Thanksgiving desert 2021
Dec. 7th, 2021 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaAs I mentioned in my post about our spring trip, pretty much as soon as we came back we made plans to return to the Scottsdale area with friends for Thanksgiving. Rolfe and Kristin are a couple we've done many vacations with, and Frank and June are also good friends we like to do things with; all are mountain bikers, though none are crazy expert lunatic riders, and so we felt they'd all enjoy the easy-moderate riding of the McDowell Sonoran preserve. In addition, Frank and Rolfe are Britt's occasional golfing partners, and Scottsdale is a popular winter golfing destination. (Also we are all vaccinated and boosted, and careful about activities among people.) So we rented a big house, divvied up the Thanksgiving feast responsibilities, and headed south for a four-day Arizona adventure.
We drove down on Wednesday, and on Thursday morning we were ready to pre-emptively burn some calories in preparation for that night's feast. The house we'd gotten was in a great location, only half a mile from the Fraesfield trailhead area of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, so a few minutes on the roads got us to a trail that connected to the extensive system of those trails. The weather was beautiful, cool enough for long sleeves early but sunny enough that I pulled off my jacket after half an hour.
We rode together to the Granite Mountain trail, one of the more popular loops. About four miles into our ride we split into two groups. Britt needed to take it easy this trip, as the week before he'd had some non-surgical therapy on his problem knee (he'd had ACL surgery nearly 30 years ago, and it has been increasingly bothering him over the past few years) and had been advised by his doctor to avoid strenuous exercise for a couple of weeks; Kristin had surgery this past summer and was still recovering, and Frank is only a very casual mountain biker, and needed to get back to the house relatively early to cook the turkey and mashed potatoes. So Britt led them on a 10-12 mile loop, while I led June and Rolfe on a longer and more adventuresome (but still relatively easy) loop of a bit more than 21 miles. (Strava activity, with map)
Our Thanksgiving dinner was magnificent and restored our missing calories and more - I'd brought a couple of bottles of sparkling wine, and we had turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, squash-spinach casserole, salad, and both bourbon pecan pie (made by me!) and apple pie (made by our local amazing bakery) for dessert, with home-made whipped cream. Needless to say we were stuffed!
The next day, the boys had a tee time at a golf course in Cave Creek, north of Scottsdale, so the girls went north as well, for a hike at the Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area. When the ranger asked our plans, I told her we planned to do the Elephant Mountain loop; she looked at us and said, "You're experienced hikers, right?" I assured her we knew what we were doing.
Her concern was entirely reasonable. When we left the lower trail and headed uphill, the trail got rough and occasionally hard to follow, though it was never super-steep. The desert sun beat down on us, and I could imagine casual hikers not bringing enough water and getting in trouble. Fortunately, after the first long climb and descent, we were behind Elephant Mountain (the trail circumnavigated a small spur hill to its east) and spent a lot of time in the pleasantly cool shade.
When we got to the saddle between the mountain and the spur hill, the views were lovely, even though the brown cloud marking the Phoenix area was somewhat depressing. June and I climbed the hill to get the even better views, then we descended to the saddle and then down the front side of the hill, winding our way among saguaro, ocotillo, barrel cactus, and many varieties of cholla, as well as cactuses I couldn't identify.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/svwindom/51725041708/in/album-72157720215875242/
Near the bottom of the hill we turned onto a side trail called the Dragonfly Loop, which the ranger had recommended we finish on. This took us to the actual creek of Cave Creek, and an area called the Jewel of the Creek Preserve, a shady oasis of trees and long grasses that was very pleasant after the dry, sunny hillsides. When we climbed out of the creek, the sun was just beginning to set, and we got a lovely view of the alpenglow on the mountain beyond. (Strava activity, with map)
After this eight-mile hike, we were hot and weary. Fortunately, just as we got to the car I got a text from Britt letting us know they'd finished their golf game and were waiting for us at the resort's restaurant/bar! We had drinks and dinner in the outside dining area, which felt reasonably covid-safe, and showed each other the pictures from our respective adventures.
The next day we went south to the northern end of the southern portion of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, which was a little farther on dirt roads than the northern area we'd ridden on Thursday, but again, easy to get to. We'd mostly ridden on the trails in the south end of this area on our spring trip, and we'd ridden the entire Pemberton Loop on our 2018 Thanksgiving trip. This time we stuck together as a group until we broke for a picnic lunch, then the short-distance folks headed more directly back, and we long-distance riders strung together more trails for a total of 18 miles, including a stop at "Jackass Junction" (which had accumulated more beer cans, and changed the skeleton's t-shirt, since our 2018 visit).
