Front right, left to right: Kathy Sobocinski and Diane Doering; the rest: Lynn Warren (photographer), Pete Williams, Mark Frumkin, Dana Thomas, Nancy Love, Clare Bangs, Bill Halte, Marilyn Reynolds, Phil Sobocinski, Art Arner, Kay Thomas, Wayne Wills, Joe Clarkson and Glen Doering–combined “B” and “C” hikers meeting on the trail at Sunrise Mountain.
Lynn Warren
What a difference a few days make. On February 1, sixteen PC hikers traveled a short distance on Estrella Parkway to the area adjacent to Estrella Mountain Ranch known as FINS (Fantasy Island North Single-track), a network of trails shared by bikers and hikers. As you can tell from the picture, weather influenced by El Nino presented a challenge on this day and the hikers look like they were dressed for the ski slopes to combat the cool (cold), breezy conditions as they tackled an interesting combination of trails. Just a couple of weeks later, hikers would have been dressed in shorts since the temperatures shot into the eighties. FINS is a great example of hiking/biking trails integrated into residential developments which provides interesting combinations of trails, terrain and challenge (although parts of FINS may be subject to further development). The club hikes five days a week during the regular season (September through April) and explores new trails for the upcoming season during the summer; visit the club website at PCHIKERS.ORG for more information and photos.
Pete Williams
On January 21, 2016, the PebbleCreek Hiking Club reached 100,000 cumulative miles hiked. While the club started back in 1997, we have only been tracking miles hiked by club members since September 2004. In the eleven plus years since tracking began, the club has hiked on over 300 different trails in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. While the club offered only two hikes a week back in 2004, we now have eight hikes a week and cover three hike levels (D hikes are about four miles long, C hikes are five to eight miles, and B hikes are nine plus miles). The club’s two leading hikers have each logged over 6,500 miles during this time. Club meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month (September through April) at 7:00 p.m. in the Tuscany Falls Ballroom. For more details about the club, including thousands of photos, please visit the club’s website at pchikers.org.
Twenty-seven hikers from the PebbleCreek Hiking Club did a hike along the Lake Pleasant shoreline on January 20. This was one of the largest groups of hikers for a single club hike. It was a great day for a hike on the Beardsley, Frog Tank and Roadrunner Trails in the park and the water provided a great contrast to our typical desert hikes. The lake was about 80% full at this time, on its way to filling up by spring. The club’s hikes, a great way to see Arizona’s natural beauty, are as close as Verrado and as far away as Prescott and Sedona. For more photos and information about the club, please visit our website at pchikers.org.