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| Hiking | 11.50 Miles |
580 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.50 Miles | 4 Hrs 30 Mns | | 2.56 mph |
| 580 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Three weeks earlier I had hiked at the Tom's Thumb area to hike the new trails that had been added there when I noticed along Rio Verde Drive a huge sign for the Fraesfield Trailhead. After a quick check online, I saw that there are about 50 miles of new trails in the expanded area of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Being February, this is obviously the time to take advantage of the mild weather and stay local and hike some of these trails.
I started from the Fraesfield TH and took the Black Hill Trail north. The turnoff a half mile in from the old road is marked well, but also has a huge empty rusty tank with graffiti on it, so you can see it coming from a ways back.
After the Black Hill Trail ended at the Powerline Road #2, I took the Granite Mountain Trail north to the Granite Mountain Loop Trail, which as its name states, loops Granite Mountain. Then I got back on the Powerline Road #2 and headed west to the Whiskey Bottle Trail and took that back to the trailhead.
the big powerlines are the biggest drawback to this area, but there still is some nice scenery here and some nice areas away from the powerlines and other development.
I ran into a Master Steward from the McDowell Sonoran Preserve Conservancy a couple times as he was doing his hiking circuit. We talked a bit about the trails and he gave me some more info, including the fact that the Preserve continues northward to the boundary of the Tonto NF. more trails in future years looks like a possibility. I met him again at the TH and he gave me a general business card of the conservancy and invited me to volunteer as a steward if I don't "have enough to do", which I thought was cool.
At the end of the hike just as I approached the TH, there were about 7 or 8 equestrians and 2 of them had problems getting their horses to cross the horse gate. I sat and waited to the side until one finally told me it was okay to just walk around them. That involved hopping over a waist high fence, which wasn't the easiest thing. |
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Route Editor
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