The trail starts with an incline of about 30 feet....cool, I thought, that takes care of a chunk of the elevation change. A short walk from the start is the fork in the road, a split that gives you the choice of circling the park or going straight up to the summit. Coming down the summit trail was a couple with a little white maltipoo. I figured if that cute little thing with his four inch legs could make it to the top then how hard could it be? That theory might have been just a little bit flawed.
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| A Little Slip and Slide on loose rock never hurt anyone, right? ©Marcia Mauskopf 2011 |
It's a little under a mile round trip with an elevation gain of 436 feet. So we decided to go for it and see how far we could get. The trail started as a moderate uphill climb on loose rock, challenging for me but not a complete screamer, just enough to offer a false sense of confidence. It quickly turned into switchbacks that narrowed into small walls negotiated by stepping into cracks and pulling myself up by rocks along the next wall. We eventually made it to the saddle between the two peaks, the lowest point at the top and an incredible view of the surrounding mountains as well as downtown Phoenix. Noticing just one more trail marker that pointed straight up, we looked at each other and agreed, why not, Never tried anything that steep but slow and easy....
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| Up on my ledge between two peaks. ©Marcia Mauskopf 2011 |
WTH was I thinking???? The view was spectacular. Looking up I could see my fingers clutching a couple inches of rock and below my toes were hanging on to 3 inches here and there. In between my knees were doing the Mambo while my mind went a million places, mostly to a short ledge and lots of feet of sharp loose rock below me....did you see the episode of Sarah Palin's Alaska where she gets stuck rock climbing and whines like crazy with a guide above her on a rope? That was me, sans rope.
While I was considering the best way to get down J. was twenty feet above..."hey, do you mind if I go up to the top?" "Yeah, naw, you go ahead, I'll just uh, hang out here.
I finally managed to claw my way down and called my best friend The Backpacker. "Hey, I made it to the top of a mountain!" "Cool, going out"....
Well, maybe not impressive to anyone else, but I'm pretty full of myself. A year ago I would never have left the parking lot to go up a mountain, in fact that first 30 feet or so would have been enough to send me back to a book in the passenger seat...never would I have guessed back then that I would have been hanging by my fingertips yesterday morning.
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| Tired, but happy. ©Jeff Felske 2011 |
How To Get There
Take Greenway Parkway to 16th Street and drive south to the trailhead. Be aware, that there isn't a lot of parking, no bathrooms and no water so make sure that you are prepared. Dogs are allowed but must be leashed.
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