Seven Summits of Phoenix 2011 (11-4/5)

I began this blog at the start of 2011 with the intention of motivating me to hike more.  My thinking was that if I put something "techie" to a activity, I would do it more.   At the time I was tremendously out of shape and could barely hike a few miles.  Sometime back in May, I decided to get serious about my health (I really need a Pepsi) and started counting calories and working out.   That was when I first discovered the Seven Summits of Phoenix Event.  At that time I could not imagine completing the event, but silently I made a goal to do just that. I am actually proud to say I DID IT!  The following is a brief description of two days of hiking

Summit #1 - South Mountain - Holbert Trail (Trail Log)

The start of day one began early at the base of South Mountain.  I was lucky enough to have my boss hike with me on this hike.  We met at the trail head - my car and pack were full with 3 liters of water, Gatorade and countless power bars, first aid kit.  My boss - well he has a coffee from Starbucks.

After ditching the coffee and signing in, we began the hike up to the summit.  This hike was 5 miles round trip with 1000 foot elevation gain.  I felt great on this hike.  In no time at all we reached the cold and windy summit for the first check in of the day.  

Knowing I had six summits left, we decided to start hiking down.  I was feeling good so I did some trail running on the way down.  In no time at all the first hike was over and my adventure was underway.

Summit #2 - South Mountain - Ranger / Las Lomitas Trail (Trail Log)

It was a short drive across the preserve to the start of Summit 2.  This was a 3 mile hike with 750 feet in elevation.  After check-in the hike starts out a bit cross country to the base of the hill.

I have to admit, this hike was steep.  After about a mile I started to drop back from my boss and began pacing with another person.  A bit later, I had to drop off from her pace too.  My low gear was gone.  Self-doubt filled my mind while I slowly made my way to the summit.  

The hike down was uneventful.  Hiking down is so much easier.  It's sure is rough on the knees though. more on that later - two summits down, five to go!

Summit #3 - Piestewa Peak (Trail Log for #3 and #4)

It's a 30 minute drive over to the Phoenix Mountains Park and Recreation Area .  I had this time to think about the next hike.  Piestwa Peak is 1 short hike distance wise (1.2 miles to the peak).  The killer part of this hike is the 1200 foot elevation gain.  An extra bonus is that the trail is littered with "steps" that are twice as high as normal steps in your house.  I knew this was the toughest hike and was ready for it.

I took this hike slow and steady.  As I have mentioned in previous blog posts hiking Piestewa Peak is like being on the 405 freeway at rush hour.  There is a mix of hikers, non-hikers and tourists trying to make it to the summit.  Some of these people have no business being on the trail, while others sprint up like their hair is on fire.  

My game plan was to take this hike slow and steady. I set a nice slow pace and tried to stick to it.  All the way up I would pace with different hikers until I could not keep up.  It hurt, it burned - bu eventually I made it to the top.

3 Down - 4 to Go!

Summit #4 - Piestewa Trail 200 (Trail Log for #3 and #4)

This hike was the easiest of the seven hikes and was supposed to be the last hike of my day.  This summit was added to take the place of  this year to take the place of Camelback Mountain.  The parking issues over there are too great to hold an event like the Seven Summits.

This hike was supposed to be a uneventful 1 mile round trip hike with a modest 300 foot elevation gain.  Well, I managed to screw that up.  Somewhere, I went left when I should have gone right.  I ended up climbing a pretty steep mountain face to the summit. When I reached it, the Mountain Rescue guy was laughing at me.  "Are you in the SSOP hike? - Well you win the award for most creative way up to this summit!".   Looking past him I saw the nice, well worn trail I was supposed to take.  OOPS!

Summit #5 - Lookout Mountain (Trail Log)

Lookout Mountain was supposed to be the first hike on Day 2.  I choose to do this hike on day 1 because I was feeling good and I had a time commitment early on day 2.

The "official" map of this summit showed the hike wrapping around the whole preserve with a "detour" up to the summit.  This was a 4.3 mile hike.  I had other plans.

