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| Hiking | 8.50 Miles |
1,401 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.50 Miles | 3 Hrs 4 Mns | | 2.77 mph |
| 1,401 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Took the family out on Sunday morning for another hike while the weather is nice. It’s nice that the kids are big enough now that the hikes can be a little bit longer. The Fountain Hills Preserve has just finished construction on a new trail that parallels the Sonoran Trail that comes in from McDowell Mt. Park. It will be called the Lower Sonoran Trail. The construction is complete, but they still need to put the signs up for it. There are a few maps they have for handouts at Town Hall, but not much else available at this point. I talked to the Town’s GIS guy a couple weeks ago and he said he still needs some data to finish the maps and the distances, so I told him I would hike the trail and send him my GPS route. There are also two crossover connecting trails be the Sonoran and Lower Sonoran Trails, making a variety of loop options possible. At one point there is also a very short spur that goes to the top of a knoll with a nice overlook of Fountain Hills and the mountains to the east.
We started at the Eagles Nest Trailhead at the end of Golden Eagle Boulevard in Fountain Hills. The first half mile is through the subdivision, and then you start on the Dixie Mine Trail and take that to the Sonoran Trail. At about 2 miles in, the Lower Sonoran Trail heads to the left (southbound). There is a big sign there, but it’s only giving info for the Sonoran Trail. More signage is to be added later.
I took the Lower Sonoran Trail all the way to its terminus, where it meets back up with the Sonoran Trail again. On my way back, I took the first crossover trail up to the Sonoran Trail, and then took the second one back down to the Lower Sonoran and back to the trailhead. At the end of the Lower Sonoran Trail, it was just over 4 miles. My wife and kids stopped at about 3 miles in and headed back, so they did a couple miles less than me.
The views up there are pretty nice. To the east you can easily see all the way from the Superstitions up north to the Mazatzals. To the west you’re right on McDowell Mountain, so that view is predominant. Fountain Hills is visible below, along with Fountain that goes off every hour.
After our hike we stopped and had lunch and then headed home. Nice way to spend a Sunday morning.
Route Scout had trouble locating me at first and I had to do a Force Stop from the Application Manager. After that it worked normally.
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Route Editor
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