This was a hike to test my knee after not doing ANYTHING all week including no workouts and limited activity. As you know sadly I re-injured my knee after that New Year's Day climb and then when I hiked last Sunday after about 3 1/2 miles my knee really started to hurt. So my thought is it still hadn't recuperated from the New Year's Day hike and thus I decided to lay low for the week.

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altho here at home it feels tight. I had a route in my head to go up and around 8a and then veer west and hook up with VOAZ so I had some bail out options if my knee flared up. Did I do any of that? a small tad of 8 and that was it. I ended up at the top of 304 which I thot hooked up with 8 but it didn't so I did part of an old trail that has been closed; which was obvious when I came across a small part that was no longer there. I thot I saw the trail (encountered some interesting cairns) to hook up with across the gully but nope. And this was NOT the day to do exploring but I might come back to see where it takes me though the trail seemed to disappear... but I did spot another trail across the way (now looking at my route that would be 8b).

So I went back up the hill to the top of 304 and then headed down the east part of that which I guess was the 8a. But instead of continuing on the 8a a little bit later I u-turned and headed east to go thru some gullies and up another hill and around the corner and up another hill and back to the 38th St TH. All the while saying "yes" as my knee was behaving. We have some AZ Trail next weekend so I need to be ready to go.

There was finally some rain in the forecast that was coming into the valley around 8-9pm. So Chumley and I met over by Squaw Peak and decided to make the Circ Loop and extended it around to the Quartz Trail. The first 5+ miles were dry but we could see rain off to the west. It slowly worked its way over to us and started raining as we hiked back on the Mohave Connector Trail. The skies opened and a solid rain fell. Flashes of lightning illuminated the area which was really cool and not scary. We completed the loop and were soaked even with rain gear. Felt great hiking in the rain again!

As it looked more and more promising that magic sky water would actually fall, I decided I wanted to be outside to enjoy what would apparently amount to mostly just a 1-2 hour frontal passage. It seemed to be lingering out in western AZ, so I decided to wait a while for a late start in hopes of catching the rain.

We were still mostly early. The night was great anyway. Low clouds and city lights eliminated the need for headlamps. It was 75 degrees at 8pm on January 10. There was a very nice breeze.

As hoped however, the front finally arrived with fierce winds, a couple of too-close-for-comfort lightning strikes, driving rain, running water, puddles, and all around good times. Managed to get back to the parking lot after wading through a few shallow rivers and captured the requisite selfie. Somehow the parking lots were totally empty.

I will never understand why people here bitch about the lack of rain all the time and yet don't take advantage of it when it actually happens.

got out late today after working some overtime this morning, a nap and finishing christmas shopping
haven't done this loop in awhile
both 8A and 8B are nice trails with some elevation gain
nice little rainstorm at work this morning
glad i was inside

try to hike somewhere other than south mountain on sundays
failed to get a parking spot at 32nd & lincoln, so went to the 304 trailhead
nature circumference voaz 1A irregular link circ 1A yates quartz ridge ruth hamilton
the idea was to hit 1B and 1C, otherwise just random wandering around
not too busy on any of these
the only part i didn't care for was 1A near the freeway
cool to start, warming up nicely by the end
met my brother and his girlfriend for tots and wings after

I rounded up my niece for my Sunday hike, as to me it's still a little too warm to head out to the Supes... well unless I want to get up way before the crack of dawn.

I took Mia up to the Tibber Ridgeline via a new route (and there's still a different route to try yet of 3 possibilities); it's a heck of a climb but not bad for 445 feet in 1/2 mile. And then we headed west to the top of Tibber Ridgeline and over and down across to the VOAZ where we headed up again. This trail on the north side had some issues the last time I came down it but I didn't notice any trail issues on the way up (from the rain earlier this fall).

We headed down to the 304 and I took her contouring the side of the mountains over to 8 where we went around the front side of a couple little mountains and then thru the wash, east and then north. I got sick a little at the junction of the 8 (something about that junction) and then we powered up the little hill for the all down hill from here part.

In the past couple hikes I saw another trail that was in front of the mountain that the 8 goes around so we decided to check that out. It's kind of hard to spot as we almost walked by it. It takes you west and down thru a wash and then veers south but we were not happy with the heat so we took a short cut thru a deep wash and back out to another sort of trail and headed back to Tonto Jr.

