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Going up Peak 2429 in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve yesterday I noticed that the metal trail maker at about the 1/2 mile point with the arrow that points up and to the right had the name Dixie Peak stenciled on it. Looked official. Anybody have any insight into this? Is it an official change?

I remember this trail before these damn citified trail markers appeared. :SB:

Al_HikesAZ wrote:Going up Peak 2429 in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve yesterday I noticed that the metal trail maker at about the 1/2 mile point with the arrow that points up and to the right had the name Dixie Peak stenciled on it. Looked official. Anybody have any insight into this? Is it an official change?

Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten...

Dixie Peak showed up around late May. I was told there was a name contest to come up with Dixie Peak. This year's Seven Summit Challenge listed "Dixie Peak" instead of "Peak 2429."

slowandsteady wrote:Dixie Peak showed up around late May. I was told there was a name contest to come up with Dixie Peak. This year's Seven Summit Challenge listed "Dixie Peak" instead of "Peak 2429."

Damn - How do I hold back these tides of Progress? And where is Hayduke when I need him? Of all the possible names this has to be the dumbass-est. Did that get through the pumpkin filter? I'm too old to carry a blowtorch up there and it is going to take some time with a hacksaw. Oops. Now I am going to a the prime suspect when monkeywrenching hits that trail marker.

Hayduke Lives!

kingsnake wrote:Hayduke Lives!

Yeah, I hear he moved to Montana!

:SB:
Can't hold back progress ya know...

Heck I can remember when Facebook/Twitter/iPhones/etc. (of which I use none of) weren't needed to tell the neighborhood everything about your life... it was called a 'party line' and everything you said could be listened on by your neighbors.

At least it wasn't the NSA, but then hasn't NSA listening in just some of our new 'progress?'

Al_HikesAZ wrote:Of all the possible names this has to be the dumbass-est

I like it...I knew a hot girl named Dixie. There is also a Dixie Mountain in the Phoenix area.

On the other hand, southern Utah is referred to as "Dixie," yet another reason to NOT call something in Arizona by that name.

Now if only they would come up with an actual name for 5024! I'll start the bidding with "orange arrow peak"

@chumley
The oranges arrows did not make it up 5024, so don't give anybody ideas

I read this triplog and in piqued my interest in the naming of Dixie Peak. After all, Phoenix Parks and Rec already has an officially designated Dixie Summit trail in the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve in the Union Hills.

It would seem strange that they would designate another peak with the same name.

"But there's a sign! It looks official!"

How about, No. It isn't official. And it doesn't even look official. New official trail posts installed by the Phoenix Department of Parks and Recreation look like this: They have the Phoenix decal, and more recently have useful information, elevations, mileages, and QR codes for smartphones. Not spray-painted stencil.
Even the older posts have new Phoenix logo decals on them. http://hikearizona.com/photo=363703

If the Phoenix Parks and Rec put a post on that peak last year, it would have been with new signage, not spray painted stencil.

Then there's the point of 2429 not even being officially WITHIN the boundary of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve! Look at any official map of the preserve. Not only is there no trail marked on it, it is clear that the peak doesn't even lie within the border! Nowhere on ANY City of Phoenix, or Phoenix Parks and Rec website or map does the name Dixie Peak appear. Nowhere. So where did this name come from? Who held the so-called contest? Who spray-painted the post? Why did the Phoenix Summits Challenge refer to 2429 as Dixie Peak last year?
I don't know the answer, but I would start with the non-profit group "Arizona Parks and Recreation Association" or AZPRA. That is the organization that runs the Phoenix Summits Challenge, and the only place online that the name "Dixie Peak" appears in conjunction with Peak 2429.

I've sent a couple of emails out asking for more information, and will report back when (if?) I receive any responses.

But for now, I'm thinking we can start calling it FriendofThundergod Peak 2429 and it would be just as official as the current designation of Dixie.

@chumley
Not without my approval ;)

Besides peaks named after me must be taller then 7000

Wait I've been up there way more times then Bing ;) . For that matter so has BrunoP and Flat denny. That post has been there for years. I believe in the past it just had the arrow or it said trail and had the arrow.

BobP wrote:. . . That post has been there for years. I believe in the past it just had the arrow or it said trail and had the arrow.

If memory serves me correctly, that post went up around 2007 and just had the arrow.

I received a response from the the Rangers Office at the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department. It explains how the name ended up being used on the Phoenix Summits Challenge event, but not where it originated. It reads as follows:

You are correct that on paper that trail is not Dixie Peak - like you we found the stencilled trail post and opted to use it as the Summit name for one of our routes. In the information we sent out to participants we tried to make that clear and how to access that peak.

It is in actuality a social trail that is used on a daily basis by hikers. I have it on an agenda to address whether it goes on a map and gets a name.

Thanks for your inquiry.

Hayduke did not move to Montana, he well seldom seen.

I have also received a response from the Arizona Parks and Recreation Association (AZPRA), who also do not know the source of the name, or why they began using it in their literature, other than the spraypainted post. Their speculation was that since the peak lies within the Town of Paradise Valley* that it was named for an existing or former subdivision there.

I have scoured the maps, and there are no subdivisions in PV with Dixie in the name. Subdivisions adjacent to the peak are named Sunset Hills, Tatum Canyon, Clearwater Hills, and Paradise View Estates.

So the mystery continues. But apparently if you don't want to die, all you have to do is paint a post, and you will officially name a peak!

*the property is owned by the City of Phoenix, even though the land is within the Town of Paradise Valley

all you have to do is paint a post

or paint over a post :A1:

Wendi and I just noticed this post yesterday. I renamed this peak a long time ago, so that my Wendi could remember which one it was. I got it by referencing 2429 to the letters assigned to the telephone buttons..."Chaz Peak". Wendi refused to ever call it that, but if I spray paint that post I suppose she'd have to.