The good part about this spring is that I've taken the advice of my allergist and not hiked or run on days with pollution warnings. First time in 30 years I've escaped some sort of prolonged sinus infection. Downside is that my legs and lungs are way out of shape right now and I'm starting from scratch. Easy 12 minute miles around the loop from the visitors center over to Cave Creek Road tunnel, up around the Golf Course Loop and back. Ran the flats and downhills and walked up the hills.

Sort of bittersweet, taking a final tour of my favorite urban trails for the next 5 weeks. Getting ready to move to Tucson and with shopping for flooring, furniture and paint don't have time on the weekends now to drive more than 20-30 minutes for trail access.

The Golf Course Loop has been discovered now, I saw more people on it this morning than ever before. Saw almost 10 people on that section of my loop. Plus evidence in 3-4 spots closer to Thunderbird of bum's nests that were not there the last time I was on this loop.

Finished off by seeing the first rattlesnake of the season trolling around a few yards away from my car.

For anyone that likes good Chicago pizza, go to Spinatos on 7th Street, however don't go there the night before you go out for a long run or hike. The pizza was pretty tasty last night with a couple of beer's from Flagstaff's Mother Road Brewery. But it made for an uncomfortable run this morning, took almost an hour before I felt halfway decent. Left from the trailhead on 7th Avenue and headed down to the lower dam and up the Central Avenue climb to skirt the midsection of North Mountain. Then circled back around to catch Trail 100, took that over to Trail 101 up to the social trail along 7th Street and caught Trail 100 just before the tunnel. There is a sign on Trail 101 stating that the main trail on the east side of North Mountain is closed for construction.

Headed under the tunnel at 7th Street and kept going to Cave Creek, the new trail work along 100 is quite apparent. The section from the top of the saddle down to Cave Creek is the smoothest I've ever seen in the 15+ years I've been hiking or running that trail. What used to be a short technical section is now an easy jaunt. Headed up to the Golf Course Loop over to Trail 25, back to 100 to 306 and back to my car with a few little extra loops and zig zags to hit the two hour mark.

Just bought an Osprey Duro 1.5 liter running vest and it's quickly turning into one of my favorite packs. Little bit heavier than my Nathan vest, but it doesn't bounce around as much and fits a lot better. Could be a contender for my next pack to do a Grand Canyon run/hike.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, go for a pre-dawn run before I had to work this morning. Hit Trail 100 from the 7th Avenue trailhead at 5:30 AM and thought it's been awhile since I've run with my headlamp, a nice change of pace. Cruised up Trail 100 up to 101 and then cut back over to 100 from there. Went through the tunnel under 7th Street and continued on 100 to the tunnel on Cave Creek. Turned around there and headed up the Tapatio Loop. While at the point where I was the furthest from my car I was zoning out and thinking how cool it is to still be running in the dark. So of course a rock jumped up out of nowhere and splayed me out. Got up, dusted myself up and assessed the damage.

Looking down, one hand felt like it was broken and the other hand was profusely bleeding. But I still had over 4 miles to cover to get back to my car. Wrapped one hand in a bandana and grit my teeth for the run back to my car. Headed home and immediately started icing my hand, luckily not broken just really sprained. Upshot is that I figured out a way to get out of doing dishes for the next few days.

Quick jaunt around my "back yard". ATV cut donuts into park land just off 12th St, north of of Peoria. I followed the tracks north, up trail, towards the small ridge, where the tracks turned along the last path south of the ridge's crest. I lost track of the ATV tracks where that trail joins the main wide trail across the 7th St / Thunderbird / Cave Creek Rd triangle. Also, multiple vehicle tracks departing resort land, off the back of the driving range, heading into park land.

A little LSD run to get the weekend started, 90 minutes seems to be the perfect amount of time. Long enough to cover a fair amount of ground, yet not so much that I spend the rest of the day recovering on the couch. One of the many reasons to live in Phoenix were days like this, 55 degrees & sunny with just a hint of a breeze to start the run. By the time I was finished it was about 70 degrees.