It was fun to get caught up with my niece and to have company. I'm just not big on hiking alone as I just don't like spending that much time talking inside my head to myself. We would have hiked further but it did start to get a little warm and no breeze. Surprisingly, there weren't nearly as many folks and dogs and bike riders out on the trail as there was last Sunday.

This weekend, it's back to some Arizona Trail .

Today was the day I was going to finally be able to do my VOAZ Loop I had plotted in my head. So off I went via 100 over to the bike trail that would take me north. I could see on the hill between me and the 8 (to the SE) was a trail that went on the mountainside so I'm going to have to investigate that. I continued on the bike trail south (slightly different from the one I took a couple weeks ago) and then crossed over the wash to meet up with the 8. I kept on the 8 for awhile and could have went off the 8 to cross over earlier but stayed to the south where I met up with the 8 again (could have stayed on it). I eventually hooked up with the 304/302 up to the VOAZ junction. I have to say the breeze was sure lovely up until here. It was a very strange breeze for this time of year... it was COOL .

I hadn't taken the VOAZ this direction before so it was obviously a little easier once I got to the saddle and started heading down hill. The rain seems to have damaged part of this trail. Once down to 1A my goal was the green hill (a tinted color from the rock) and then up to my lately dubbed: Tibber's Happy Hour Ridgeline that I discovered last week but was too tired and hot to take on. As I was climbing to the Green Saddle I thot I could hear coyotes so I stopped a couple times to listen. And then a short time later HAZel gave me my mileage update with the sound of... yep, you guessed it, a coyote . Once on the ridgeline it has a couple steep sections and because of being out of shape I did have to stop and catch my breath plus the breeze had disappeared.

Once to the top of Fifteen Cent Peak I rested for a moment and noticed other people on what I had dubbed Twenty Cent Peak while looking at it from VOAZ. I had also seen a trail that seems to come up from the south side so I may have to give that a whirl one of these times. Anyway, I hadn't intended on ascending Twenty Cent Peak but after a slight rest, I looked over at it where some other people had just come down and decided, "what the heck" and give it a whirl as it wasn't that high and was still in partial shade.

Well Twenty Cent is a fun ascent. I walked around on top and thot I saw a path over to the NE so headed toward that. Well it wasn't a path and I wasn't in the mood to trek back up to the top of the peak. I surveyed the situation and decided it didn't look like I could cliff out anywhere so down I went. I crisscrossed for a bit and decided it would take way too long to get down this way so I tried to aim for straight down as much as I could. I crossed over to a rocky crag thinking there might be a trail out of that but nope so back I went and continued my trek down to a trail that crosses between these northern mounts.

Finally I reached the trail altho it was very rocky and headed south until I reached up with what looked like a normal trail and took that back to the 40th St TH. Saw about 5 little lizards, a dozen hikers and a dozen bikers. Oh, and I got a very close fly-by from a most beautiful hawk!

needed a longer training hike today
all of my hikes have been five or six miles lately, or less when doing a peak
haven't hiked from 32nd and lincoln trailhead in months
was a little surprised to get a parking spot at 7:20
quartz ridge to lv yates
met a gal who said she just got stung by a bee ("just one bee")
thought that was odd, so in looking around, saw quite a few bees swarming about in a wash - must bee a hive in the rocks
if you look at my track, you can see where i tiptoed around on the other side of the trail
then missed the cutoff to the peak 2429 trail, so continued down to trail 100
up to 2429, since i didn't hike camelback or piestewa this week
back down to 100, then a social trail up to 1A
made a loop of irregular link, the circumference trail and voaz, then 1A to 304
stopped at the drinking fountain to get a big drink and refill my water bottle
five minutes out of the way seems a fair trade to avoid being on the news
backtracked to 8B, which was slow, then easy back down 8A
nice hike, had fun, quite a few people out all morning
nothing new, but a new combination of some of my favorites
hit double digits for the first time in weeks
aeg seems high

went out for a 6 mile hike thinking of the 8, 304, Irregular, VOAZ, back to TH. ended up doing:
8 from west side of TH but didn't see any signs for it as I hiked along so took various paths heading SE as I know where I needed to be and the current trail was not getting me there. It would be hard if you didn't know where you wanted to go and tried to figure it out while hiking from this side altho maybe it eventually took you on the 100 going east to the 8 turnoff.