Since the goal of these two days were summits, and I had just hiked the whole park for a geocaching event, I decided to take the direct rout up to the summit.   Is this cheating?  I don't think so!  

I quickly made it to the summit and back down to end day one.  Two hikes left!

Summit #6 - North Mountain- Start of Day 2

I couldn't sleep well between day one and two.  I was a bundle of goo - too excited knowing I was going to accomplish my goal and too sore to rest comfortably.  

I've hiked North Mountain many times before so I knew what to expect here. .  I arrived just as the city was setting up shop, checked-in at the visitor's center and began the hike.   Once you hike over to the main trail, the hike to the summit of North Mountain follows a paved road.  It is a fairly aggressive incline at some points and really take a lot out of me.  This is another popular trail in the middle of Phoenix so you come across people of every shape and fitness level..  Surprisingly I was felling great and quickly made it to the summit.  

I actually arrived before any of the check-in people so I started down without my stamp.  About 1/2 way down I met up with the guy that stamped my passport.  One Hike Left!

Summit #7 - Shaw Butte - The Final Summit

Shaw Butte from the Summit of North Mountain

Coming down from North Mountain, I could see the final summit.  All the way down and across the Phoenix  Preserve, I was walking on air.  Was I really going to finish this?  Well, it wasn't going to come without a fight.  The hike up to Shaw Butte (from the backside) is a bit steep and a challenge.  

Walking on air quickly turned into trying to pace myself up one final incline.  The actual hike up was 750 feet over about a mile.  It was a bit rough, but my adrenaline was flowing.

In no time at all I made it to the summit and got my final stamp.

Next Year, I'm doing the One Day Event!

Completed Passport

2011 10-9 South Mountain

Length: 8.1 miles

Duration: 5 Hours 02 minutes

Vertical Up: 2671 feet

My track log at EveryTrail





Five weeks ago I started out on this crazy adventure.  I was planning to hike 6 of the "Seven Summits of Phoenix" in 5 weeks.  Before the hike began I had look over the route and realized that we were going to be hiking across two mountain ridges, finding 16 geocaches and covering well over 7 miles.  I was pumped.  Today was the conclusion of this adventure with what can only be described as an EPIC hike. 
The Hike starts out at the end of Chandler Boulevard  deep into the city of Ahwatukee.  After a brief walk up 19th Ave, you reach the trail and slowly start climbing up to the first ridge line.  

As we started following the ridge line you get your first view of The Gold Standard Mine.  this is a old mining complex that is now in ruins.  it was fun to look over at that knowing I would pass by later in the day.

After following this ridge line some more, we came up to my favorite cache of the whole series of hikes: Irish Oatmeal.  This cache involved going off the trail for about 1/2 mile and climbing a pretty steep peak.  After that, we traversed across the rdge to the cache (a can of Irish Oatmeal).

Hiking across the ridge to Irish Oatmeal

Joe signing the log

After a brief rest we continued along the ridge and made our way down a steep hillside to the valley floor.  For the next 1/2 mile we did some more hiking and geocaching (one of the caches was a bowling pin). Soon the trail turned north over to the next series of hills.

This is where it gets steep.  The next 2 mile or so were straight up!  The hike was tough and I was really pressing to keep up.  Soon enough we were at the top!  What a treat to be surrounded by 360 degree views.  We made our way down to the official seven summits cache and celebrated our victory.   this is where I was thinking I really should have brought a beer up there.  Would have tasted sweet.


After resting for 15 minutes or so, we realized that the slower hikers had not reached us yet.  We quickly scurried up to the top and looked around.  Well, they had passed the turnoff at the summit and were 3/4 mile further on the trail.  This is when I did something insane.  I joined the group of two other hikers who went to chase after them.  So there I was running along the ridge of South Mountain trying to catch up to some people.  Six months ago, I never would have dreamed I would have been able to do this.  We (very quickly) caught up to the group and turned them around.

