Friday’s hike started at the Trailhead Staging Area. Bob, Mike, and I hiked 9.9 miles through the northeast corner of the park. Amy, Jill, and George joined us for the first 1.3 miles (short hike).
A view of Four Peaks from the Escondido Trail:
A view of Lousley Hill from the Eagle Trail. This was my first hike on the Eagle Trail.
A view of Youth Group Area from the Eagle Trail. We also hiked the Scout Trail which is visible in the photo below.
These are signs near one of the picnic areas. The lower “No Bottles” sign was painted on top of a “No Trespassing” sign, but the paint has faded enough to see both.
A view of the Flatiron in the distance:
Cyclists on the Pemberton:
We saw this hawk while on our way over to the Scout and Eagle Trails.
Sue says:
Good pics–some of those riders are a good example of how cold it’s been:) Great pic of hawk–red tail? Thanks, as always.
February 6, 2016 — 1:11 pm
Gary Wietgrefe says:
I thought you had been all over the park. Patty and I have biked several times down and around the Youth/Camping area. Always good to have a change. The double sign photo was interesting. It reminded me of a “No Parking” sign in St. Augustine, FL. Printed under the “No Parking” was a line that read something like “If you continue parking here, ZO—- will be enforced”.
February 8, 2016 — 12:01 pm
Kevin says:
Yes, I thought I had too (been all over the park). But in December, as I was looking at a park map, I realized that those were two trails that I had never hiked.
As part of the 100 day challenge, I set a goal for myself to hike each trail in the McDowell Mountain Park in its entirety within a single hike. So, e.g, on Dec 30, 2015, I hiked the entire Pemberton Trail. Two days prior to that I hiked the entire Stoneman Wash Trail (from Pemberton to Pemberton), incorporating several other trails into the route as well. Two others that required lengthy hikes were Dixie Mine and Coachwhip; I combined the entirety of these trails into a single hike (along with a short length of Pemberton) on Jan 3, 2016.
Hiking the Scout and Eagle Trails were the only trails that I had left to complete that goal.
When I turned in my hiking log on Friday, I had 601.9 miles for November 1, 2015 thru Feb 5, 2016. In doing so, I had visited eight of the county parks: Cave Creek, Estrella Mountain, Lake Pleasant, McDowell Mountain, San tan Mountain, Spur Cross Ranch, Usery Mountain, and White Tank Mountain. The only parks that I did not visit were Adobe Dam and Buckeye Hills, but neither of these parks have hiking trails.
February 8, 2016 — 5:29 pm