Sun Circle Trail Hike

Ruth Bindler

On a recent sunny Saturday morning a group of PebbleCreek hikers traversed 5 miles on the Sun Circle Trail, a 300–mile trail encircling the Valley of the Sun. Some parts of this multi-use trail are completed while others are awaiting construction. It connects at times with the Maricopa Trail System, which is itself a 315-mile passage connecting major regional and municipal parks in the Phoenix area. The hiking group celebrated with Mark Gruca who had completed 1,000 miles hiking with the club. Mark has hiked with the club at B, C, and D levels and is a snowbird from the Chicago area. He has been retired for 16 years from teaching and appreciates the warm and sunny Arizona winters; in addition to hiking he enjoys playing pickleball and golf. The paved section of Sun Circle that was travelled by the hikers lies off Indian School Road and 107th Avenue. It passes homes, the Arizona Canal system, and uses tunnels to avoid road crossings; it progresses north 35 miles to the Baltimore Hotel. This was a new hike for the club that was added to our extensive library of hikes. Check out pchikers.org and peruse the hike library and the calendar for information. Join us for a meeting at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month in Eagle’s Nest Clubhouse.

Hikers Install Memorial Bench

The main focus of the hiking club is, of course, hiking, but the club also engages in other activities such as Goodyear’s Make a Difference Day, the Cardinals Climb, a visit to an Animal Rescue facility, etc., but on Jan. 24, 21 club members volunteered in an effort to transport and install a memorial bench for Louise Warren who passed away in early 2025. Although she never hiked many miles, Louise supported the club for many years and helped organize and obtain accommodations for many club trips and events.

The bench project experienced several twists and turns before a cooperative agreement was reached with Estrella Mountain Regional Park to allow the bench to be installed deep in the park just off the Pedersen Trail at a beautiful quartz outcropping, a frequent lunch stop for PC Hikers. The park maintenance staff got the bench components as close as they could but the volunteers still had to transport approximately 200 pounds of parts, tools, and cement almost 2 miles, and then had to level the site and dig holes in rocky soil to accommodate precast concrete anchors for the bench. There were some equipment failures on the way so everyone pitched in to complete the project the old-fashioned way, individuals simply carrying whatever they could. The result, however, was a very professional installation in a beautiful location and PC Hikers will take advantage of this bench in the future while remembering their friend.

Hiking Brown Mountain

Jan Sherwood

When you go to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, two features protrude above the landscape: to the south Tom Thumb, and to the north Brown Mountain. Brown Mountain is the dark flat-topped remains of volcanic activity with layers of volcanic tuff (ash and debris from a volcanic explosion). The C level of the PC Hikers went to the summit of the mountain on a challenge hike. The description states it’s a desert meander on a nice, wide, maintained trail with a steep, narrow, rocky scramble to the summit. There is a nice resting spot before the summit, but we all chose to climb the extra .2 miles to the top. The 360-degree views from the top didn’t disappoint—not only Tom Thumb but also Four Peaks in the distance.

Estrella Mountains Hike

Dana Thomas

The poppies were full and abundant in the Estrella Mountains on a beautiful Arizona day. For January it was unseasonably warm so we saw lizards and a garter snake on the hike. Hikers pictured are Kerry Walsh, Jim Gillespie, Clare Bangs, Mary Hill, Tom Wellman, Leon Mosse, Nancy Love, Diana Bedwell, Ron Hoffman, Doug Bieker, and Nadine Eder. Photo by Dana Thomas.

PebbleCreek Hiker Celebrates a Significant Milestone

Eileen Lords-Mosse

Longtime PebbleCreek hiker Dennis Zigmunt achieved an amazing milestone of 8,000 miles on Jan. 27, 2026. Dennis, who joined the club in 2015, was joined by 24 fellow hikers eager to celebrate with one of the club’s most beloved members. Many in our club have hiked alongside Dennis over the past 11 years, and several were first introduced to Dennis when he led their Introductory hike. Dennis has logged 1,378 hikes; of those, he has led an astounding 502 hikes for the club! Starting in 2019, Dennis consistently has been at the top of the leaderboard each season for the number of hikes led.

Dennis has contributed much to the club; he has held the Board position of Treasurer, and for many years he ensured hikers ordered and received their hiking patches showing milestone accomplishments. In 2024, Dennis introduced EZ hikes to the club; these are hikes of 1-3 miles with minimal elevation, ideal for hikers who want to keep hiking while aging or to rehabilitate injuries.

But of all the contributions made by Dennis, the biggest one has been his willingness to step up and share his time and wisdom with club members. Dennis has mentored and guided many, many club members who in turn have learned to give back to the club. He has been an integral member of the PC Hikers and we all celebrate this major milestone.

Hiking South Mountain’s National Trail

Lynn Warren

South Mountain, a Phoenix city park and one of the largest in the country, has many scenic trails that can be combined to create hikes of different lengths and vertical gains; many of the trails and ramadas were constructed by the CCC in the 1930s. The iconic National Trail runs the length of the park and, usually once a year, PC Hikers get a very early start to stage cars and hike this challenging trail from west to east. On Jan. 16, nine “A” hikers completed this strenuous 16-mile hike with 3,000 feet of elevation gain. Even though they began hiking at 6 a.m., the hikers didn’t finish until 2 p.m. and, although they took a couple of snack breaks, they developed quite an appetite so capped off a successful hike by enjoying a real lunch and libations at BJ’s in Chandler before entering the afternoon traffic to return to PebbleCreek. The club enjoys interesting hikes all around the valley and occasionally even challenges Phoenix traffic for adventures such as this; visit the club’s website at pchikers.org for more information and pictures.