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| Hiking | 5.06 Miles |
740 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.06 Miles | 2 Hrs 20 Mns | | 2.62 mph |
| 740 ft AEG | 24 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Parked at 43rd/Estrella. First headed up the ridge on the west side of San Juan Lookout. Solid trail for about a half mile, until it ends at a small “peak”. This is where we turned around, but a faint route continues along the ridge.
Once back down to San Juan, we took National for a short distance, then looped around that same ridge on Ma Ha Tuak Perimeter Trail. Nothing exciting, easy walking. If you like freeways, crappy houses, and bees, this is the trail for you. The idiot dog likes to try to eat both horse and coyote poop, plus roll around in it, so she would probably rate this hike five stars.
A tad warm. Plenty of wildflowers. Did not see anyone else. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
Brittlebush, poppies, bladderpod, scorpionweed, fiddleneck. |
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| Stop crying and just go do the hike. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
- not fun). Ate my lunch at the San Juan lookout, then headed north to Ma Ha Tuak Perimeter trail. There was a nice breeze that kept it cool and comfortable. As the trail got closer to the 202 freeway that breeze turned into a stiff headwind that tried to take my hat. All day there were times with no wind when it was hot, and strong wind when it felt cold. On average it was pretty comfortable. 
The Ma Ha Tauk Perimeter was more hilly and challenging than I'd remembered. It's very similar to Bajada (better isolated trail) and the Desert Classic (not as good as either). For me, Alta including Maricopa Peak is the second best route in SoMo after MLC because of the lack of mountain biker hoards. National near San Juan Lookout had some trail reworked, essentially redirected out of the ditches, which was needed. The Alta and Ma Ha Tauk trails have been rerouted or relabeled some, respectively. The new parking area is open, I think labeled as San Juan Bike Hub. Surprisingly nice temperature and breezes for late March, but the wildflowers in this area aren't as prolific as last spring.
I had done "this trail" years ago as part of an Alta loop and I was surprised how much it had been modified. This trail actually gets higher into the foothills than the user trail did avoiding the homes the lie at the base of South Mountain. This trail is now an official part of the South Mountain Trail System. It is a clear cut path with trail markers scattered along the way. We had decided to hike in for half an hour and then turn around so I didn't get see that much of the trail, but what I saw was pretty neat. One odd thing, about .75 miles in we noticed an illuminated saguaro higher up on SM. At first I though it might be a hiker's flashlight, but the illumination was steady for the 20+ minutes that the saguaro was in view. I'll have to check that out some day. After the hike we visited T Bone Steakhouse, just north of the TH. This is where the now renamed T Bone Trail had gotten its name from. The food is pretty good, with nice ambience (been around since the 50's - I think) and it has great views.