Started at the visitors center parking lot to the tunnel at Cave Creek, went north along Thunderbird which is quickly becoming one of my favorite stretches of trails in the North Mountain area. Went back to the visitors center and hopped on the bandit trail to #101, then back to #100 over to #306 to make essentially a big figure 8 loop. Still had 15 minutes left to run, so finished up with another out and back on the bandit trail along 7th Street.

This week has been a week of odd sighting on the trail. On Thursday saw someone riding an ATV in the park and this weekend had my first encounter with one of those new "E-Bikes". These are mountain bikes with a small electric motor that is supposed to "assist" on uphill sections of trail. However this bike was being ridden by a rather corpulent fellow who wasn't peddling at all and using the motor to guide him around the trail. I'm not sure that I like this new type of bike.

First trail run in a while, I'm at the age where it's tough to admit that it's better to lay low for 3-4 weeks and let injuries heal than to push it and be out of commission for a few months. Eased back in with a low key spin around Trail 100 starting from the North Mountain Visitors Center heading east through the tunnel over to Cave Creek Road. Then headed up on parts of the Golf Course Loop for a bit of AEG and get away from the crowds.

Took a self imposed rest week and this was my first trail run in almost 10 days. Looking for something without a huge amount of gain to loosen my legs a bit and shake off the cobwebs. Started off at the North Mountain Visitor's Center and took Trail #100 over to Cave Creek, then veered north to hook up with Kingsnake's loop. Have to sheepishly admit that because I run and hike with blinders on, sometimes I miss things. It took a hike with my wife earlier this year to find this trail. We were hiking on Trail #100 and she asked if this was another trail in-between a break in the vegetation and if so, where did it lead? So took that trail and discovered this extra trail that's never crowded and makes a nice loop back to 7th Street.

Made it back to 7th Street and still needed to get in another 15 minutes, so took the bandit trail along 7th Street down to the #101 connecter back to #100, then circled back to my car. Trails are crowded this morning, looks like fall/winter hiking season has started.

Hot, muggy and miserable morning for a trail run. High humidity combined with not even the hint of a breeze made this by far the worst run of the summer. Set out to do 90 or so minutes and cut it short. Usually weigh myself before a run to see how much water I need to drink once I'm done, I lost almost one pound per mile this morning it was so humid.

Took Trail #100 from the visitors center under the tunnel and over to Cave Creek. Kept going and turned around at the first big hill near the power line (AKA "Jason's Pole" - Jason Cleghorn's turn around point when he first moved to town and this was his trail of choice). Zipped back across Cave Creek and hooked up with Kingsnake's Golf Course loop and did the northern portion of it along Thunderbird. From there worked my way back to the visitors center.

The summer rains have taken their toll on portions of this trail, some of the trail has been reduced to a small gulley filled with loose rocks.

This hike is a lot more interesting than ever before. As we were doing the hike I have notice another trail that was heading up the mountain. I thought maybe this would connect me to the 100 trail. As we started up came up on a little spot not to far up where someone built a little rock bench, maybe to sit and watch the sunsets.
Of course after that the trail faded fast and we kept going up. The trail is mostly lose rock and after awhile looking back down I decided not to go down the way I came up. It really made me nervous and now I am thinking of how I will get down safely.
It was long before I knew this trail would not connect to the 100 trail. So I kept going up to look for a different trail to come down on. I did pass a old mine on the way. Once we reached the top I could see a trail along the ridgeline. I kept going hoping to find a way down the other side but that was not the case.
So we headed back on the ridgeline trail and it took us back to the bench. At that point I realized I should went left on the trail and not right.
But it doing stuff like this that makes a hike more fun. And Rowdy and I had a great time.

After watching the Cardinals fall apart I decided to take Rowdy for a hike.
Not a lot going on I guess most people were just watching the Cardinals highlights.

As we hiked I came across this homeless shelter that I have passed on other hikes here. This time I saw a shadow moving down below. And as the person moved to another Palo Verde there must have been a couple of dozen doves fly down to meet him. I just watched from the trail above. The doves were not afraid as they came right up to him as he feed them.

I decided to hike down to him and we talked. We are the same age and he was waiting for his first Social Security check so he could move out of the wash.
I always carry a twenty dollar bill and I gave it to him. He thanked me for it. But hey he still shares what he does have with the doves in my book he is a good person.