2000 miles and counting
Pete Williams
The four PebbleCreek Hiking Club rookie hikers shown here have a combined 2000 plus miles on the trails during their first year as club members. Pictured (left to right) are Mark Frumkin, Wayne Wills, Joe Clarkson and Dennis Zigmunt. Jim Gillespie took the photograph. These five hikers enjoyed an early morning hike on August 9, 2016 in the Skyline Regional Park in Buckeye. Skyline is a new park located in Buckeye with ever expanding trails. The park opened in January 2016 with six miles of trails and is being expanded with 11 additional miles of trails by September. This summer, in addition to the club exploratory summer hikes, two new hiking days were added in the less strenuous category of four to six miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These hikes are generally designed to be on the trail by 6:30 a.m. and off the trail by 9:30 a.m. in an effort to beat the heat. If interested in joining the club, the upcoming season’s initial club meeting will be on September 15, 2016 at the Tuscany Ballroom at 7:00 p.m. Join us for the meeting and start the season off right. For more information about the club please visit our website at pchikers.org.
Left to right: Lynn Warren (photographer), Marilyn Reynolds, Clare Bangs, Pete Williams and Wayne Wills deep in a scenic canyon in the Goldfields, not far from Saguaro Lake.
Exploring the Goldfields
Lynn Warren
“What are the Goldfields?” you might ask. Almost everyone has heard of the Superstition Mountains but few may be familiar with the Goldfield Mountains which lie just northwest on the other side of Apache Trail (Highway 88). These mountains may be somewhat of an overlooked step-sister to the Superstitions, but it would be one who is beautiful rather than ugly. The Goldfield Mountains are not particularly large but have terrain ranging from easy trails to rugged, primitive areas which provide scenery and challenges which can rival the Superstitions (including wildflowers in the spring). On July 11, five PC hikers completed an 8.8-mile exploratory hike which followed a trail past impressive Helmet Rock, no trail through a rugged, rocky canyon leading toward Saguaro Lake and finished with a relatively easy trail back to the parking area to complete the loop. This is what the club affectionately calls an “adventure” hike. The club hikes five days a week during the regular season (September through April) and explores new trails, with an occasional adventure such as this during the summer; visit the club website at pchikers.org for more information and photos.
On July 25, six members of the PebbleCreek Hiking Club did a hike just north of Wickenburg in an area populated by Joshua Trees and Saguaros. This is quite unusual as those two do not normally live in the same desert. Saguaros live in the Sonoran Desert and Joshua Trees live in the Mojave Desert. But in this area, the two deserts overlap and there are many examples of Joshua Trees and Saguaros living side by side. That’s a Joshua Tree in the gap between hikers with a Saguaro to the left of it. On the hike that day were (left to right) Lynn Warren (photographer), Pete Williams (hike leader), Clare Bangs, Ed Bobigian, Marilyn Reynolds and Wayne Wills. The new hiking season starts on September 19, the Monday after the September club meeting, which this year is on September 15 at 7:00 p.m. in the Tuscany Falls Ballroom. Check out our website at pchikers.org for more photos and information about the club.
Left to right: Clare Bangs, Ed Bobigian, Donna and Jeff Gillen, Pete Williams, Steve McElroy, Marilyn Reynolds and Lynn Warren (photographer) on the east slope of the Bighorn Mountains.
PC Hikers visit Bighorn Mountains
Lynn Warren
The Bighorn Mountains Wilderness and Hummingbird Springs Wilderness are located roughly 60 miles west of Phoenix and north of Tonopah and are separated by nothing more than a jeep road. On July 14, eight PC hikers headed west of the jeep road and enjoyed what can best be described as a 6.8-mile meander/loop across open desert terrain on the eastern flank of the scenic Bighorn Mountains. Although the hikers always have a map and a proposed route, there are no real trails in this area so the hikers were free to “find their own way” (not to worry, it would be hard to get lost in this area). One of the many benefits of hiking is getting to see different plants and animals and the hikers were rewarded on this hike by getting to see a small group of bighorn sheep traversing a distant slope; the group also saw lots of saguaros with fruit and one had brightly colored fruit the size of a man’s fist. The club enjoys interesting and adventurous hikes all around the valley, as well as occasional overnight trips to more distant areas. The club meets in the Tuscany Ballroom on the third Thursday throughout the regular hiking season and challenges the summer heat to find new trails for the next season; visit the club’s website at pchikers.org for more information and pictures.