This is where a couple of us decided to go down a different trail.  So we started out back down the hill.

This was a really steep trail down.  I mean really steep.  In no time at all we were back down on the valley floor and came up to the ruins.

All that remained at this point was a leisurely hike back to the car.  I can't describe what a great hike this was.  It was so challenging and really secluded at times.  It tested my fitness level multiple times.  It was also fun to do so many geocaches!

I can't wait to hike again!  

2011 10-8 Lookout Mountain

Length: 3.5 miles

Duration: 2 Hours 39 minutes

Vertical Up: 1316 feet

My track log at EveryTrail

Temperature is starting to drop ….

Today’s hike was on a mountain I previously have hiked.  Lookout Mountain is the shortest hike in the seven summit series and I thought it would be a good warm-up for the South Mountain hike on Sunday.  I was right!

The group met at 8 and we started off by doing a Geocache that was fairly close to the starting point.  This cache was known as a Multi-cache.  For those of you who do not cache, this means that the first location gives you clues to the second location and so on until you arrive at the final cache.  We found the hide in short order, but, were disappointed to learn that the multi brought you out of the preserve.  Have to save this one for another time.

We quickly reset and soon were hiking up the hill.  The hike was relatively short (less than ¾ of a mile) but fairly steep.  In no time at all we were at the summit.


After the requisite pics and finding the summit cache, we began our descent down.   I planned on to hiking the whole preserve and do some geocaching.  SO I temed up with another hiker with the same goal and off we went.  The next few hours were spent finding several caches and visiting every peak in the preserve.

This was a fun hike and a great warm up for the next day’s adventure!

2011 10-1 Shaw Butte Geocaching

Length: 6.7 miles

Duration: 4 Hours 23 minutes

Vertical Up: 1772 feet

My track log at EveryTrail








Today's hike was the next hike in the continuing SSoP Geocaching event series.  We are taking 6 weeks to hike seven summits in the Phoenix area.  Since I am doing the "offical" Seven Summits of Phoenix hike next month, I am doing this series as a "warm-up" to the November event.
I arrived 1/2 hour early and made my way over from the Visitor's Center.  Along the way I found my first Geocache of the day (Marshmallow Rock).  After signing the log in crayon, I made my way over to the meet up location.  

After 20 minutes or so the group was all there and we began up the hill.  The hike on Shaw Butte starts off steep.  Since I was in Austin this week, I did not get a chance to work out much.  As we started up this hike, I really started to feel my week of relaxation.  After about 1/3 mile of hiking we reached the turn off to find our next cache.



After a stop at another cache, we  made our way to the summit of Shaw Butte.  We were barely over an hour into the hike and we had already reached the top.

Up at the top, some of the more experienced cachers headed over the side of the cliff and down to a special cache that you can log only if you find a cache a day for 300 days.  Since I have no chance of doing that (and since it was an extremely steep cliff), I decided to watch.

After some more rest, we began the journey across the top and onto my main goal of the day, a mystery cache called Road Runner's Revenge: Professor Fermi.  This was a puzzle cache where I had to solve a puzzle before the hike.  This was also a milestone for me as it was my 200th cache!

After a few more caches at the top, we started down.  On the way down, we stopped at the remains of Cloud Nine Restaurant.

After another rest and a few more caches, we made it the rest of the way down.  Then up again to my favorite climb of the day, a small peak out of the way with a beautiful view of the Phoenix Preserve.

View of the Phoenix Preserve from the top of a small peak.

This was another great hike and I look forward to South Mountain next week!

2011 9-25 Daisy Mountain

Sun Rising over Daisy Mountain

It's my opinion that Daisy Mountain is the best peak to climb in Maricopa County.  It is a beautiful hike.  For me the beauty is Daisy Mountain itself.  Depending on the time of day, Daisy Mountain has different personalities.  In the morning the sun rises behind the mountain providing perfect back lighting and hiking in the shade.  When the sun sets the mountain glows red.  Simply outstanding.

