him I was watching him. He stopped, turned around and looked at me. Then he did something incredible: he sat down and watched me watching him. He didn’t seem afraid of being so close to me. Perhaps, also like me, he had no where else he needed to be. I squatted down on my haunches and decided to see how long our moment would last. A Gambel’s quail screeched somewhere off to the coyote’s left. He stood and looked down the mountain in the general direction of the bird’s cry, then sat back down and continued to watch me.

The Navajo (Dîné) call the coyote the Trickster, but I felt no fear of being tricked, only curiosity flowed through my mind. What was he thinking? Where does he live? Where’s his pack? What does he make of me? These and other questions floated through my head, but then I realized none of them mattered. All that mattered was this brief moment we were sharing.

After another minute or two, the quail (or perhaps another one) screeched again. This time, the quail's call was too seductive to ignore. The coyote got up and left me to find the noisy quail. Perhaps it was time for his breakfast. I arose, too, and started hiking up the trail again. He continued to glance back at me as he made his way down the mountain, and I continued to glance back at him as I made my way up and over the ridge line.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona

Autumn Has Arrived

It's official! Fall is here. The days are getting shorter and the daytime high temperatures are starting to fall at or below 100 regularly now. Hiking in the desert in late morning or early afternoon is now something that can be done with much more comfort.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to head out to South Mountain and hike a 15-mile loop. It's been far too long and I'm itching to put some miles under my feet again now that it's cool off a bit.

What are other desert hikers going to be doing? Any weekend hikes planned?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:N Cottage Terrace,Scottsdale,United States