Finally found the 8, that was an interesting way to get to it and unbeknownst to me at that time, the "nothing ventured, nothing gained" tour began. I continued up the 8 making good progress as I worried how much of my hiking mojo I lost due to travel. Down the other side I went before you turn west and down into a wash. It's always a little confusing when you get into the wash and instead of veering north I saw a trail coming south out of the wash so I took it thinking it veered back north... but it didn't. I consulted HAZel and decided, "what the heck" the worse I could end up is over by the Squaw Peak TH.

So I continued on my merry way (saw one bike rider and one hiker) having no idea if I was on a marked trail. I thot it would eventually take me around this mountain and maybe down the trail I had spotted from the other side. Eventually I ended up at a saddle and a trail marker that said 8A. Well how 'bout that. I think Joe had mentioned this trail recently, the old Quartz Ridge Trail. Always wanted to take that. Here at the saddle and on the way up 8B I ran into about a 1/2 dozen hikers. I hiked up the 8B to another saddle and then headed down the other side thinking I would be able to hook up with another trail I saw way below and head over to the 304.

Well 8B is a pretty long hill, it would be a good climb from the opposite side for sure and it seemed it went on and on. It was a bit slippery and steep in places. Finally I got to the bottom and guess where I was... the north end of the Squaw Peak TH where I had been a month or so ago and had to retreat from my circumference hike. I was a bit surprised but on I went taking the right turn at the 304 and headed north. You drop down into a deep wash and you have the option of heading west as you come out or up these rather large steps continuing north. I opted for the big steps and continued the climb up to the saddle where the junction of the 8 and 304 are. I think I recall doing the 8 to the 304 awhile ago.

On the way down the north side I took a path that led to the west rather than staying on the 304. After going further west than I thot, I eventually joined up with the 304 and up, up I went. Here was another test to see how being out of the hiking mode would effect me. Delightfully, I did pretty well; the trail didn't seem quite as steep or long as I anticipated. I sat for about two minutes on the bench at the top relishing my success before heading back down, over to the Irregular C and back up the VOAZ (love that trail). The VOAZ seemed MUCH longer than when I did it about a month ago.

Then back down the 304 to the 1a back to the TH but nope, I hit one of those darn horseshoe trails and tracked way further west than I wanted. I finally found a crossover trail that took me back toward the TH. It seems to have been an old road at one time. I eventually reached the 100 and stayed on it except to wander to take some saguaro pictures. I decided to take the connector trail (2429) back to the TH to make it more loopy. By the time all was said and done, instead of 6 miles, I did 8.4 with some respectable AEG and felt pretty good .

Not too many hikers and bikers on the trails this Mother's Day (felt weird when someone wished me a Happy Mother's Day as I'm not a mother...though my brothers think I am from time to time ). The temp in the high 70s with an occasional breeze was quite nice as were the puffy clouds scattered about. The trails were all in pretty good shape except that 8B was a bit slippery in sections. There's lots of miscellaneous unmarked trails out there one could venture out on just for something different.

This little loop gets a lot of use. I like it. I like tricycles too but feel like everyone is staring.

If you are new to the area it would be tough to get the exact loop without gps. Going clockwise I wanted to turn right early twice. Route Scout, the app of champions, kept me on track.

This is an old trail that needs attention. The trail has changed so much several of the sign posts are ten feet out in the middle of nowhere. There is one junction on the backstretch that is signed thirty? feet away for Perl Charles which I took mistook. Coming back I did leave the more defined trail. My bad, but I'm thinking your average joe might mis judge it too. Where it seriously needs attention is on the right or east leg coming back. It's washed out and a mess. I doubt the park will ever fix it. They'll continue funneling resources to the outer parks and close this leg off.

Areas of this loop are quite scenic right now. Palo Verdes are non-priggish and blooming in harmony. Did you know brittlebush is a member of the sunflower family?

There was a shocking moment when I laid eyes on two poppies. Tiny but wow, it's late April!