If yesterday's hike was like carpooling on the 405, today's hike a lonely drive in the countryside.  If I'm going to do the Phoenix Summit Challenge in November (more info here), I figured I have to crank up my hiking.  So this morning I decided to hike my "home trail" of Daisy Mountain.

Today's Trail Log

The hike is basically flat for the first mile.  This allowed me time to get stretched out and to make sure I had recovered from yesterday's hike.  After hiking the flat section and the first hill, you are awarded with a southern view of Anthem and a northern view of what is coming.  As the trail started getting steep, it began to sprinkle just a bit.  This was really weird because the sky was blue and the clouds were white.  I wasn't complaining though because the smell of fresh rain in the desert is overwhelmingly great!



I guess now is as good as time as any to admit I think I'm crazy.  You see, I am convinced that my iPod can sense my mood and plays songs that it thinks match my mood.  This morning it was REM's Untitled Track (link), Stan Ridgeway's A Mission in Life (link) and Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Ranger's Saga of the Old West (link).

I reached the loop turn off in about 45 minutes and southern summit in just over an hour.  From there its a  quick hike to the northern summit.  This is where the flag is ... or was ... today it was just a flag pole.  I spent about 1/2 hour here resting, thinking and enjoying some alone time.  It was cool to take the iPod off and listen to nothing.


After gathering my stuff, I began down the backside of the mountain.  I guess I lost the trail back there and spent about 1/4 mile scrambling "off trail".  After making down the back and looping around to the loop turn off, it was a quick hike back to the Gem Car.  It was great to hike 2 days in a row!

3D Track Log from Google Earth

By the way ... after the hike I had to go buy some new pants for a business trip this week (my boss told me I needed them).  Well - my waist is SIX inches smaller!  Woot!

2011 9-24 Piestewa Peak

Length:  2.1 miles

Duration: 3 Hours 11 minutes

Vertical Up: 1430 feet

My track log at EveryTrail




Today I hiked on the 405 freeway. Well, not really - but I did hike on the 2nd busiest trail in Arizona.

Piestewa Peak is a busy trail. On Saturday it's insane. We arrived early for the hike thinking that parking would be a problem - we were right. It was impossible to find a spot so Mike dropped us off and went to park on the streets below the park.

According to Hike Arizona, the trail is an old horse trail (click me). The trail was mainly used for means to travel to an old mine. I don't know about horses, but, we passed some odd looking people today. The trail is a combination of dirt path and steps made from rocks. While the trail is really no harder than walking up a steep stair case, the rocky terrain and the mass of people makes concentration imperative.

The trails starts of with some longer switchbacks quickly ascending from the valley floor. In no time at all you are rewarded with your first elevated view of the valley. As the trail progresses up to the summit, the steps get larger and the trail gets steeper. About midway up there is a nice bench for rest plus many other places to rest along the way. I did not use those today. I hiked this trail a few years (and 35 pounds) ago. Because I have been hiking and working out, today was a breeze. It was actually a lot of fun!



Back to the hike, its really a short trail (by short I mean 1400 foot elevation gain in a little over a mile). The thing that makes this hike unique is the mass of people on the trail with you. As a person that likes to people watch, I can tell you it was really fun to watch the mix of people I passed. I saw everything from a group of boy scouts to a couple arguing about the guy mistreating her the night before. Imagine listening to that all the way up!

In no time at all I was at the summit. I was the 2nd to arrive and we sat and enjoyed the summit for a while. After 15 minutes or so the group started to trickle in. While we were at the summit, a Phoenix police helicopter appeared below us. It was a cool site (but not one I was quick enough to catch on camera).

With all the people and the rocky terrain, the steep descent requires some real concentration. Once again I was following Mike (a fellow geocacher). He hikes real fast so I was really working. To break up the descent, we stopped and found two geocaches (Slide Rock and Scar(r)y 9 9 9). They were tough finds! In no time at all we were back at the bottom and off to the car. Another fun hike! I look forward to Shaw Butte next week!