Go John Trail and Cave Creek a second time

Thursday, March 23, 2012

It was a peaceful night in the campground. I heard no loud noises from anyone. Even the dogs slept soundly, although I had to get up at 3:30am for a potty break. It was a chilly night for me! The red stuff sack that I thought contained a winter sleeping bag instead contained winter fleece clothes. Both dogs did well in the van, each taking an upholstered seat for themselves. It wasn't until I was officially up at 6:15am that the dogs clammored for attention.

My plan today was to hike a trail inside the Cave Creek Regional Park early, before the morning heat, and to go from there. At 6:47am we were on the Go John Trail, the most popular trail in the park according to park recommendations and just under five miles. It starts and ends at the trailhead parking lot. It's a hilly desert loop around two hills and wide enough to accompany equestrians, runners, mountain bikers and hikers. Saguaros, jojoba, jumiper, mesquite, sage, cholla and prickly pears dot the landscape. In wet weather there are three creek crossings, but on Thursday morning the creek was bone dry. We did this hike clockwise, tackling an immediate uphill in the shade. I kept the dogs on their leashes until we were away from the parking lot.

We passed an early-morning jogger coming the opposite way. Another man and his dog passed me up. The rest of the hikers came the opposite direction toward the end of the hike. Sieger still barks at people and doesn't quite understand "No!" yet.

Chollas glistened in the morning sunlight. Several were in bloom. The desert spring aromas of creosote, sage and jojoba were evident. This part of Arizona always begins blooming much earlier than our little southeastern corner of the state, where we are at least 2000' higher in elevation. Saguaros gleaned copperish in the growing sunlight. Once the sun was high enough, the warmth quickly came as well, but by then we were near our end of the trail. We took 2:10 hours to finish this trail. The parking lot was quite crowded when we got back to the van at 9am and I am glad we were finishing and not starting this hike by then. I returned to the campsite for a quick shower, listening to a mother-young daughter talk in the stall next door. The Cave Creek Regional Park is a nice campsite and the price is just right, although it does cater more to the RVer.

I spent two hours at the Desert Foothills Library waiting for my monthly Amazon newsleter to be released. I updated my usual internet sites and read up on the local attempt to keep Black Mountain, a mountain with two main minerals: phyllite and argillite on its western side; the eastern side is granite. This mountain, which rises to just around 3000 feet, is shared by the towns of both Carefree and Cave Creek. The Black Mountain Conservancy wants to preserve what's left of the mountain from further development.

From the library at 12:30pm I drove east on the Carefree Highway, which quickly turns into a dirt road east of the town. This road then bends to the north and into the Tonto National forest as the elevation gains and conifers come into existence. This is a cooling contrast to the typical desert flora found in lower elevations.

It didn't take long to find the Cave Creek Trail #4. It's just north past the main campground, and the parking lot offers overflow for RVs. Several other cars were already parked here. We began our hike after 2pm as the trail immediately gained in elevation and resembled a mountain scramble instead of a riparian trail as it's advertised. I packed water in my backpack, but kept the load to a minimum because I figured the dogs would have creek water to drink from.

And that is what happened, but the first two miles were dry. The trail looked like both a fire and flood swept through as so many dead trees lined the creekbed. The last fire, the Cave Creek Complex Fire, started by lightning on June 21, 2005, resulted from the combination of the Bronco and Humboldt fires and burned 248,310 acres (USFS 2005). The damage and especially the flood damage along the creekbed still lingers, as many dead sycamores now stand leafless. The shade that I expected from old website photos just wasn't there for the most part.

I met a group of about ten women hiking back to their cars at 3pm. They had hiked the entire ten mile trail and were now three miles from finishing. "It gets better down the trail, this is the boring part" said one woman, and with that I continued further, past a second creek crossing where it indeed became more scenic as the northern Sonoran desert with its saguaros popped up along the hillsides.

This is what I wanted. The dogs were off the leash now as we rested at a creekside, I on a boulder in the water and the dogs chasing each other through the water. My water sandals came in handy! Sieger likes to splash around the water, bite it, and then take off after Sadie, and Sadie seems to enjoy the chase. But soon another man and his yellow retriever showed up and a barking session began. The dogs went back on their leashes as we hiked another 1/4 mile, to give the other man his leeway and the dogs their space. Only the late time by then made me turn around but I would have enjoyed hiking longer. We hiked at least six miles total, making our cumulative miles today well over 12 miles. That is more than enough for both dogs.

There were many people already camping out nearby. One campsite was still being graded by the forest service. We walked out the way we came, only changing course toward the road that last mile to avoid that dry uphill. No other traffic bothered us. I gave each dog more chicken jerky treats when we were back at the trailhead picnic area. My van was the lone vehicle standing.

The sun was setting low as I returned to civilization and Carefree/Cave Creek. Instead of eating out I bought some food at the Cave Creek Safeway, where the dogs each had four hotdogs and I saved another pack for tomorrow's hike. I checked out Harold's Corral but John Corbett was performing and there was a $20 cover charge. Corbett is a country singer who first became popular from his acting in "Northern Exposure," a drama series I never followed in the 1990s. A lot of fat bikers in leather and bandanas waited outside to come in. The Taphaus across the street also looked busy with as many bikers.

My evening was much like the night before: I returned to the same campsite, paid my fee, and settled in for yet another quiet night with the dogs. A few more RVs had come in during the day, but there was plenty of spots still open in the Overflow area. The large group that the booth attendant told me about the day before apparently never showed up. For being so close to a metro area, the sky was impressively clear; I could see Venus and Juniper in the sky as they are now moving away from each other.

By the second night the energy from both Cave Creek and Carefree got to me. Despite its upscale crowd, I like the area. The people are friendly enough and there's plenty of good, affordable places to eat.







More later