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| Hiking | 1.15 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 1.15 Miles | 25 Mns | | 2.76 mph |
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| no partners | | Short after work hike. Wasn’t really feeling it, but the weather was too beautiful not to get out. Haven’t been out here in over 6 years. Excited to check it because this area is now known as Palomna Preserve and they have created a handful on new trails in the area. I had first learned of this, a month ago, when I did West Wing Mountain. (Palomna Preserve begins just to the north of West Wing). Back then, I checked out the west side of the preserve, where there is an actual park. And though they “talked” about trails, there were no trail maps nor signage for trails. So today I went over to east side of the preserve to see if there were any new trails.
To access this new system from this side you park at Sonoran Mountain Ranch Park. The TH is actually at the north west end of the park. They have made some modest improvements since my last visit. But I expect and hope there is more to come. Currently, when you leave the park the sidewalk takes you to a round platform with cement benches. At this time, there were no trail maps or even posted trail markers at the start, even though there are clearly three trails leading off from the platform. Out of curiosity, I took the most southwestern path and was pleasantly surprised to find trail markers about .25 miles in. I wasn’t planning on doing any particular trail today, so I just did a small loop involving MUP A (multi user path A (clever)), Biscuit Flats and some user trails.
I can see two shortcomings/problems for this trail system. Off road vehicles, the tracks they make and the adoption of these tracks as trails. I saw a couple of fresh tracks on the loop so it looks like motorized vehicles are still getting in. And unfortunately some of the more commonly used tracks have been adopted as trails. Very boring and unimaginative. Especially since there are so many user tracks with more creativity to them. And this leads to the other problem…. all the other user trails that have been created prior to the preserves creation. The preserve is going to have to be very aggressive in discouraging the use of these trails, through good signage and the placement of barriers. And that hasn’t happened yet. I’m all for new trails and I’m happy with the new additions. I still think they are doing work out there so we will see how it looks when it’s done. |
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