Darleen Lindquist, Linda Elliott, Tim and Josh Reiling, Chuck Parsons, Tracey Pastore, Tony Grundon, Scott Fell, Peter Ng, Mike Wargel and Richard De Souza joined us on an exploratory hike of McDowell Mountain Park.

At first we planned to hike a loop that headed south, turned east and then north to the northern boundary of the park before returning to the trailhead. We were soon told that that trail was closed to re-vegetation since that area had experienced a fire a couple of years ago.

We changed to plan B, which was supposed to be the scenic trail. However the information we had from another source than the McDowell Mountain Park said that the trail was much longer.

After arriving, we decided to go to plan C, which was to include the Scenic Trail of 4 miles and then part of another trail that went around the campground area.

It was a lovely day and we did see some nice sights, although the Scenic trail is a misnomer for now. It may have been nice in a pre-fire era and may return to a natural beauty, and I’m betting that if you went in the afternoon or sunset, the views to the east would be awesome, however, that wasn’t the case for us.

We still finished early, some of the group went to Fountain Hills for lunch and to view the fountain while others of us returned home with time to get chores done! It was quite the experience to see the group willing to accept change, offer opinions and make decisions based on new information. It just goes to show you, you don’t have to know what you’re doing to lead a hike. We’re all in this together!