On a cool Saturday morning, eleven Trailblazers showed up near the Cave Creek Office of the Tonto National Forest on Bartlett Dam Road. This modest-sized group reminds me of the Trailblazers when I first joined nine years ago. It is a pleasure to hike with a smaller group that stays together. Thank you, Trailblazers.

This hike was to continue my quest to hike much of the Maricopa Trail, which makes a 310 mile loop around the greater metropolitan area. I had previously led a club hike between 7th Street and Spur Cross, and hiked with a friend from Spur Cross to Bronco Trailhead.

We consolidated into two vehicles and drove the eight miles to the Bronco Trailhead that is further north on Cave Creek Road (aka FR 24). After the group photo we followed the Maricopa Trail signs, crossed the road, and followed an old access road to the electric transmission lines, then turned south following a road that is still used to maintain the power line.

After a mile or so we curved to the east, away from the transmission lines. We crossed a nice steel bridge over Sycamore Canyon. The canyon is an intriguing slot canyon at this point. Then we began the climb up Kentuck Mountain. The climb is about 600 feet from this bridge crossing and fairly easy, because there are some flat spots to give us some relief. Once we left the power line corridor, the trail appears recently constructed using a trail building machine that cuts into the hill and deposits the material on the downhill side. It appears to be well engineered for good hiking and sustainability.

The trail passes through pristine mountainous terrain that offers nice views of rugged hillsides and distant views of many recognizable mountains such as Four Peaks and Weaver’s Needle to the east and the mountains at the north end of the Desert Mountain high-end residential area to the west. Vegetation is a little sparse, but we all agreed the hike was prettier than we expected.

We reached the summit of the trail at elevation 4200 just below the Kentuck Mountain Peak. It was a little breezy and cool at this point. Then we headed down. The trail is fairly steep but relatively new so it did not present a footing challenge.

About halfway down, we found a nice rock outcropping and stopped for our lunch break. Afterwards we continued downward, crossed a wash, up again and then down again to another wash crossing. After another climb, we descended down to Blue Wash Creek and our low elevation of 2864'. After a short break, we continued southward. As we climbed up out of the creekbed, we entered very familiar Sonoran Desert terrain with lots of Saguaros, cholla, and other very familiar plants.

The trail eventually curved back to the west and we crossed under the transmission lines again. The chaparral under the power line corridor had been recently bulldozed. I assume this destruction was to lessen the heat from a wildfire to protect the transmission lines. The last mile or so of the trail was directly along the transmission corridor and was the least interesting part of the hike. Very near the southern end, the trail dog-legged to the west and intersected Bartlett Dam Road a couple hundred feet east of where we parked the cars. After a brief break and change of shoes, we got one person to drive the two of us back to Bronco Trailhead to retrieve our vehicles.