Ha, yes, another post, but this time, a really short one. My SAT (self-appointed trainer, a.k.a., my husband) and I decided (needed?) to escape the Phoenix heat by driving to Horton Creek and doing a little hike. Horton Creek is about 20 minutes north of Payson and is high enough in elevation to bring welcome relief to those who suffer in Phoenix during the summer. It’s easy to get to the trailhead; type in “Horton Creek trailhead” into your GPS and drive about 2 hours. The trailhead is well-signed and has an outhouse. (Click here for an interesting article on the hike and the history behind it.)
The trail itself follows the creek and ends at Horton Springs, which is really lovely to see in the middle of summer. For those who are adventurous and do not mind bushwhacking and extreme elevation gain, you can hike another mile past the springs all the way up to the Mogollon Rim. Although we chose not to do that today, our hike was still about 8 miles with almost 1,500 feet of gain. That may sound impressive, but the trail is pretty gentle and hardly felt like we were hiking uphill! We had lots of shade because we were hiking in a forest and the cooling effect of the creek and springs was very enjoyable. (FYI, if we had hiked all the way up to the Rim, we would have hiked about 9 miles and climbed about 2,450 feet!)
We’ll be back to enjoy the springs again….and maybe climb all the way up to the Rim!
Trees!An example of the wildflowers we saw.Much of the trail was like this.Horton Springs.More wildflowers.Butterfly!Happy to be out of the heat!
The title of this blog post is a mouthful, but the mission for the day is a big one, so the length of the title fits! The challenge is based on the annual 7 Summit Challenge put on by Phoenix Parks and Recreation. If you elect to participate, your goal for the day is to complete 7 hikes around the Phoenix metropolitan area. When I first heard of the event 6 years ago, I was all set to register….until I saw that I’d have to pay about $100 for the privilege of suffering all day. Why should I pay for that when I could suffer for free? With that thought, my DIY 7 Summit Challenge was born. I’ve had a hardy crew of hikers join me each year — except for 2020! — and we’ve had a pretty good time each year. However, because this year’s challenge was the FIFTH annual event, I thought it would be fun to shake things up a bit and do all 7 hikes at South Mountain (SoMo), instead of around the Phoenix valley. So, on Saturday December 2, 2023, an enthusiastic bunch of hikers gathered together at 6:30am and started their mission.
The 7 SoMo hikes for the 2023 challenge: Marcos de Niza, Telegraph Pass, Pyramid, Hau’pai, Ranger, Holbert, and Mormon. (Click this link for more information on South Mountain.) A couple of the hikes were newer to me, so it was fun to become more familiar with them. I think my favourite hike was Hau’pai because it had fantastic views! It was pretty steep and I heard several people say that they were surprised by how much climbing was involved. #sorrynotsorry
My personal goal for the day was to complete the challenge in under 12 hours. I didn’t think we’d beat our time from last year because of the unfamiliarity of a few of the trails and less transition time / less rest between several hikes. For example, Hau’pai, Ranger, and Holbert trailheads were only a few minutes from each other. I’m happy to report that we completed all 7 hikes in 11 hours and 50 minutes! Based on my Strava recordings, our cumulative hiking mileage was 26.73 miles (43 km) and cumulative elevation gain was 5,895 feet (1,797 m). Not bad! The post-hike fries were as yummy as I remembered them. 🙂
Enjoy the photo dump. 🙂 Let me know if you want to join me for the 2024 challenge!
Hike #1: Marcos de Niza.“Are we there yet?”Summit #1!I met a cute dog at the summit.Sunrise as we start the descent of hike #1.Another sunrise shot.Heading towards the middle–hike #2, Telegraph.Summit #2!Descending Telegraph.Me with Jess and her daughter. Jess was able to join us for hike #2 and it was great to see her!Najib, Robert, Chris, and me clowning around in the parking lot.Janelle, Carrie, and me on hike #3: Pyramid.Still a ways to go until the summit.Summit #3! Nathan took this photo because of his long arms. He also said he’d take the photo on the count of 3…then took the picture after he said “1.” Apparently, he’s not the best with numbers, lol.Descending Pyramid.Teresa showing off her festive attire.Cool shot of Teresa on hike #4: Hau’pai.Another cool picture on Hau’pai.Khalid at the summit, enjoying a snack.Nathan standing tall at the top.Me and Shelly at the top.My SAT and I did not intentionally coordinate our outfits.Another view from the Hau’pai summit.Part of the “swag” this year included little Fireball whiskeys. My SAT enjoyed a few swigs during each hike.Yet another view from the summit of Hau’pai.Did I mention this was my favourite hike of the day?Summit #4!Descending Hau’pai.Hike #5 (Ranger) wasn’t the most interesting in my opinion, so the only picture I’m including from that hike is the group summit photo.….and hike #6 (Holbert) is perhaps my least favourite because of the big stone steps. So…the only picture you get to see is the summit photo!It’s getting dark quickly during the 7th and last hike (Mormon).A very quick summit photo before we all started descending. My happy group of well-fed hikers!I earned that food! On the left are the 3 stickers I made for this year’s event.
reluctantroadie 