This is starting more slowly and weirdly than I thought it would. When the Maricopa Trail was announced several years ago, I started collecting maps, planning to do a project in the next year to cycle the whole trail. But things change on the Maricopa County Parks website: The Maricopa Trail connects in spots to the Sun Circle Trail, which I first became aware of around 8 or 9 years ago, and the maps have been changing and going away from their original website homes to different places. So, now, the first part of my task is downloading the new maps and ordering them in my personal file. Here's the current website home of the maps: https://www.maricopacountyparks.net/park-locator/maricopa-trail/trail-maps/.
Chris and I thought we'd be able to cycle most of this together as well, but in October 2020, Chris injured her knee and has been rehabbing since. She can ride now (with her new new bike [a long story]) but is not up to the multi-mile trails or the rougher park routes yet.
So . . . on March 28th of this year, we planned a shakedown trip of about 4 3/4 miles one-way from the Granite Reef Dam parking area on Power Road/The Bush Highway to the crossing of SR 87 (the Beeline Highway) along the Arizona Canal. Here's a short test video (this was also a shakedown of my new action cam). What we found: the trail follows the southern shore of the canal all the way to SR 87. It's also a relatively complicated and not well-signed route from the Bush Highway parking area past Granite Reef Dam, over a bridge, across the dam spillway, to the Arizona Canal. Once on the canal path, however, the desert is open and relatively deserted (though we met several gravel bike riders, apparently cruising over from the Beeline). Great views of the Pima-Maricopa native lands, as well as Red Mountain in the distance. There's little noticeable elevation gain or loss. It was also a lovely, sunny day, though a little hot (this is probably too hot for riding in full summer).
On April 11, we took another ride out the South Canal from near our home. Starting from just past Gilbert road, the actual distance we rode on the Maricopa Trail was about 3.8 miles. I've biked this stretch many times (see my Mesa Canals entries--7 and 12), as well as searching for the marker for the historic Lehi Crossing (Mesa Canals 1). This stretch has more traffic, but also gets the Mesa city dweller out of town and into the scenery.
And so it begins (with a whimper) . . . my attempt to ride around the whole of the Maricopa Trail by the Spring of 2022. The next challenge: map reading. It turns out the the spur from Granite Reef to Usery Mountain Park goes through a Tonto National Forest area locally known as Hawes Loop. Should be interesting, though maybe not in the heat and snake mating season.