The photo was taken by another rider, another Colorado man who was on vacation in his camper with his (non-biking) wife. We had also noticed other riders wearing jerseys with Colorado flag logos - I suppose when the mountains are too cold for biking and hiking, but don't have enough snow for skiing, that's when we invade Arizona! (Strava activity, with map)
On our last day, we went back to the Fraesfield/Granite Mountain area, because it's just the BEST. :-) This time, the short-distance riders went to the same formations the long-distance riders had visited on day 1 - Balanced Rock, the Amphitheater, and the Cathedral (you can see all of these in our previous trips) and June, Rolfe, and I rode to the west side of the Preserve and enjoyed those trails for 22.5 miles. (Strava activity, with map)
Flickr album (photos, no words)
We drove down on Wednesday, and on Thursday morning we were ready to pre-emptively burn some calories in preparation for that night's feast. The house we'd gotten was in a great location, only half a mile from the Fraesfield trailhead area of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, so a few minutes on the roads got us to a trail that connected to the extensive system of those trails. The weather was beautiful, cool enough for long sleeves early but sunny enough that I pulled off my jacket after half an hour.
We rode together to the Granite Mountain trail, one of the more popular loops. About four miles into our ride we split into two groups. Britt needed to take it easy this trip, as the week before he'd had some non-surgical therapy on his problem knee (he'd had ACL surgery nearly 30 years ago, and it has been increasingly bothering him over the past few years) and had been advised by his doctor to avoid strenuous exercise for a couple of weeks; Kristin had surgery this past summer and was still recovering, and Frank is only a very casual mountain biker, and needed to get back to the house relatively early to cook the turkey and mashed potatoes. So Britt led them on a 10-12 mile loop, while I led June and Rolfe on a longer and more adventuresome (but still relatively easy) loop of a bit more than 21 miles. (Strava activity, with map)
Our Thanksgiving dinner was magnificent and restored our missing calories and more - I'd brought a couple of bottles of sparkling wine, and we had turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, squash-spinach casserole, salad, and both bourbon pecan pie (made by me!) and apple pie (made by our local amazing bakery) for dessert, with home-made whipped cream. Needless to say we were stuffed!
The next day, the boys had a tee time at a golf course in Cave Creek, north of Scottsdale, so the girls went north as well, for a hike at the Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area. When the ranger asked our plans, I told her we planned to do the Elephant Mountain loop; she looked at us and said, "You're experienced hikers, right?" I assured her we knew what we were doing.
Her concern was entirely reasonable. When we left the lower trail and headed uphill, the trail got rough and occasionally hard to follow, though it was never super-steep. The desert sun beat down on us, and I could imagine casual hikers not bringing enough water and getting in trouble. Fortunately, after the first long climb and descent, we were behind Elephant Mountain (the trail circumnavigated a small spur hill to its east) and spent a lot of time in the pleasantly cool shade.
When we got to the saddle between the mountain and the spur hill, the views were lovely, even though the brown cloud marking the Phoenix area was somewhat depressing. June and I climbed the hill to get the even better views, then we descended to the saddle and then down the front side of the hill, winding our way among saguaro, ocotillo, barrel cactus, and many varieties of cholla, as well as cactuses I couldn't identify.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/svwindom/51725041708/in/album-72157720215875242/Near the bottom of the hill we turned onto a side trail called the Dragonfly Loop, which the ranger had recommended we finish on. This took us to the actual creek of Cave Creek, and an area called the Jewel of the Creek Preserve, a shady oasis of trees and long grasses that was very pleasant after the dry, sunny hillsides. When we climbed out of the creek, the sun was just beginning to set, and we got a lovely view of the alpenglow on the mountain beyond. (Strava activity, with map)
After this eight-mile hike, we were hot and weary. Fortunately, just as we got to the car I got a text from Britt letting us know they'd finished their golf game and were waiting for us at the resort's restaurant/bar! We had drinks and dinner in the outside dining area, which felt reasonably covid-safe, and showed each other the pictures from our respective adventures.
The next day we went south to the northern end of the southern portion of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, which was a little farther on dirt roads than the northern area we'd ridden on Thursday, but again, easy to get to. We'd mostly ridden on the trails in the south end of this area on our spring trip, and we'd ridden the entire Pemberton Loop on our 2018 Thanksgiving trip. This time we stuck together as a group until we broke for a picnic lunch, then the short-distance folks headed more directly back, and we long-distance riders strung together more trails for a total of 18 miles, including a stop at "Jackass Junction" (which had accumulated more beer cans, and changed the skeleton's t-shirt, since our 2018 visit).
The photo was taken by another rider, another Colorado man who was on vacation in his camper with his (non-biking) wife. We had also noticed other riders wearing jerseys with Colorado flag logos - I suppose when the mountains are too cold for biking and hiking, but don't have enough snow for skiing, that's when we invade Arizona! (Strava activity, with map)
On our last day, we went back to the Fraesfield/Granite Mountain area, because it's just the BEST. :-) This time, the short-distance riders went to the same formations the long-distance riders had visited on day 1 - Balanced Rock, the Amphitheater, and the Cathedral (you can see all of these in our previous trips) and June, Rolfe, and I rode to the west side of the Preserve and enjoyed those trails for 22.5 miles. (Strava activity, with map)
Flickr album (photos, no words)