Dixie Peak, Phoenix Mountain Preserve

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/arizona/dixie-peak-trail

https://www.visitphoenix.com/things-to-do/outdoors/biking-hiking/phoenix-mountains-preserve/

I didn't sleep well overnight.  The cold got me up a few times, and I was anxious for daylight so that I could get started

Today's hike was in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve and 40th Avenue, on the preserve's north end.  I began just before 7am. People were returning from their pre-dawn hikes with flashlights on their heads.  Night hiking is popular with Phoenicians; they are used to daytime heat so they tackle the trails at dawn.

I wanted to do the 6-mile loop trail but somehow got disoriented, so I decided to hike up 2428' Dixie Peak since it was there, a straight, wide and very rocky trail  that doesn't develop character until it begins switchbacking steeply up to the peak, a peak carved out of schist rock and studded with palo verde trees and fishhook cacti.  The lower trails are popular with mountain bikers but this peak is not one of them.

It was in the low 50s when we got started.  The full moon was setting as the sun rose, but it rose behind a mountain and stayed in the shade for the entire hike.  I'm sure the dogs didn't mind that part, but I was chilled the entire time.  The shadow of the mountains kept me cool.  I was done with the 4.3-mile hike before the sun got high enough.

This was a busy trail.  When I got to the top I walked into two people meditating, so I quietly went around them, took some photos of the valley with Piestewa and Camelback Peak in front of me. Both peaks are taller than Dixie but are closed to dogs.  Between Dixie and the other peaks are elegant foothill homes.

On the return walk I took a parallel trail back, trail #8, so that my dogs wouldn't bother other hikers and then returned to a very crowded parking lot.  It was 9:40am, too early for beer but just in time to stop by the Costco off Cactus Road where I stocked up on dog jerky.  When I got done with that chore, OHSO in Paradise Valley was open and visited my third OHSO brewpub, having the same meal I had before.  I like the biergartens this brewpub has.

My server today, a tall, lanky "Garrett" who smiled with his eyes, was very attentive.  He even praised me for how well the dogs behaved.  "I can't believe how well-behaved your dogs are, this is awesome!" he said.  Perhaps my dogs were the only ones who had completed a 4-mile hike before lunch and now just wanted to relax?

My trip to this OHSO was my last event planned for Phoenix before beginning the drive back to Hereford.  Traffic was dense when I neared Tucson, so I stopped briefly at the Button Brew pub off Ina Road.  It was one of the few breweries I still hadn't visited (because the patio is not dog friendly).  I stayed only long enough to have a fruity wheat beer, but I was not comfortable on the heatless patio.  By then I just wanted to get back home anyway, and I arrived home just as the full moon rose over the Mule Mountains.

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