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| Hiking | 7.49 Miles |
1,696 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.49 Miles | 4 Hrs 27 Mns | | 2.02 mph |
| 1,696 ft AEG | 44 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | The story goes that a police officer in Tempe was walking around Tempe Town Lake when he came across a man down on his hands and knees as if he was looking for something. The officer stopped and demanded an explanation. The man explained that he had been hiking in the Supes, lost his billfold, and was looking for it. The officer then asked the man why he was looking at Tempe Town Lake for a billfold that he lost in the Supes. The man responded: "because the lights are better here".
Behavioral psychologists refer to the "street light effect" as a type of observational bias that occurs when people only search for something where it is easiest and most convenient to look. This often gives misleading results that are far from the truth.
A hiking analog is that a "street light hike" is one that is popular, trendy, well-documented, and one where a selfie will provide plenty of accolades on corporate social media. These are the "must do" hikes that are supposed to be the best of the best hikes; however, often that is not really the case.
The antithesis of a "street light hike" is one that is remote, hard to get to, and one that hardly anyone has ever heard of, let alone hiked. That is a good segue to a hike to Maverick Hill.
Maverick Hill (elevation of 7,488 feet and prominence of 1,328 feet) is in eastern Greenlee County, not far from the New Mexico border. The area is very remote and there is not much out here. Those looking for big city amenities will be disappointed!
I parked and started the hike at the north end of Black Jack Campground. The road is paved all the way. I could have driven another 3/4 mile or so on a road with some high clearance 4WD sections, but the hike wasn't all that long from where I started, and I came out there to hike, not to drive on 4WD roads.
The hike started out on a road, then on a roadbed, then on a maintained trail, and then on an unmaintained trail. By the time that the unmaintained trail petered out, I was only 0.2 miles from the summit. The 0.2 mile off-trail portion was an easy stroll mostly through a grassy meadow. There were a few juniper trees to weave around, but there was no bushwhacking -- wearing shorts would have been ok.
The first mile from the trailhead was through an area with large pine trees. The trees offered some filtered shade, which was welcome on the hike back since it was a warm day. After the first mile the road/trail had pinyon pine, juniper trees, and manzanita alongside of it. The vegetation did not encroach on the trail however.
There were quite a few pinyon pine and juniper trees at the summit. The trees weren't very tall, but they did prevent having expansive views. I wandered around a bit trying to find the highpoint, but I did not initially find the summit register log. I stopped to have a snack at a place that had a nice view off to the northwest. During the snack break I got online and read the triplog from @azhiker456. Her triplog mentioned finding the summit register. I did not have her GPX track, but she gave an excellent description of where the register was, and based on the description I was able to find the summit register log. Based on the elevation from Route Scout, it looked to me like the highpoint was where the summit register had been placed. I was the second person to record an entry in the log in 2023. There were no entries in 2022 and only 2 entries in 2021. It is safe to say that not many people hike up to Maverick Hill, and if you are looking for solitude on a hike you'll almost certainly find it here.
I enjoyed this hike even though there weren't any expansive 360 degree views at the summit; there was no fall foliage; and there was no really interesting geology. However, the area was pretty and the hike had a really good feel to it.
Synopsis
You'll find no street lights on this hike. |
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Autumn Foliage Observation None
I saw no deciduous hardwoods on the hike -- only pine trees and juniper trees. As such, you'll have to look elsewhere for fall foliage. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
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So, my own personal mountain range is once again pristine. 
